REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 32ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR 1 15TH NOVEMBER 2023

REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 32ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR 1 15TH NOVEMBER 2023

Wisdom 6:1-11; Ps.82; Luke 17:11-19

God cannot be limited by our Expectation

The gospel reading of today focuses on thanksgiving. From the story narrated, we realize that it is possible to receive God’s gift and that gift will not bring us salvation. For God’s gift to bring us salvation, we must develop an attitude of gratitude.

However, when we reflect more on the action and reaction of the ten leapers, we learn something more than thanksgiving. At first, they all met Jesus asking for mercy. They understood that Divine Mercy encompasses all goodness just as heaven is the mercy of God. When Jesus asked them to go show themselves to the priests, they obeyed.

Why then will nine of them not find it necessary to return and give thanks after been cleansed? Most probably, they could not draw a connection between their encounter with Jesus and their consequent healing. Maybe for them, Jesus turned down their request. Even though Jesus said “Go and show yourselves to the priests”, it may not have been what they expected from Jesus. And since Jesus did not meet their expectation, they concluded that he did not oblige their appeal; they must have left disappointed.

Therefore, their movement towards the priests was not with faith that they will be healed, rather, they saw it as trying one of those numerous recommended cures that will finally not work. Beloved, sometimes, this is how we relate with God. The moment God does not answer our prayers the way, manner and time we desire it, we become blind to seeing his handiwork in our lives in other ways; we are no longer able to associate anything that happens to us with his benevolence.

God is God, He cannot be limited by our expectations in blessing us. Only those who abandon themselves to the will of God find satisfaction. Miracles abound in our world, yet people crave for miracles as if they are very scarce or as if God is stingy with them or that God needs to be shouted at or cajoled to release them. The problem is, until God does what they want, the way, manner and time they want it, He has not done anything. So, such persons may never find reason to give thanks.

Thanksgiving is more of a prayer of faith. If you always subject it to selfish reason(s), you may soon drift away from doing it. A heart that insists on its own way is not pure and so can never see God. Without righteousness, miracles will not satisfy us.