28th Sunday in OT 2019 - Prayers of Petition and Eucharistic Gratitude

In ancient Israel, no one was more pitiable than a leper.

The book of Leviticus prescribed that in order to avoid contact with others, the leper had to shout “Unclean! Unclean!” as they passed by and couldn’t come within 50 yards of a healthy person. They were prohibited from entering towns, they were cut off from their family, they were barred from Temple worship. Theirs was a life of total isolation: no friendship or family, no sense of belonging, no affection. And in today’s gospel we meet 10 of them.

10 Lepers stood off at a distance and shouted to Jesus. But instead of shouting “Unclean” they cry out to be cleansed. “Jesus, master, have pity on us!” Their cry echoes so many of the psalms in which the suffering cry out to God for healing, strength, relief, and protection. And Jesus heard them and heeded their plea.

In Jewish law, in order for a leper to be readmitted to society, a priest had to declare them cured of their disease. So, Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. And on their way to the priest, the 10 were miraculously healed. The healing of the 10 lepers in the Gospel parallels the miraculous healing of Naaman the Syrian in the first reading.

Naaman seeks out healing from the God of Israel. Following the instruction of Elisha the prophet, Naaman plunges himself into the waters of the Jordan and emerges healed. God answers the plea for mercy, not just of a jew, but a foreigner.

What about you? What is your plea for mercy? What plea for mercy did you bring to Mass today?  Mercy for yourself, for your family, for our nation, for the world? The experience of suffering brings us to our knees. Prayer for mercy is one reason we come to Church, isn’t it? To plea for mercy? Mercy to end an illness, to end an addiction, to end family division, to end faithlessness, to end our modern day versions of leprosy which bring pain and isolation.

One of the reasons it is good to get to Mass a few minutes early, is so that you have the opportunity to recollect why you are here. Before the beginning of Mass, we do well to articulate to God our personal petitions for mercy, to entrust ourselves to the mercy of God, to plea for miracles.

This is going to sound somewhat strange, but the moment I typed that word, ‘miracles’ this morning as I was composing my homily. I received an email from a parishioner. “Father, a miracle just happened. My liver was failing, and I went to the doctors and they told me I was going to die. A week after you prayed over me, I go to the hospital and the ER doctor told me that my liver is fine, I’m not going to die. Weird, I know. Either that was a miracle or the doctors made a mistake. I had many people praying for me.” Thanks be to God, right? A miracle in our midst!

Miracles are real. Just as the miraculous healing in the Gospel signaled that in Jesus, the kingdom of God was breaking in to human history, modern day miracles are granted that we may know that God is still at work in our lives, that we ought to entrust ourselves to God’s providence and mercy.
Yet, in the Gospel today, the miraculous healing was only the first part of the story.

Having realized that he had been healed through the intervention of Jesus, the one leper, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus to offer his profound gratitude. Again, like Naaman in our first reading, returning to Elisha, confessing the true God of Israel, the Samaritan leper in the Gospel returns to Jesus, and falls on his face before Jesus, recognizing Jesus as God and King.

Here is a second reason we come to Mass every week, to fall prostrate before our God and King who has brought about the healing, not of our bodies, but a more important healing, the healing of our souls from sin. We come to Mass week after week to thank God for the saving grace we received at baptism, the grace won for us through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

Thanksgiving is at the heart of the Christian life. You’ve no doubt heard the Greek New Testament word for Thanksgiving: it’s the word “Eucharist”…”Eucharistia”, found in our Gospel today; the leper fell on his face before Jesus and offered Eucharistia. It is not a coincidence that “Eucharist” became the word the early Christians gave to their weekly gathering at the altar. They gathered, as do we, to offer God humble thanksgiving for our salvation in Christ Jesus. In Christ, God has done for us, what we could not do for ourselves. He has healed us of the leprosy of sin, which brought alienation from heaven, and isolation from true communion with each other.

Without coming to Mass every week to offer eucharistic thanks, we begin to take our salvation for granted, we take Jesus’ sacrifice for granted, his pain and his suffering offered for us. Without mass, we begin to take God for granted and begin to act as if we are entitled to heaven. We are not. We are not entitled to that which is lost through sin. Without thanksgiving we are like those other 9 lepers who were healed, but did not return to Jesus to offer thanks.

So we come to Mass every week, thanking God for the gift of our salvation. And we thank God for the blessings we’ve received throughout the week and throughout the life. Another reason to get to mass early, to take the time to count our blessings, to recall how we have been blessed this week, how prayers have been answered in our life and in our family, for the health we do have, the safety we have received, the goodness we have enjoyed. Thank God for those who recovered from surgery, for the time you got to spend with those who bring you happiness, for the sweet memories you shared with your spouse, for the word of encouragement when you really needed it, the ability to experience the beauty of nature or a symphony or a church.

Something happens when we offer God true thanksgiving from the heart. Resentment begins to melt away. Envy over the things we don’t have is replaced with gratitude for the things we do. We experience joy over the presence of God dwelling within us. The praise that filled the heart of Jesus begins to fill our heart.

Count your blessings daily, thank God daily, fall on your face daily before the God of Mercy, petition God daily, for the needs of the world and the needs of the Church, pray for miracles, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.