Today’s gospel story about the ten lepers highlights the beautiful virtue of thankfulness. Briefly I would like to reflect on its importance. I would also like to talk about some steps for practicing thankfulness, especially toward our loving God.

Saint Luke tells us that, after all had been healed, only one of the ten lepers, returns to give thanks to the Lord. He is an outsider, a Samaritan. The other nine are Jews like the Lord and do not feel the need to be thankful. It seems as if part of being human is to be ungrateful, to take many things for granted. The Lord himself is very surprised to see it in these men.

In my parent’s home, in the backyard, we used to have chickens and pigs. We would see them being born and getting big. My siblings and I were amazed seeing the way chickens drink water. They would sip and then raise their heads and necks looking upwards. My grandmother told us that the chickens were grateful for the water and at each sip they would thank God.

All in life is a gift. The very things we say we have earned with our own effort are but gifts from God. Our intelligence, our abilities, our opportunities are ours only because God has given them to us in the first place. The very act of being alive is the gift from God.

I would like to mention three ways to practice thankfulness toward our loving God. First, in our prayer at the end of the day. The Church recommends that we make an examination of conscience at the end of the day and be aware of the sins of the day. Spiritual masters tell us that it is very useful to also recognize the blessings bestowed on us during the day. For each blessing we are encouraged to thank the Lord.

Second, in our keeping of the Lord’s Day. The arrival of each Sunday should make us have the thought that the Lord is giving us a new week of time. We should feel joyful for the new gift and thank the Lord the way He wants to be thanked, which is by coming to Mass.

Third, in preparing a gift for God and bringing it to Church. Our thankfulness for God should be expressed in many ways. A monetary gift is only one, all be it a very important one. That gift needs to be prepared and presented in an appropriate way. Offertory envelopes work nicely as the wrapping paper for our gift.

Let us thank our loving Lord today for the many blessings he has abundantly bestowed on us this past week and throughout our life. Let us thank him especially for his passion and death on the cross that heals us from sin. Let us thank him for the gift of the Eucharist that promises us eternal life. And let us finally ask him to grant us his grace to increase in us the beautiful virtue of thankfulness.