Preached the weekend of October 9, 2016

How thankful, how grateful, are we, really?

We have one day out of 366 devoted solely to giving thanks, but nowadays most of the stores are open on that day, and there are multiple football games to watch, so how thankful are we even on that day?  Praise God that Kohls and the Mall of America and now 40 or so other stores might be starting a trend, deciding not to open on Thanksgiving – we can go back to being thankful for one day a year rather than treating that day as a day for great bargains.

Jesus’ words in this Gospel are pretty easy to understand – be thankful!  End of homily, right?  But let’s go a little deeper – what does it really mean to be truly grateful?

I was thinking about that, meditating on it, researching it even –what is it to be grateful?  I came upon a beautiful TED talk by Brother David Steindl-Rast, a 90-year old Austrian Benedictine monk who lives at Mount Saviour Monastery near Elmira.  His talk is entitled “Want to be happy, be grateful!”

Brother David makes the observation that all of us want to be happy, and that most of us would say that if we’re happy, we’re going to be grateful.  But we all know people who live charmed lives, with all sorts of advantages, who are deeply unhappy, and we all know people who experience great misfortune and tragedy in their lives who are nonetheless deeply happy, who radiate happiness.

Those people who are happy despite all the misfortune life can bring have one thing in common, according to Brother David – they are grateful.

Gratefulness, he says, is found at the intersection of realizing something is truly valuable and realizing it is a free gift, freely given.  And if we want to be truly happy, we won’t be grateful now and then, or on one day a year, but all the time.  We will realize that every moment is a gift.

Sisters and brothers, I think the takeaway Our Blessed Lord wants us to go home with this week – is that thankfulness, gratefulness, is a choice.

Ten lepers are healed.  Ten lepers in effect raised from the dead.  From lives of being completely cut off from family, friends, community, forced to live on the fringe of society and doomed to die of a horrific disease, alone.  And Jesus heals them, restores them, brings them back to the fullness of life, so to speak. 

Yet only one of them is thankful.  Only one stops, realizes this great gift he’s been given, and chooses to go back, falls at Our Lord’s feet and praises God. 

Where are the other nine? Our Lord asks.  I’m guessing they’re happy to be healed, but hey, getting leprosy was a bum deal, not something they deserved, so heck, they deserve to be healed.  And it seems to me we’re not going to be grateful for anything we think we have coming to us, anything we think we deserve.

We tend to take things for granted, or think we’re deserving, we’re entitled.  Hey I deserve this.  I worked hard for that.  You can’t have a truly thankful heart and an attitude of entitlement.

You can’t have a truly thankful heart with an attitude of pridefulness either.  To be grateful means to be realize the gift, and to realize one’s received an unmerited gift means one must humble oneself.

Or take bitterness or anger – how can we be grateful if we’re bitter or angry?  There’s only room in our hearts for one or the other.

And you see, more than a now and then choice, thankfulness is a way of living.  We’re called to choose to be thankful in every situation, in every, single, moment.  For every moment is a free gift from God who created us - every breath.  Every heartbeat.

Brother David says that the key to living gratefully is simple – same as what we were taught as children learning to cross the street.  Stop. Look. Go. 

We need to intentionally stop in moments of our busy lives. It helps to have little stop signs – he put sticky notes on the water faucets and light switches to stop, to realize the gift of water, or light.   

Then look – open our eyes, our ears, all our senses, most of all our minds and hearts to realize the gifts God has freely given us in these moments.

Then go – in that moment we are called to respond.  Maybe it’s just to enjoy the moment, enjoy the gift. Maybe it’s to act out of great gratitude of heart.

I tried this yesterday/Friday and it works.  I was leaving my day job to drive home, and it had been an exhausting, frustrating day, one of those days where nothing went well, and I was in a sour mood.

As I was walking to my car, I stopped and looked.  Looked up and saw the blue sky, felt the warm breeze on my skin, and I remembered the message of this Gospel – be grateful. 

I took a deep breath.  I thanked God for a spectacular autumn afternoon.  Thanked God that I have this job that yesterday at least was causing all my frustrations.  Noticed the bright yellows and reds in the trees as I drove home.  Thanked  God I have a home, a wonderful wife, a family to come home to.

And what a change of attitude!  My frustrations and anxieties melted away as I was thankful for that moment.  Now the key is to remember to always be thankful.  In every moment to stop and look.  To realize that every single moment is God’s gracious gift to me.

Brothers and sisters, in just a few moments you and I will experience once again the most sublime gift, the most sublime moment - that is Eucharist.  When Jesus asks “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God,” the Greek word St. Luke uses for give thanks is “eucharistein” – the root of the word Eucharist.  At that moment we will receive into our bodies and souls the very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ. 

For that moment, for that gift, let us be truly thankful.  Let us stop. Taste.  See.  Realize what it is, WHO it is, we are receiving.  Let us receive our Lord as His gift, not as something to take, to snatch, from the Communion Minister’s hand, but as a gracious gift, on the tongue or the flat of our hand. 

For we’ve done nothing to deserve this gift.  So many people, so many Christians even, don’t have this gift.  So let us worthily and with grateful hearts receive the Body and Blood of Christ.  And let this gift transform us into always-grateful people.  And unite and transform us His very presence, the presence of Christ in our Community, our nation, our world.