The theme of our twenty-eighth Sunday whose readings are: 2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 98; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19 is on gratitude. Gratitude is an emotion that occurs after people receive help. It happens in most cases when people perceive the help as valuable to them, costly to their benefactor, and given to them with benevolent intentions. Gratitude is not the same as indebtedness. While both emotions occur following help, indebtedness occurs when a person perceives that they are under an obligation to make some repayment of compensation for the aid they have received. According to our readings, it is unfortunate that man is not always grateful! Human nature tends to take for granted favors and gifts, especially those that come from familiar sources; such as spouse and parents. Consequently, people may be divided into two groups of the grateful and the ungrateful. In order to be grateful, we must educate ourselves to take nothing for granted. Nothing that is done for us is a matter of course. We must always seek out and value the kindness that stands behind the action. And then train ourselves hard; never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude: ‘Thank you’In the Gospel, Jesus points at taking things and people for granted as the root cause of our being ungrateful. He cured a group of ten lepers; most of them were Jews with one Samaritan. After they had been cleansed of their leprosy, the Jews who were familiar with the story of Jesus’ healing took it all for a common event and hurried away to continue with their daily business without a word of ‘thank you’. But the Samaritan was so exited. He felt lucky that he had stumbled upon a marvelous reality, a story to tell for the whole of his life. As the wonder and enthusiasm continued to well up within him, he run toward Jesus and knelt in front of him and thanked him from the bottom of his heart. From that moment, he became a different man. In his widely quoted words, Christiane Northrup tells us why: “Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.” At this point some may argue that the Jews too might have been equally grateful, but chose to keep quite about it. Well, feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. –So goes the saying. In the second reading, St. Paul gives us a very good example of how grateful we should be in life. He admits that he was on the wrong path in life, persecuting Christians, until he was converted by the Lord himself miraculously. Paul is convinced that he received the infinite gift of faith because of the Lord’s mercy. He is never remiss in giving thanks for his conversion, his faith and experience of God’s love and the promise of eternal life in Christ. When we read his words, we may envy his heart which overflows with recognition and gratitude. St. Paul reveals a kind of rare heroism when he declares that he was ready to do anything to thank the Lord. He is not joking when he says that he was even willing to suffer imprisonment and death for the Lord; for he eventually did. After his conversion, Paul became so special a person: He offered all that he underwent for those whom God wanted to save through Christ, that they too might receive the gifts for which he was so grateful. St. Paul teaches us that gratitude to God is more than just a sentiment. It is an attitude that leads us to action. Brian Tracy explains what took place in Paul’s life so well: When we develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to us, we recognize that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than our current situation! Gratitude has been pointed out by many studies in positive psychology as a factor that can mold and shape one’s life as it happened to St. Paul. People who are more grateful have higher levels of well-being. Grateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationship. This seems to be because they think less negative and more positive thoughts all day long and throughout their lives. All in all, silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone; when you feel it say it. Ends
