WEBVTT 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:07.839 Have you ever noticed how gratitude can change a room? 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:17.920 When someone says thank you, truly says thank you, not because they have to, but because they really mean it. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.359 Something in the room shifts. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:26.320 The air lightens, the space feels softer. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:34.560 Gratitude has this mysterious power to open hearts and to close wounds. 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:41.359 It takes what ordinary, it takes what's ordinary and makes it holy. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:45.600 That's what today's readings are all about. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:58.320 Not politeness, not about being kind or having good manners, but this deep kind of gratitude that only comes from faith. 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.960 Because gratitude and faith are inseparable. 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.560 You can't have one without the other. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:16.640 Just to give a little context, and for today's first reading, Naeman shows us what gratitude is about. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:19.359 He wasn't even Jewish. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:25.840 He was a Syrian general, a powerful man, successful, respected. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:35.439 But beneath the medals and the armor, there was a man who was diseased, ashamed, isolated by leprosy. 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:47.200 And what he when he hears there's a prophet of Israel that can heal him, he goes, but with his pride still intact. 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:53.599 Elisha the prophet doesn't even doesn't even come out to meet him face to face. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:01.760 He simply sends word with an attendant saying, Tell him to go wash in the Jordan seven times. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:06.400 Naaman says, That's it. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:15.840 No ceremony, no lightning bolts, just some muddy water that I have to dunk into seven times. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:18.479 Naaman was furious. 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:23.840 He wanted a spectacle, not simplicity. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:27.280 He wanted to control the situation. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:39.680 But someone, maybe a friend or someone he was traveling with, said to him, If this prophet had told you to do something very difficult, you probably would have done it. 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:44.080 Then why not do this, which is much simpler? 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:47.280 So Naaman goes. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:49.520 He humbles himself. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:54.560 He steps down into the Jordan, and when he rises, he's completely clean. 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.879 The scriptures tell us that his skin is that of a baby. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:04.000 More importantly, his heart has been transformed and cleaned. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:06.960 The real healing was his pride. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:18.800 He returns to Elisha overflowing with gratitude and declares, Now I know that there is no God on all the earth except the God of Israel. 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:23.120 Gratitude made him a believer. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.960 Faith healed his body. 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:31.520 And the two become one, faith and gratitude. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:35.360 Then the gospel takes us a little deeper. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:40.319 Ten lepers stand at a distance because that's what leprosy does. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:43.280 It separates, it isolates. 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:46.000 It says, You don't belong. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:52.879 And from a distance they cry out, Jesus, Master, have pity on us. 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:56.000 And Jesus doesn't come closer. 00:03:56.319 --> 00:03:58.879 He doesn't shout, be healed. 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:00.159 But what does he do? 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:06.960 He says, Go show yourselves to the priests, which is fascinating if you think about it. 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:11.840 That's what you do after you've been healed, not before. 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:25.040 But they go, they go to the priest in obedience, in a step of faith, and as they're going along their way, they realize that they've been healed. 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:37.199 Imagine that moment when one is able to look down and see new skin, a hand restored, a face no longer scarred. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:43.519 Imagine the joy these men were facing at being able to return into society. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:50.319 Ten hearts must have been bursting, but only one of them turns back. 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:58.000 Only one returns to Jesus, falls at the feet of Jesus, gives him thanks. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.000 He wasn't even a Jew. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:01.920 He was a Samaritan. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:05.040 He was an outsider among outsiders. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:11.839 But Jesus says to him, There were ten of you, weren't there? 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:13.839 Ten were made clean. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:15.920 Where are the other nine? 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:18.639 Rise, go your way. 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:21.199 Your faith has saved you. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:28.160 The others received healing, but this one received salvation. 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:28.879 Why? 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:32.480 Because gratitude completes the miracle. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:34.959 That's something we need to understand. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:38.800 Gratitude is part of the faith cycle. 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:42.959 Faith and gratitude, they feed off of each other. 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:46.480 Faith says, I believe you, Lord. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:50.079 Gratitude says, I trust you, Lord. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:53.279 And together they become worship. 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:59.040 The truth is, most of us are really good at asking God for help. 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:00.720 Lord, I need this. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:02.480 Help me from this. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:04.079 Where are you? 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:07.360 I need help with this difficult situation. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.120 I need help with a diagnosis. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:14.720 We know how to pray for things. 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:18.000 And that's good. 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:18.399 Why? 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:21.279 Because God wants to help his children. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:29.680 But when the storm passes, when the prayers are answered, do we return back to God in thanksgiving? 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:31.519 Most do. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:37.519 What I want to stress is that gratitude is the memory of the heart. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:40.480 It's how we keep close to God. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:47.759 It is how faith grows within us from something that we say to how we live. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:50.240 St. 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:52.879 Paul understood this better than anyone. 00:06:53.680 --> 00:07:03.680 When he writes to Timothy in the second reading, he's sitting in prison, a man chained, forgotten by the world. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:05.439 But he's not bitter. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:08.160 He's not begging for release. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:10.079 He's thankful. 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:15.360 He's thankful because Paul remembers all that God had done for him. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:26.160 Saul, the persecutor, the man who hated Christ, who hunted down Christians, and he remembers what Christ did for him. 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:35.279 How Christ met him on the road, blinded him so he could finally see, forgave him when he deserved condemnation. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.000 Paul never forgot that. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:44.959 So even in chains, Saint Paul says the word of God is not chained. 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:49.519 He knows that gratitude isn't about circumstances. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:51.360 He was in prison. 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:54.800 He was thanking God for his salvation. 00:07:55.839 --> 00:08:00.399 He doesn't thank God for comfort, he thanks God for mercy. 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.519 That's faith that is matured. 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:07.600 That's gratitude that's been purified. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:12.959 And that brings us here today to us around this altar. 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:19.439 Because the Eucharist we celebrate right now means exactly that thanksgiving. 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:23.199 Every mass is a school of gratitude. 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:33.840 We come here not just to ask God for things, but we need to come around this altar and remember everything that God has done for us. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:45.679 So when you come forward today to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, come like that Samaritan, that one who came back to Jesus giving thanks. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:50.080 Come with gratitude, come saying thank you, Lord. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:56.559 Thank you, Lord, for healing me, for forgiving me, for never giving up on me. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:01.759 Don't come out of habit, same old, same old. 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.919 Come with a heart that's full of thanksgiving. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:06.879 Why? 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:09.759 Because gratitude changes everything. 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:12.720 Gratitude makes faith alive. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:20.879 Gratitude turns fear into trust, worry into worship, and pain into purpose. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:27.440 Naaman the Naaman the foreigner found faith through thanksgiving. 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:40.399 The Samaritan, the outcast, found salvation through gratitude, and Paul the prisoner found joy through mercy, remembering all that God had done for him. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:50.639 Every one of them was transformed, not by getting what they wanted, but by realizing what God had already done for them. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:10:05.919 And so when we come to the Eucharist, the great thanksgiving, maybe with burdens, maybe with a heavy heart, maybe with life issues, maybe even with questions. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:10.399 Or maybe today you're feeling a bit far from God. 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:17.679 But even then, even now, there is a reason to give thanks to Almighty God. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:20.720 Thank Him for the breath in your lungs. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:23.679 Thank Him for the people sitting next to you. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:34.879 Thank Him for the mercy and for all that He's done to carry you through life, for the forgiveness that keeps chasing you, and for a love that He has for you that won't let go. 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:41.200 Because when you live with the attitude of gratitude, everything shifts. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:50.080 You stop comparing yourself to others, you start praising God, you stop demanding and start thanking. 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:56.480 You stop chasing what's missing, and you start to notice around you all that has been given to you. 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.039 So be the one that returns. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:09.679 Be the one who comes back to Jesus, the one who kneels at his feet and says, Thank you, Lord. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:12.320 Thank you for what you've done for me. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:14.879 Thank you for what you're doing for me. 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:18.320 And thank you for who you are in my life. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:23.279 My brothers and sisters, gratitude is not just a word we say. 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:26.720 Gratitude is a way we must live. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:33.440 It is the way we live when we finally realize how much we've been loved. 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:44.399 And when you live this way, faith deepens, hope grows, and life itself becomes a prayer of thanksgiving. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:45.360 Amen.