Homily: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 12, 2025
My dear brothers and sisters, we have gathered today to celebrate Thanksgiving weekend. The readings of today offer us the opportunity to reflect on the virtue of gratitude. In the first reading, Naaman a pagan commander of the army of King Aram was cured miraculously by God of his leprosy through his obeying the directions that came from the prophet Elisha, Naaman returned to give thanks to God for His goodness to him. In the gospel reading, Jesus cured ten lepers and only one, a Samaritan came back to say thank you to Jesus. These men show us a model of gratitude.
In life, it is unfortunately true that when things move on well and normal for us, we take God’s kindness, God’s gifts to us as if they are our natural birth right. We only complain when things do not work out well for us. We stress on one thing that does not go well for us and fail to remember that the other thousands that are good for us are God’s blessings. We may for instance become so familiar with the story of the Cross that our minds may cease to realize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and the amazing grace there-in.
The same extends to the goodness we receive from our parents and from all others. Sometimes, when people are asked how was your childhood experience with your dad or mum? The response will be like, ‘our childhood upbringing was fraught with physical and verbal abuse, I can never forgive my dad or my mum.’ Sometimes the reason for this type of answer might be because the dad or mum scolded him\her few times for misbehaving or maybe he\she was flogged once or twice in his\her adolescent age for bad behavior. The same person easily forgets that these same parents cared for him\her from the time when he\she was most fragile. He\ she depended on them literally for everything for many years. A day’s neglect from the parents in those years would have killed him\her. In the first two decades of our life, we normally may not know the full meaning of life realities like the cost of groceries, insurance, rent, bills, mortgage, property tax, income tax, GST etc., These were the headaches of our parents. Ours was simply to complain and yell, we forget that some burnt like candles that we might have life, and sometimes as these parents get weaker and weaker with age, they are seen as nuisance to us.
Brothers and sisters, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, let us never forget these words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?” Even Jesus wants us to be grateful. The goodness of God that come by our way in life should awaken in us a life of gratitude: gratitude to God, gratitude to all others who make this life livable for us. Most times, some civil authorities who take care of our towns and cities show zealous steadfastness and fidelity to their responsibilities, for their hard work, security of lives and properties are assured. Seldom do they receive any words of thanks or encouragement, instead at the face any slightest unforeseen challenge, we immediately rain fire and brimstone on them.
In gratitude to God for His goodness to us, we should draw nearer to God as faithful Christians. In the first reading of today, when Naaman saw the miracle that God did for him, he became converted and started offering burnt sacrifice to the living God of Israel. Similarly, when the Samaritan in the gospel received miraculous cure from Jesus, he became a Christian, he went and prostrated himself before Jesus. The psalmist asked a question in Psalm 116: 12-14, “What shall I return the Lord for his goodness to me, I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” Brothers and sisters, for the goodness of God to us what shall we return to the Lord? Our life should be a thanksgiving sacrifice. The Holy Eucharist is a thanksgiving sacrifice; we should participate in this sacrifice frequently and make the fruit of this thanksgiving offering we participate in to touch all our other brothers and sisters whenever we leave the doors of this Church.
