Search

Results

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

13 Oct 2013

SUNDAY SUMMARY 2 Kings 5:14-17 A proud general is humbled by leprosy and by obedience to a foreign prophet. Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 Everywhere in the world the wonders of God can be seen. 2 Timothy 2:8-13 The word of God is liberated and liberating to those who find it trustworthy. Luke 17:11-19 The healing authority of Jesus restores victims of leprosy to the community.

Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Kings 5:14-17 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

Restricted
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

10 Oct 2010

SUNDAY SUMMARY 2 Kings 5:14-17 Naaman, formerly a leper, is healed by a surprising tip from a foreign prophet. Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 Songs of praise come readily from those who remember the kindness of God. 2 Timothy 2:8-13 The word of God is not bound but at liberty to have its restorative effect Luke 17:11-19 Ten lepers ask for pity from Jesus, and get it. One knows the right response.

Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Kings 5:14-17 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

Restricted
Something to be thankful for

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Thanksgiving Day Readings: Deuteronomy 8:7-18; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 17:11-19 Some years ago a young U.S. Marine appeared on morning television and told of the ordeal of having been in an explosion, pinned under rubble and debris. The desperate cries from other soldiers shouting for help shattered the smoke-filled pit. He suddenly remembered saying, when he enlisted in the Marines, that he was not afraid to die. Now, he had different thoughts. He said that this moment was the first time in his life he really felt he knew what thanksgiving was all about. He was alive, at least, and he began to pray. He did not want to die. Thanksgiving is, perhaps, more than any other day, a day of memory. Oh, yes, Christmas is, too. But on Christmas Day we focus on someone else: Christ and his birth. Today we reflect more on ourselves: the way in which we give thanks and share in the bounty of the Earth. The way in which we experience the fullness of life. It is the one day in America that most unites us all. Ninety percent of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving—and 65 percent watch football! For the pilgrims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, on that first Thanksgiving in 1621, the beauty of the world was found in its bounty. They could hear the author of Deuteronomy say, "The Lord, your God, is bringing into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys, a land of wheat and barley, of vine and fig trees." Contrary to the tarnished image of popular belief, a historian has said that Puritanism represents the highest and gentlest form of moralism that has ever flowered in Christianity. Our popular image of the Puritans is one of austerity and self-righteousness. And that is true. The same historian says that was the beam in their eye. But underneath it all was a deep love of nature and a sense that God was everywhere in the beauty and bounty of the Earth. Everyone here has something for which to be thankful. Like the pilgrims, most of us have fought the storms, banished the threats, overcome the fears, and made covenants of friendship with God and each other. They knelt to give thanks for that generous gift. They were now safe after a long journey and hard winter of deprivation and death in the Plymouth wilderness, sitting down with the Native Americans, undoubtedly motivated by gratitude for survival but more deeply moved by a recognition that the graciousness of God had pulled them through the dark, cold days of the struggle to form a new colony. They were the trustees for future generations and were to set an example for a civilized new world, to, as Colossians, urges, sing "with gratitude in your hearts to God." So, where do the lepers of today's gospel come in? Well, their story is one of giving and receiving. A thanksgiving story. The inability to give or show gratitude is a mark of disfigurement, a kind of spiritual leprosy. One who can neither give nor receive can never enter into a relationship of grace, a covenant of love. The leper who returned to Jesus to say "thanks" enters into a relationship with God. The others stood far off, negating even the possibility that something could happen. They stood on the fringe of life because they could not, in their hearts, find time to give thanks. Their spirits remained leprous. It is almost as if they took for granted that they would be cured, as if that were their right. Their bodies were now whole, their souls still marked with decay. Everyone here has something for which to be thankful. Like the pilgrims, most of us have fought the storms, banished the threats, overcome the fears, and made covenants of friendship with God and each other. We are all pilgrims walking an earthly path on the way to a heavenly land. Sitting down to the big meal seems like the crux of Thanksgiving, but it really comes a couple hours later. The pumpkin pie is gone, the turkey picked over, the dishes are done, the dogs and guests are snoozing, and somehow, whether afternoon or night, the year halts and there is a strange vacancy in the stillness—and you pause to look more closely at the world around you. In the deep of your soul you join a whole nation, satiated with food and drink, as if embraced by the wide arms of God, and say, "Thank you, Lord."

Authors Father George Fitzgerald C.S.P.

Special occasion thanksgiving day Deuteronomy 8:7-18 Colossians 3:12-17 Luke 17:11-19

Restricted
Saying thanks

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Thanksgiving Day Readings: Luke 17:11-19 SOME THINGS really irritated Jesus, like the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees of his time and the arrogance of political leaders who lorded it over their subjects. Ingratitude was also something that set Jesus off, and we have a vivid example of that in today's reading from Luke’s gospel. Jesus tells the 10 lepers who beg for his help to go and show themselves to the priests. They leave, and on their way all are healed. But when only one returns to give thanks to God and to the one who brought about this miracle, Jesus is obviously disappointed. And as he expresses his feelings, he seems almost to denigrate the one fellow who did return and throw himself on the ground at Jesus’ feet. “Has no one come back except . . . this foreigner?” he asks. We are catching a glimpse here of a very human Jesus registering hurt and indignation at the ingratitude of the other nine. I think we can all relate to this scene because we all have had experiences similar to this one and have likely reacted much as Jesus did. Experiences like giving a gift to someone and never having it even acknowledged; like going out of your way to drive someone home and he just gets out of the car and walks into his house—and doesn’t even close the car door; like helping a family move into their new home, and when they’re all settled in you’re left standing out on the porch feeling alone and used. Thankfully, this kind of ingratitude doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it hurts, it stings. So we should take from this story some consolation in knowing that Jesus, our brother and redeemer, was not so self-controlled as to be above letting off a little steam and showing his emotion right there in public. He put a high value on thankfulness. On Thanksgiving we commemorate how the Pilgrims invited neighboring Native Americans over for dinner and gave thanks together with them for this beautiful, fruitful land. Depictions of that historic occasion usually freeze at the dinner scene and don’t go into what would happen in the decades and centuries to come. But that’s another homily. Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity to take stock of how well we’re doing in the area of giving thanks to God and extending gratitude to our neighbor. For us, Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity to take stock of how well we’re doing in the area of giving thanks to God and extending gratitude to our neighbor. Deep inside, I think most of us harbor an habitual sense of thanks, especially when we reflect on how everything we have is gift, from the wonders of this great blue planet that is our home to every breath we take. Genuine gratitude toward our neighbor is something else because, ironically, we do it so often. “Thank you,” you say when your spouse drops you off at the train. “Thank you,” you say when the barrista hands you your mocha frapuccino. “Thank you,” when someone holds the door open for a few seconds as you enter a building. “Thank you,” when the boss hands you a report he wants finished by the end of the day! And there’s the danger. “Thank you” is so standard, so common a phrase that it’s easy to get into the habit of doing it in a routine, thoughtless way so that it means nothing. Thanks can become a kind of reflex like a hiccup or a sneeze. A habit of thankfulness has merit only if it’s intentional, if we really mean it. It’s not very often you notice a shopper in a store pause, look a clerk in the eye, and say in a clear voice, “Thank you” as she picks up her purchase. More often folks like me are fumbling with change or trying to get the Visa card back in the darn wallet or turning toward the door as we mumble a barely audible “Thank ya.” But being grateful should not be restricted to a single day or to those momentous occasions when we are overwhelmed with good things. We ought to be able to say a genuine “thank you” even when we’re benefited in very small things. Jesus spends a lot of time in the gospels giving thanks. He gave thanks over the bread as he blessed it at the Last Supper, and he gave thanks again as he blessed the cup. He had to know terrible things were about to happen, yet thanksgiving was at the front of his mind even then. The Apostle Paul got that message. He begins many of his letters to churches with long, drawn-out thanks—to God, to Christ, and to those who have helped him spread the gospel. In some epistles he even lists the names of the men and women to whom he is especially grateful. We don’t often think of gratitude as a sacrament, as a means of salvation. In today’s gospel, however, that seems to be the case. After Jesus lets everyone know what he thinks about ingratitude, he leans down to the Samaritan, the foreigner, and says, “Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.” Your faith, embodied and expressed here in this humble gesture of thanks, is a holy thing, an opening to grace. That’s the message: A “thank you,” sincerely meant, may have a lot more power than we imagine.

Authors Robert McClory

Special occasion thanksgiving day Luke 17:11-19

Restricted
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

09 Oct 2016

SUNDAY SUMMARY 2 Kings 5:14-17 A foreign leprosy sufferer is healed by Israel’s God and pledges his allegiance. Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 In the sight of all nations God’s justice is made real. 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Fidelity to Christ will bear us up even in crisis and distress. Luke 17:11-19 Ten lepers, 10 healings, one thankful heart. There’s a gratitude shortage.

2 Kings 5:14-17 Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

Restricted
Preaching the News for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

09 Oct 2016

SUNDAY SUMMARY 2 Kings 5:4-17 A foreign leprosy sufferer is healed by Israel’s God and pledges his allegiance. Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 In the sight of all nations God’s justice is made real. 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Fidelity to Christ will bear us up even in crisis and distress. Luke 17:11-19 Ten lepers, 10 healings, one thankful heart. There’s a gratitude shortage.

2 Kings 5:4-17 Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

Restricted
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

13 Oct 2019

SUNDAY SUMMARY 2 Kings 5:14-17 Naaman responds to the unimaginable gift of his healing. Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 God demonstrates saving power in the sight of the nations. 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Those who die with Christ will live with him. Luke 17:11-19 One leper in 10 responds with gratitude for being cleansed.

2 Kings 5:14-17 Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

Restricted
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

09 Oct 2022

SUNDAY SUMMARY 2 Kings 5:14-17 A leper general is healed and submits himself to the God of Israel. Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 God does not hide the divine light under a bushel either but reveals it to the whole world. 2 Timothy 2:8-13 The word of God cannot be restrained even if its ministers are imprisoned or killed. Luke 17:11-19 One Samaritan leper shows his gratitude to the source of his restoration.

2 Kings 5:14-17 Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

Restricted