Sunday Homily, October 14, 2007, 28th in Ordinary Time
Readings: 2 Kings 5, 14-17; Psalm 98; 2 Timothy 2, 8-13; Luke 17, 11-19.
2 Kings:
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Time of the events: 900 B.C.
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Time when written: 550 B.C., during the Babylonian captivity
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Subject of 1 Kings: This book continues the history of the kings taking up with the death of King David and continuing through the story of David & Bathsheba’s son Solomon. He builds the famous Temple of Solomon. After his death the nation divides into the northern & southern states, Israel in the north, Judah in the south (including Jerusalem; remember by the "J’s").
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Subject of 2 Kings: This book continues the history of the decline of the two states until Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats the people.
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Subject of our chapter 5 (read it all, it is delightful): one of the leaders of the Syrian-Babylonian army goes to visit the prophet of the day, Elisha. Naaman, the general, has leprosy. Note the twist of the story at the end. Thanks is a theme of this selection and it sets the stage for Luke’s story about gratitude.
Gratitude
Last Sunday after our Mass, after Rosemary had counted the income, and had put it on spread sheets, we got in the car to go out for the evening. I dropped her off at the Royal Lane & Preston Tom Thumb to buy something, she gave me some letters to mail at the corner, and she gave me the two envelopes to deposit in the bank on the same corner. We always deposit that money right away.
I drove through the parking lot to the mail box and dumped in all the envelopes. All the envelopes. Namely, her letters and the two bank deposit envelopes.
I knew almost immediately what I had done and, in fact, wanted to reach down into the mail box to retrieve the deposits. However, I realized I could go to jail for that. So we typed up a special note with our phone number and put it in the mailbox and figured we would make contact with the Royal Lane post office early the next day before pick up. Guess what Monday was: Columbus Day, a postal holiday.
Tuesday morning I got a call from the main post office that they had one of our deposit envelopes and I could pick it up. When I met the guy I confessed that I was embarrassed to admit that I was the person who put the deposits in the mail box. He says to me that as a matter of fact it happens a lot on that corner and that a woman had actually put in 10 thousand dollars in cash.
So we have gotten back the running expenses deposit and still are waiting for the outreach envelope, which he seems optimistic will show up. The thing that touched me, however, was how this postal supervisor treated my brain dead behavior with such a light touch. I thanked him for both, for getting the envelope and for making light of it all. I was really grateful.
The two stories we have in today’s readings are all about gratitude. A few observations.
First. The temptation is to think I am one of the nine who did not return to thank Jesus. Yes & No. I would suggest again: we are both. Lots of times we forget to thank. Lots of times we thank.
Second. There could be symbolism in the nine and one. Perhaps I am nine tenths ungrateful and one tenth grateful. This is a pretty normal proportion. A lot of times, however, I am not so much ungrateful as just insensitive, totally unaware. Perhaps the lepers who did not return just figured they were lucky and went on their way. The other guy realized he had been given a gift by that stranger and wanted to respond.
Jesus tells him his faith has saved him. I would suggest that his gratitude transformed him.
Third. How is it possible to rearrange the percentages? Rosemary & I have a favorite little practice that we do every night. I’ve mentioned it before. We ask each other what were the blessings of the day. I recommend this. I even recommend it for sitting alone, while savoring the first cup of coffee in the morning, driving or riding the DART to work & back, getting ready to go to school. Simple question: what were my blessings yesterday or this week?
In that main post office I could have focused on how dumb I was or that I did not get the second deposit back. Fortunately I could appreciate the supervisor’s light touch and that I had gotten back one envelope, the larger.
You may start now: what were your three biggest blessings this week?
AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-10-14.mp3