By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 2024, at the soup kitchen operated by the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity shelter in Miami.
When I was a kid and happened to be in a bad mood or just didn’t like what I was asked to do, my mother would give me a look and say: “Young man, I don’t like your attitude.”
In the Gospel, Jesus cures 10 lepers – and leprosy was a terrible disease, in Old Testament times and in the time of Jesus, even up to modern times. Leprosy’s victims were shunned and feared. Thank God today it has almost disappeared – it is a disease that can be treated and cured.
But, in Jesus’s time, it took a miracle to be cured of leprosy. That’s why Jesus told the 10 lepers he cured to go show themselves to the priests. Once their cure was verified, they no longer would be feared or shunned.
In the Gospel reading, 10 were cured by Jesus – but only one came back to thank him. His attitude was one of gratitude.
We can’t say the others weren’t happy about being cured. They probably went running to find their families, their loved ones, to show what had happened to them. They must have appreciated what Jesus did for them. But only one of them, a Samaritan, had an attitude of gratitude. Realizing that he had been cured, he returned praising God with a loud voice and fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
That’s the attitude of gratitude we all should have; but often we don’t. People do good things for us; but we take it for granted. And we do take people for granted a lot. Instead of showing an attitude of gratitude, too often we show an attitude of entitlement – it’s all about me. But the point of the Gospel is that it is not about me.
Christian life is not “all about me.” For example, we don’t go to Mass just for Jesus to do something for us, or even to entertain us. We go to Mass to recognize what Jesus has done for us, and so we go to Mass to do something for Jesus: to praise him, to glorify him, to thank him. But whatever we do for Jesus, he’ll give back more than we can ever give him. For, just like he told the 10th leper that his faith had saved him, he strengthens our faith and sends us out to tell the world how good God is.
The attitude of gratitude that Jesus praises in the Gospel is what we should try to cultivate. If only one of the 10 lepers had it, it must not come naturally. We must work at it.
And at Mass we do what that Samaritan leper did: We praise God with a loud voice, and we fall at Jesus’ feet and thank him. Another word for Mass is “Eucharist” – and it means “thanksgiving.” At Mass, just like the lepers, we say, “Jesus, Master, have pity!” In fact, that’s how Mass begins: We acknowledge that we are sinners, and we pray: Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy!
Our leprosy today is not a disease of the skin, but a disease of the soul, a disease of the heart. And, just as the disease of leprosy separated the lepers from their communities, sin divides us, from God and from one another. When we are honest with ourselves and acknowledge our sins, we feel sorry, and we know that we need God to heal us by his forgiveness and mercy. In the Eucharist, we listen to God’s word. He gives good news: God loves us and does want to heal us. And so, we praise God with loud voices – and, on our knees we thank Jesus who shares his life with us in the communion of His Body and Blood.
Perhaps, we might be like those nine lepers that cured by Jesus never thought to go back and thank him. Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity to show God and to show our fellow men an attitude of gratitude. Let us be grateful for the good things we have received, let us be grateful for the strength to endure those bad things we endure. There is a Haitian proverb that says, Di mèsi vle di ban m ankò. To say thank you means to ask for more.
So let our attitude today be one of gratitude.
