Lk 17:11-19
Today we keep our harvest festival. The primary thing that this involves is giving thanks to God for the fruits of the harvest, and in this giving thanks to God for all the good things He gives us.
Today's gospel gives us one of the classic texts where we see thanksgiving in action: 10 lepers were healed. One leper came back to give thanks.
I want to say a word about the connection between faith, thanksgiving, and salvation, and to start by looking at the words that Jesus said to the healed leper who had returned to give thanks.
Jesus said to that leper, "Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you"(Lk 17:19). Now, I think this is interesting, because it indicates something of what "salvation" means.
All 10 of the lepers were healed, all 10 were "saved" in their body.
But it was only the one who had enough “faith” to return and give thanks, it was only that leper who Jesus said was "saved":
"Salvation" is not just about the body. Often, especially when we are sick, we can reduce our problems and reduce our concept of salvation to just being about matters of the body, just being about material issues, whether it is health, money, and so forth.
However, Jesus's words point out to us that salvation is more than just about material things. Ultimate salvation, in heaven, will have the perfection and satisfaction of both our bodily and spiritual needs. But, while we journey though this world it is important to remember that it is the spiritual soul that is the higher part of us, and if we are saved in our body but not in our soul then we are not really saved at all.
And this is something we experience even at the psychological level: my body can be healthy, my house and my wealth might be secure, but I can still lack that peace of soul that is the more precious commodity.
The words of Jesus to that leper not only praised him for what he had but also point out to us how it is that we might have that salvation: by having faith.
If we believe in God, if we believe in what Jesus Christ has told us in the words of Scripture and through the teaching of His Church, IF we believe then we see the realities that this passing world fails to see and we rejoice in the realities that this passing world fails to rejoice in. And if our faith enables us to see these things then it enables us to give thanks to God for them.
But, this said, many of us often feel how we lack faith, how our faith is not as strong as we would like it to be.
We can pray the prayer we heard in last week’s Gospel: “Lord, Increase our faith”(Lk 17:5).
I would like, however, to point out something else that we can do to increase our faith, something that is important for us to do even if we think our faith is strong: we can give thanks.
If I want to deepen my awareness of God, deepen my faith in Him, deepen the amount I see His workings and gifts all around me, then an important way to deepen my faith is to thank Him for the gifts that the little faith I already have enables me to recognise.
When I go to bed at night I can pause to thank Him for the good things I have enjoyed during the day;
when I wake in the morning I can thank Him for the gift of the new day and for what will lie ahead;
and, the more I remember to thank Him at the start and end of the day the easier it will be to remember to thank Him during the day,
and, the more I thank Him then more that habit will enable me to clear my sight so that I will see better with the eyes of faith,
and, possessing ever deeper faith I will possess a deeper share in salvation,
so that one day Christ might say to me as He said to that leper, "Your faith has saved you"(Lk 17:19).
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