09 October 2022 – 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

by Fr Stephen Lim

We are very familiar with this text but very often we overlook the difficulties in this text. You know we always say it is Jesus alone or God alone heals and we have this case where Samaritan leper being healed come to thank Jesus and Jesus tells him ‘Your faith has saved you.’ Isn’t it confusing? We say Jesus saved and here is this Samaritan leper coming to meet Jesus and Jesus said ‘Your faith has saved you.’ Who saved? My faith saved? God saved? This will remain a conflict if not a paradox or a contradiction unless we are willing to be open to God, to be thankful.

You know you pick up any newspaper nowadays, especially with so many new adventure or study on human sciences, even those who are in marketing or management. You will surely read up something on being happy or being thankful, so to change, so to be happier. And we have plenty of articles, especially humanities and psychology, on scientific evidence. Look. It looks like we are not convinced until we have a scientific paper with some kind of evidence that being thankful will trigger the release of happy hormones.

You know on one hand we have all the evidence to convince us that we won’t lose anything when we are thankful and grateful. On the other hand, we see a lot of reluctance if not indifference to be grateful, to be thankful.

If being thankful is important, how come there is so much resistance to be thankful? Is it because we are bad? Or is it because we are indifferent? Or isn’t it being thankful itself is odd, if not awkward?

You know you can bring me to Court for being dishonest. You can bring me to Court for telling a lie. But you can never bring me to Court for being ungrateful. Isn’t this strange? If being gratitude, being grateful is so important how come it cannot be demanded? It cannot be legislated. Isn’t that puzzling?

Which means each of us have to sit down and talk to ourselves. Hello, it is never a crime, it is never a shame to sit down and talk to ourselves. Why be grateful? And for us Catholics, since day one in our catechism, we are taught and told to be grateful makes God happy. Is it true? Good morning, is it true that when we are thankful God is happy?

Or that we must be thankful because it makes our parents feel good? Is it true? I know the common opinion or common sense that our parents will always insist and persist that we be grateful. The reason is that hopefully we won’t put them in old folks’ home. But I don’t believe that. What I know is this: Every parent will want their child to be grateful, to be thankful for one simple reason alone. And this is very hard to explain to Catholics.

The one simple reason that our parents or even God himself wants us to be happy, to be grateful, to be thankful simply because it is the best thing for me. What to do? We are Catholics. We are taught never to do things for yourself. There is a great novelty and nobility to do for others. Better still to do for God. It looks like it is a crime to do things for ourselves. But the message of God’s word this morning is this:-

God ask us to be thankful, to be grateful for one simple reason alone. Because to be grateful, to be thankful is the best thing I can do for myself.

It is true. Because I discovered that. It took me forty years to realise what my parents have been teaching me. It is only in being grateful, in being thankful we can see things differently. Yes, life is disappointing. There is so much hurt, so much anger, so much frustration. Do we have any reason to be happy? Or to be grateful?

The irony is this – It is only when I am grateful and I am thankful that the cracks in my life will be the way God light gets in. I would like you to listen to the words of this song by Leonard Cohen’s Anthem. There are cracks in everything. It is only with gratitude that it is through these cracks that God’s light, God’s life comes in. We can experience God’s love, God’s affirmation, God’s healing not because we are prayerful, not because we are good. You and I, let’s be sure, can experience and receive God’s healing for one simple reason alone:-

We have a God who is loving. To this loving God, we praise and thank Him.

Click below to listen to the homily and watch the video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 09 October 2022