This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
28th Sunday of Ordinary YearThankfulness is Thoughtfulness….!IIKgs5:14-17 IITm2:8-13 Lk 17:11-19Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ Jesus, We shall welcome one another to this Celebration of Eucharist. Our coming together around the altar of God on every Lord’s Day is making the event of the Lord’s Supper present in our midst. It is the celebration of memory of Jesus’s life, passion, death and resurrection. We become part of His salvation because of our thoughtfulness and thankfulness. Jesus was thankful to the Father even at the painful moment on the cross; His thoughtfulness of the Father gave all the energy, strength and accompaniment to fulfill the salvific and sanctifying plan of God the Father. We shall be aware of this Sanctifying process of our life at every Eucharist.Does God need out thanksgiving? Does Jesus expect our words of gratitude? Shall we offer sufficient praise to the Lord? Did God of Yahweh look for thanksgiving sacrifice from His people of Israel? These are questions we have in us, while listening to today’s Scriptures. In a book: Four things that matter most, we discover simple phrases that have profound meaning. Please forgive me, I forgive you, I thank you and I love you make our life very relational, happy and encouraging to live. Our life begins with a thank you word from someone. Our life ends in this world peacefully with the same thank you. When we go to the gift shop for the purchase of gifts or cards for someone’s special day or to appreciate a person who has come into our life, we enter to buy gifts, because we think of that person gratefully. So the thought is extended into a gesture of gratitude. One of the major and constant sins of the chosen people was forgetfulness. They forgot the saving, liberating and leading act of Yahweh from their slavery. They failed to register in their memory, they were not thankful, so they went after the false god--unfaithfully. Thus were Kings, Prophets, Judges and leaders sent to remind the peoples’ memory of the ever loving and ever present God of Yahweh. Some of us get angry when people don’t thank us after an event or special efforts. We feel that they forgot us, they fail to think about us or they don’t have love for us. The 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart said, “if you pray in your whole life on earth, just saying thank you, that would be sufficient.” Healing is rebirth: Leprosy was a terrible disease because its victims were separated from their families and society. Lepers were treated as sinners who were being punished by God with a contagious disease. The punishment given to Miriam (the complaining sister of Moses in Numbers 12:9-10), to Gehazi (the greedy servant of the prophet Elisha: “The leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever"-II Kings 5: 27) and to King Uzziah (for burning incense in the Temple, a right reserved for priests, Chronicles 26:19), supported this Jewish belief that leprosy was God’s punishment for sins. The Book of Numbers (5:2-3) commands the Israelites "to put out of the camp everyone who is leprous." Over 3000 words in Leviticus (chapters 13-14), speak about the process to announce one as unclean and clean. It was not only their skin that became numb, but their life too, and were thus neglected by all. So the healing is a rebirth, a new skin, a new person and a new child of God. We have Armean-Syrian, Naaman, a gentile general for the King of Damascus. His face and life had been disfigured with the dreaded disease of leprosy. In the eyes of Israel, Naaman was an outcast, a sinful and cursed one, and doomed to die. Here, the Prophet Elisa is sent to him to offer healing, new birth and to alert the unfaithfulness of the Chosen people. Naaman obeys gratefully to dip in the River Jordan seven times. His action of offering and carrying the soil to Syria reveal that he will no more go with the territorial pagan gods, but rather that this Yahweh memory and thought of this soil will be ever present in our land and in our life. The loss of Jerusalem and liberated life led to the exile at Babylon. This event of Naaman is an invitation for them to return to the Lord with greater memory of saving thoughts of Yahweh and a thanking act of the People of Israel. Leprosy was a common misery of unclean, awkward and rotting skin disease that brought the Jewish persons with that one Samaritan. They were rejected and alienated by their family, society and religious authority. So they plead for mercy since leprosy was labeled or caused as a sign of sin and curse. Jesus assured that they will be accepted back into Society, family and the religious worshipping circle as Sons of Abraham. So, Jesus sends them to the Priests who confirm the disease and re-confirm the disease-free situation. But, the one and only Samaritan was thoughtful and thankful for Jesus entering into his life. We are called to think and thank the act of creation, redemption and sanctification of our Lord at every Eucharistic celebration. The Hebrew word for Thanksgiving is TODAH- Open hands (surrendering all to Him). BERAKAH means blessing. It is a call to praise thoughtfully for the abundance of His gifts. Jesus’ remembrance of The Father at every miracle and even on the cross gratefully brought strength and new spirit. Eucharist in Greek is Thanks-giving. Jesus offers thanks for His incarnation, His life with the chosen apostles and His forthcoming fulfilling salvific suffering act. When we thank thoughtfully at the Eucharist, we are one with Jesus. We are called to constantly, express, confess gratitude and to experience re-birth. Eucharistic Prayer IV says “our thanksgiving adds nothing to His greatness but helps us to grow in His grace.” As St. Paul wrote to the 1st century Christians of Corinth, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.” “Give thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Ephesians 5: 20). “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him”(Colossians 3: 17). Psalms 107:1 advises us: "Give thanks to the LORD Who is good, whose love endures forever!" Once St. Mother Teresa of Kolkatta was in prayer, she expressed the question, Lord how can I thank you sufficiently, I feel that I haven’t be grateful enough to you. She heard a voice after saying this in prayer before Blessed Sacrament saying, “If you want to thank me sufficiently, participate in a Eucharist and receive Holy Communion.” Our thoughtfulness shall keep us thankful People of God! A happy person is, a positive person, a positive person is a grateful person. To be happy is to be positive, to be positive is to be thankful-Amen . 
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