In today’s readings we have examples of two individuals who after receiving God’s tremendous grace through physical healing, praised and glorified Him in return.  Though God needs nothing from us, as exhibited by Elisha in his response to Naaman with the words, “As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it”, we are called to have gratitude for the many blessings He bestows upon us.  In today’s Gospel, ten lepers begged for pity.  Jesus said to them, “Go show yourselves to the priests. As they were going, they were cleansed.”  The words, “As they were going” are important in that there was no obvious action made by Jesus that indicated He was responsible for them being cured. We cannot know what the other nine thought once they were cleansed but only one of the leper’s actions exhibited a faith that Jesus was the one who cleansed him.  He returned “glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked Him.”  Do we realize the many blessings we receive as coming from God or do we dismiss them as mere coincidences?

   I cannot help but think of the correlation between these Scripture verses and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Our show of gratitude for the grace we receive through this Sacrament should be nothing less than that shown by Naaman or the one leper.  In the time of Jesus it was wrongly believed that having leprosy separated them from God, however today, our sin does in fact separate us from God.  Our gratitude for our own healing and God’s forgiveness and embrace through this Sacrament cannot be overstated.  It is easy for us to fall into the trap of running out of the Church after our penance with a sigh of relief that we only “had” to recite the “Hail Mary” and “Our Father” three times.  Let us be reminded by Luke’s Gospel of the need to show gratitude to Our Lord for the many ways He shows us His love.

   Have a blessed week!