The Healing Balm of a Grateful Heart

October 9, 2022 Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Readings for Today

Video “Ten were cleansed, were they not?  Where are the other nine?  Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”  Luke 17:17-18 These words were spoken by Jesus after He healed ten lepers and only one of them, a foreigner, returned to Jesus to thank Him.  Ten were healed physically of their leprosy but only one received a much deeper healing.  Upon returning to Jesus with a grateful heart, Jesus said to this one leper, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you” (Luke 17:19). Only this one leper, the one who returned with a grateful heart, heard our Lord speak these words: “Your faith has saved you.”  This reveals that gratitude to God is not only our duty, it also brings forth manifest blessings in our lives.  When we sincerely offer thanks to God for all that He has done, we are manifesting great faith in God as a result.  We are pointing to Him and His goodness as the source of our blessings and it takes faith to see this and to profess it.   What is it for which you need to grow in gratitude in your life?  What is it that you may take for granted and have failed to properly return to God and thank Him for?  The truth is that everything in life is a gift.  Everything.  Even the struggles you endure can be turned into blessings.  In fact, that’s exactly what happened in this story.  The awful suffering of leprosy was turned into a grace from God.   Reflect, today, upon all that God has done for you.  Pray that you will understand all of the countless ways that God graces your life.  As you see them, ponder those blessings, count them and be grateful for them.  And from that gratitude, return a joyful thanks to God.  In that act, your faith will also save you. Lord, I do thank You for the countless blessings that You have bestowed upon me throughout my life.  I thank You for the ways in which You have graced me, led me and healed me.  Help me to see clearly all that You have done and continue to do for me.  As I see these blessings, help me to daily express my gratitude in faith.  Jesus, I trust in You.