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Gospel Reading for October 12, 2025 – Luke 17: 11-19
SENSE OF GRATITUDE
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”
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In Jesus’ time, lepers were not allowed to come near people. They had to keep a distance of 6 ft. under normal circumstances or 150 ft. when the wind was blowing. Seeing Jesus from afar, the ten had to raise their voices, asking him to have pity on them, because it was truly pitiful to be a leper then. As always, Jesus was willing to heal them and end their woes. And so, with just his Word, they were healed. But, nine of them just took for granted what Jesus did for them. Only the Samaritan, enemy of the Jews at that, thanked him and gratefully glorified God.
Sometimes, we are like the ungrateful nine. We tend to take for granted the blessings/graces we receive from God each day. We think that it is the duty of God to sustain us since he is the giver of life. We do not even realize when we wake up in the morning, that we have been given a brand new day. When we need money, a long-time debtor suddenly remembers to pay us. When our family has nothing to eat, someone suddenly gives us “ayuda.” When we cannot afford to pay for the schooling of our children, we learn that our child will be a recipient of a scholarship, etc.. If we just keep the eyes of our hearts always open, we will see so many blessings and we will be ashamed not to say THANK YOU, LORD!
Even in our families, children sometimes take for granted what they receive from their parents and the efforts their parents make just to make their life comfortable and worry-free. They think it is the duty of their parents to do this for them because it was their parents’ decision to bring them into the world. Although this is true, it will be good for children and for all of us to develop the SENSE OF GRATITUDE as we go through life. It is this sense that will teach us to empathize with others who have less, others who are in need of our help.
O Lord, our God, we praise and thank you for all your wonderful deeds in our life!
