28TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.....GOOD MANNERS AND CHRISTIAN GRATITUDE..........

This second Sunday of October is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, definitively well into the autumn season, although temperatures in Sacramento / California are still reflecting summer like numbers in the 80's and 90 's degrees Fahrenheit.  Our Scriptural focus today in Luke's Gospel 17:11-19, is upon the Ten Lepers healed by Jesus of their malady and their response to the healing they sought from the one they called out to as, "Jesus Master".  Yes, nine of the ten supposedly did what Jesus commanded them to do in going to the priests and being certified as cured, so why were they criticized and the one who returned praised, for seemingly lacking to obey Jesus' command ?  Because in Christ Jesus something more extraordinary occurred to them.  Not only were they returned to their former state in life by their physical healing, they were also spiritually fortified to hear the call to Discipleship.  Whether or not, they accepted the call to discipleship, common respect and human decency obliges them to acknowledge and appreciate the person who provided their healing, the "Master Jesus", as the lepers had cried out to Him.  One of the first things we learn from our parents and families is to say, Please, and Thanks, in respectfulness toward others we interact with.  These Ten Lepers were total outcasts due to their disease, so that even that kind of politeness did not get them much, if any of a favorable response.  But the failure of all but the Samaritan Leper, the ultimate outcast among the Ten, to turn back to Jesus and express Gratitude for being restored and renewed,  is callous and self absorbed.  They provide us with an invaluable insight as to how we must never ignore or overlook the gratitude we as sinners, who have been saved by God's Grace and Jesus' Paschal Mystery, must also always maintain; lest we too, repeat the mistaken of the nine healed lepers.  And the Samaritan Leper concretely displays for us the boundless mercy and compassion to be experienced by every repentant sinner or otherwise afflicted person, by Jesus the Christ.  That together with our Faith in the Lord's Healing Power, should serve sufficiently to spur forth from us, a Gratitude and Appreciation that is undeniable..........In The Power Of Healing Found For Us And All Peoples in Our Master, Jesus the Lord,   Fr.  Troy