28th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025
2 Kings 5:14-17 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19
One of the most beautiful stories in the Old Testament is that of the boy Samuel, who was doing his apprenticeship for ministry in the Temple under the guidance of the priest Eli. When Samuel was trying to discern the Lord’s call and how to respond, Eli instructed him to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:1-9). So often when we communicate with God our prayer is ‘Listen Lord, your servant is speaking’! Are we not always asking, pleading with God, like the lepers in today’s Gospel Story?
The story of the curing of the ‘Ten Lepers’ conjures up real life sentiments of pity, horror, shame, rejection and dejection. This event in the life of Jesus shows us how, when we are in need, we resort to asking or even begging.
Ideally, the alternative life attitude would be one of appreciating all the gifts we have, such as health which is so often taken for granted. Sometimes it is only when health is taken away and then restored that we value it as it should be valued
Today’s Scripture readings are alerting us to the importance of Thanksgiving – saying thanks to God. Gratitude has been called ‘The heart of Prayer’ because it means receiving gifts from God with an appreciation that moves us to return to God with praise and thanks – and when we return we then notice so many other gifts that have been given and, perhaps, taken for granted. If we start our day by thanking God for the new day we will begin to notice that there are other gifts that we have been given in that day and we will be drawn to thank God for them also.
We thank God for food at the table and, perhaps, then we notice that we should thank God for those who provide it and share it with us. We thank God for our successes and then remember that it was God who gave us the means to be successful, to do Good, to make a difference. It will get to the stage that we don’t need to ask for anything because by being in touch with God like that means, we realise that God knows us through-and through and will provide the healing, wisdom and hope that we need even before we know our needs. Saint Luke uses the particular incident of the ‘ten lepers’ to present us with a lesson on the twofold movement of Blessing Prayer. The first movement is always from God, the source of all that is good and who bestows on us all that we need even before we realise we need it. The second movement is by the one who receives and returns to give Praise and Thanks.
This is the message that God’s word gives us today and we hear it as we celebrate the Eucharist. ‘Eucharist’, which means Thanksgiving is the greatest and most complete Prayer of Thanks we can offer to God.
Perhaps we could make a commitment today to use our Eucharist every Sunday to thank God for all we have received during the past week, in the certain hope that God has so much more to give us.
And, Saint Paul teaches us “For all things give thanks, because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus”. (1 Thess 5:18)