Learning to be Grateful.

Homily for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 12, 2025


One Thanksgiving some years ago, while watching a football game, a successful businessman reflected on his life and thought of all the people who had been influential in helping him become who he was. He decided to write each person a thank-you card telling him or her of his gratitude for their influence on his life.

 

His fourth grade teacher quickly came to mind for insisting that he and his classmates strive for excellence in every endeavor. She pounded it into her students, be it regarding homework, tests or class projects. So he sent her a thank-you note.

 

One day, just after the new year, he received a return letter from the former teacher. She apologized for not replying sooner, but stated that his letter took some time getting to her, since she had moved in with her daughter after retiring from teaching grade school for sixty-six years. She told him how thankful she was to have received his card and how it cheered her to find out he had learned so well his lessons in excellence. She went on to say that in her sixty-six years of teaching, this was the first thank-you card she had ever received, and how grateful she was that he had taken the time to remember her.

 

The connection of this story to our gospel reading should be obvious. Jesus says, “Ten [lepers] were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

 

As in several of the gospel accounts, it is the unexpected person who is the hero, or the example to be followed.

 

Now, in our day, one of the things I’ve read about often, and observed myself, is that those who have been Catholic all their lives (often called cradle Catholics) can take what we have for granted, often just going through the motions, but not much else. By contrast, it is converts, those who have had to struggle with the decision, those who have had to consciously make the choice, who seem to have a level of commitment, participation and enthusiasm that is often lacking in those who had the decision made for them when they were infants.

 

Did you know that the word Eucharist comes from the Greek and it means giving thanks? Giving thanks for what we have received as a pure gift from a loving God. Giving thanks for something we have not earned. Giving thanks for our faith, and all the other blessings we have. Giving thanks for the life we share—the eternal life with God.

 

As we contemplate this gospel, the gospel of the foreigner-hero, this gospel of the 10% gratitude, and as we note that we are here to Eucharist (let’s think of it as an active verb). We are here to give thanks for all that we have and all that we are, and especially the gift of eternal life.

 

How does that make you feel?

·      Blah, blah, blah…ho hum…same old, same old, week after week…

·      Or, Jesus, I don’t know where to begin, or how to thank you enough. Because of you, my life is not a dead end. I don’t want you to feel like the teacher who taught for sixty-six years and only received one thank you!

 

You know, the media these days tends to focus on all that is wrong with our world, with all the bickering, infighting, discriminating, killing…Could it be that we’ve forgotten how to give thanks? That we’re not even aware of our blessings?

 

Let’s spend a few moments of quiet reflection.

What are you thankful for?



Can you bring your gratitude to Jesus when you approach the altar for communion?

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