“It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” (Eucharistic Prayers A and B)
Have you ever considered the profound sense of the Holy into which we are communally joined when we celebrate the Eucharist? Consider the opening acclamation: “Lift up your hearts.” The Celebrant invites us to spiritually transcend the ordinariness of life, and allow our soul, mind, and body to be attentive only to the Lord our God. As we do, we become aware that every moment of life, we have thousands of reasons to praise and thank God. The Celebrant continues, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” And we, God’s people raise our voices in agreement. The first half of the Eucharistic prayer is about the praise and thanksgiving of God’s people, for Eucharist is giving thanks. The second half of the Eucharistic prayer calls us to remember and be engaged in the gracious life of Jesus, who though Divine, lived a life of thanksgiving. He gave thanks to the Father as He broke bread at the Last Supper, just before offering us the ultimate and greatest gift, His very life for our salvation.
Praise and thanksgiving are therefore essential outflows of our relationship with God. We express praise and thanksgiving both in our common worship and in our daily lives. We practice this discipline until it blooms out into a lifestyle of genuine gratitude for the unending mercies of our Loving God, the Source and Sustainer of life.
In Sunday’s gospel (Luke 17:11-19), Jesus exalts one of ten persons afflicted with leprosy, a chronic and dreaded infectious disease, because of his response of deep gratitude after being healed. In their despair, the lepers called out to Jesus from afar, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Jesus sent them to show themselves to the priests, who would declare them clean, in keeping with Levitical laws. On their way, the lepers were cleansed. One leper was suddenly awakened to the Divine Power that had answered his cry for mercy and healed him. Overwhelmed with gratitude, he turned back and praised God loudly, then prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet, he thanked him.
The leper received physical healing and a deep, life-transforming spiritual healing. Jesus told him, “Your faith has made you well.” He was a new person, one who chose the path beyond physical healing towards a spiritual journey into life with God eternally. The former leper’s faith, expressed in his praise and thankfulness to God, would become the bedrock of his life. Going forward, God was no longer distant but close and approachable!
Jesus marveled that the only leper that returned “to give thanks to God” was a “foreigner” a Samaritan, first a reminder that ingratitude is a great human temptation. Secondly, an affirmation that God’s mercy and grace transcend all social and cultural barriers. The leper is an image of our plight; “insiders and outsiders” all need God’s healing graces and salvation. Thanks be to God for the cleansing He offers, so our lives may be bound with His glorious abundance of life!
What do we have to be grateful for? Everything, every moment of the day! As we journey with Jesus to the New Jerusalem, we praise and thank God for life, for beauty, for the awesome joy and hope offered to all in Christ’s sacrificial love. “Give thanks unto the Lord for His mercies endure forever!”
