The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with sharing insight into the Thanksgiving Canadians celebrate this weekend.
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| Thanksgiving contemplation |
In the reading from 2 Kings, Elisha cures Naaman’s leprosy.
* [5:17] Two mule-loads of earth: worship of the Lord is associated with the soil of the Holy Land, where he is present.1
Psalm 98 is in praise of the Judge of the World.
* [98:1] Marvelous deeds and victory: the conquest of all threats to the peaceful existence of Israel, depicted in the Psalms variously as a cosmic force such as sea, or nations bent on Israel’s destruction, or evildoers seemingly triumphant. His right hand and holy arm: God is pictured as a powerful warrior.2
The passage from the second letter to Timothy connects conduct and faithfulness.
* [2:8–13] The section begins with a sloganlike summary of Paul’s gospel about Christ (2 Tm 2:8) and concludes with what may be part of an early Christian hymn (2 Tm 2:11b–12a; most exegetes include the rest of 2 Tm 2:12 and all of 2 Tm 2:13 as part of the quotation). The poetic lines suggest that through baptism Christians die spiritually with Christ and hope to live with him and reign with him forever, but the Christian life includes endurance, witness, and even suffering, as the final judgment will show and as Paul’s own case makes clear; while he is imprisoned for preaching the gospel (2 Tm 2:9), his sufferings are helpful to the elect for obtaining the salvation and glory available in Christ (2 Tm 2:10), who will be true to those who are faithful and will disown those who deny him (2 Tm 2:12–13).3
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus cleanses Ten Lepers and one expresses gratitude.
* [17:11–19] This incident recounting the thankfulness of the cleansed Samaritan leper is narrated only in Luke’s gospel and provides an instance of Jesus holding up a non-Jew (Lk 17:18) as an example to his Jewish contemporaries (cf. Lk 10:33 where a similar purpose is achieved in the story of the good Samaritan). Moreover, it is the faith in Jesus manifested by the foreigner that has brought him salvation (Lk 17:19; cf. the similar relationship between faith and salvation in Lk 7:50; 8:48, 50).4
Tamora Whitney shares the religion of El Dorado in the French classic Candide where the priest questions what else should people do but thank God constantly for everything they are given.
In the Gospel verse today we are told to give thanks to God in all circumstances. In the first reading Naaman gives thanks and gifts for his cure. In the Gospel the Samaritan leper who thanks Jesus is told that his faith has saved him. Every day we enjoy the miracle of life. Every day we wake up we should thank God for everything we are given. What else should we do?5
Don Schwager comments that the lepers know they are in need of healing, not just physical, but spiritual healing as well. They approach Jesus with contrition and faith because they believe that he can release the burden of guilt and suffering and make restoration of body and soul possible. Their request for mercy is both a plea for pardon and release from suffering. Jesus gives mercy to all who ask with faith and contrition.
Gratefulness, another word which expresses gratitude of heart and a thankful disposition, is related to grace - which means the release of loveliness. Gratitude is the homage of the heart which responds with graciousness in expressing an act of thanksgiving. The Samaritan approached Jesus reverently and gave praise to God...Ingratitude leads to lack of love and kindness, and intolerance towards others If we do not recognize and appreciate the mercy and help shown to us we will be ungrateful and unkind towards others. Ingratitude is forgetfulness or a poor return for kindness received. Ingratitude easily leads to lack of charity and intolerance towards others, as well as to other vices, such as complaining, grumbling, discontentment, pride, and presumption.6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 17:11-19 comments when Jesus was preaching in his hometown of Nazareth, he pointed out that God had chosen not the “insiders,” but Naaman and the widow in Zarephath to whom he sent his prophets (Luke 4:25-27). In a similar way, Jesus praised the faith of the Samaritan who returned to thank him. It seems that God sometimes uses outsiders to shake up the people on the inside who may have grown complacent about their faith.
God can still use people on the periphery to open our eyes and give us a different perspective. For example, a person who comes to Mass for the first time may have lots of questions. As someone who has been attending Mass for years, you might have taken such rituals and prayers for granted. But now you dig a little deeper to learn more about the liturgy. Or suppose you become friendly with a Christian from another tradition who isn’t shy about praying with people. He might show you how to be bolder in prayer.
We can all benefit from a different perspective. So get to know people outside your normal circles. God just might have something important to show you through them.7
Friar Jude Winkler connects the worship of God to geography in the time of Naamen. The consequence of total rejection of Jesus is expressed to Timothy. Friar Jude notes the “zinger” in Luke that we can learn about faith from those to whom we may show little respect.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that contemplation is an entirely different way of knowing reality that has the power to move us beyond mere ideology and dualistic thinking. Mature religion will always lead us to some form of prayer, meditation, or contemplation to balance out our usual calculating mind.
Contemplation is meeting as much reality as we can handle in its most simple and immediate form—without filters, judgments, or commentaries. The ego doesn’t trust this way of seeing, which is why it is so rare, “a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14, New Jerusalem Bible). The only way we can contemplate is by recognizing and relativizing our own compulsive mental grids—our practiced ways of judging, critiquing, blocking, filtering, and computing everything. But we first have to catch ourselves in the act and recognize how habitual our egoic, dualistic thinking is. Each person must do this homework for themselves. It cannot be achieved by reading someone else’s conclusions.8
Our Thanksgiving celebration invites us to seek healing and spiritual growth in our interaction with those who are not “insiders”.
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