The Gift of a Grateful Heart
by Father Rene-Vincent du Grandlaunay, OP

(Fr. Rene has been visiting Siena Center in Racine, WI, for the past six weeks to study. He returns to his mission in Cairo, Egypt, on December 9. This is a homily he gave at Siena Center chapel.)

Today's Gospel tells us of the ten men who received healing from Jesus. Only one thanked Jesus. One out of ten - 10%! That was not enough! The reading has a deep message for us today.

When we listen to the Gospel, we listen to a very deep human text, coming to us through the Spirit. The author of the text knew what he wrote. He was well aware of human behavior. If any of the ten people who were healed had returned to thank Jesus, we would be interested in listening to the story - a story where everyone is good and perfect and grateful. No! Jesus speaks to us in our own experience.

Do you remember the story of the prodigal son? Why did he come back? Was it for love of his father? Was it to ask pardon of his father and his family? No. the son returned home because he was hungry (like the cookie monster). "How many of my father's hired hands have all the food they want and here I am dying of hunger." If he has said: "I wounded my poor father! I have to go back to celebrate the mercy of God together!" No. If the son had returned to his father with such feelings, we would all be interested in hearing such a story. This behavior is not our behavior. The story speaks to us because we humans often fail to give thanks. This is human behavior.

But there is more to the story. The man who gave thanks was a Samaritan. That means he was a foreigner and a stranger. He was from the outside, not from the community, from a different religion and he was the only one to come back and say "Thank you" to Jesus. Luke in the Gospel uses the Greek verb: "Eucharistein" four times. It means to "give thanks." Two references are about Jesus giving thanks for the bread and the wine. The third time is a story of the Pharisee who gave thanks "because he was not like those other people - grasping, unjust and adulterous" and today's story about the Samaritan who returned to thank Jesus for his healing. So we learn about thanksgiving from a foreigner. So we ask ourselves, "Are we a grateful people?" Everything we have is gift. And today we live in our world as people who have received everything from others and from our God.

In Egypt where I live as a foreigner, the people are impregnated with the Islamic culture ... even as Christians. And one of the signals that shows that is a very famous Arabic expression. I would like to make a very special gift to you today. I, too, am a foreigner and it is my duty to offer you something today. I would like to give you this famous expression. In the Arab world, Muslims and Christians do not stop using this expression. It is used for oneself or for another, either with a low voice or a high voice. We use it on good occasions or in hard times. We use it at a time of birth or at a time of death, in health or in poverty, in freedom or in prison, in illness or in good health. Each moment of our life is punctuated by this expression.

This expression is al-Hamdu Lillah! Literally it means: "Praise be to God," but the meaning is "Thanks be to God."

Let us pray today with gratitude to our God, who gives us our daily bread, and live with grateful hearts at each moment of our lives. May we live and use this expression today and every day.