28th Sunday Ordinary Time - Year C

This week the praying assembly ponders gratitude as a necessary spiritual posture for disciples.  Two models of gratitude are held out for our edification and encouragement.  One is a leprous Syrian General called Naaman whose cure has been narrated in the 1st reading (2Kings 5:14-17).  Our other model is an unnamed Samaritan leper (Gospel,Lk.17:11-19) whom Jesus made whole and holy.

Although both of these men were, no doubt, overwhelmed with gratitude at the dramatic change that was effected in their lives by God through Elisha and through Jesus, the words “thank you” and “gratitude” do not appear in their stories.  Indeed, in Hebrew there is no specific word for thankfulness.  This grateful posture is described in the Jewish scriptures by the verbs “to praise”, “to glorify”, to “bless”.  Ancient Israel’s gratitude issued forth in prayers that praised, glorified and blessed their God. Notice that when Naaman and the Samaritan were healed, their response took the form of a proclamation of faith and a declaration of praise for God and for Jesus.  Through the centuries, this character of grateful prayer has been preserved and practiced.

Since the liturgical renewal sponsored by the Second Vatican Council, similar prayers have been introduced into the great Christian prayer of praise and thanksgiving, the celebration of the Eucharist (at the offering of the gifts).  In the Christian scriptures, thanksgiving  is a characteristic feature of the institution of the Eucharist (Mt. 26:27, Mk. 14:23, Lk. 22:17,19, 1Cor. 11:24) as well as in the multiplication of loaves, which prefigured the gift of the Eucharist (Mt. 15:36, Mk. 8:6, Jn. 6:11, 23).  How fitting that the summit toward which all the activity of the church is directed and the fount from which all its power flows is fully imbued with thanksgiving.

Walter Burghardt insists that the Eucharist is a genuine thanksgiving only if we ourselves become Eucharists for the life of the world – only if we are willing to be taken by Jesus, blessed by him, broken with him and fully given as he was.  A thankful Eucharistic heart lives each day in an alert awareness that all we are, all we become and all we are empowered to do must be acknowledged as gift.

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