Nine out of Ten

  Nine out of Ten

  Gospel for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Luke 17:11-19

 

I'm glad that the Church offers us this Gospel reading for the Thanksgiving weekend.

But not for the obvious reason.

In the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, we recognize that the lepers have been given a new life and only one, a Samaritan, comes back to offer his gratitude.

Aha! So we should be like the tenth leper, 

and repent when were not...

This is an appropriate reflection.

But perhaps we should be reflecting on this passage as a parable rather than a healing story.

There is a powerful message here, 

not only about gratitude,

But about faith.

In fact, I'd like to call this passage

Nine out of Ten

You see, all ten received the unwarranted and undeserved grace from God.

All ten were given new life!!

Only one came back 

"praising God with a loud voice..."

 Jesus says to him:

"Get up and go on your way,

your faith has made you well."

 This should cause us to wonder about the other nine. Although they were made clean, 

they are not well. 

WE ARE NOT WELL.

PEWResearch's Religion and American Life Project surveyed over 35,000 American adults about their religious affiliation and spiritual life.

Nearly a third of self-identified Catholics believe in an impersonal God.

When the survey asked,

"Which comes closest to your view of God: God is a person with whom people can have a relationship, or God is an impersonal force?"

Only 48% of Catholics were absolutely certain that the God they believed in was a God with whom they could have a personal relationship.

So, despite the fact that we have been graced by God with the gift of faith...

That we have been baptized into the life of Christ and his Church,

That we receive the Body of Christ at Mass...

Many of us, too many of us, do not have a personal relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ.

48%? Or, as in the Gospel, maybe it's more like

Nine out of ten.

I'm sorry if this was not the Thanksgiving blog you might have expected!!

 But the Gospel is not about 

turkeys and pumpkin pie.

The story of the ten lepers show us that

True gratitude is about

discipleship.

For this week:

1.Tell others that you are thankful for your faith and that you are a laborer in God's vineyard.

2. Ask the Lord for forgiveness when you are not.

If you would like to see more of the statistics on American religious life ( and we in Canada would not be much different) go to:

http://religions.pewforum.org/