Giving Thanks

A woman used to say after every car journey:  “Thanks be to God”.  She was thankful for the safe arrival and also for the gift of motor-transport, having spent many years cycling through all weathers to Sunday Mass, shopping, and visits of charity.

Jesus shows the need for thanks in today’s Gospel.  Do you hear “thankyou” expressed to you when you give way on a footpath, or at an entrance?  I hear it sometimes but less often now.  Are we among the nine lepers who gave no thanks (no doubt they all had reasons for this omission)?  On the other hand I know people who never stop thanking me for some small act of kindness.  Let us follow the ‘thanking Samaritan’, who praised God and thanked Jesus for the new life given to him. 

Naaman thanked God for his cure through the prophet Elisha.  The second reading also shows appreciation for God’s work; the author points to “salvation in Christ Jesus”.  I see people showing thankful love to elderly parents.  Crowds of grateful people come here to thank Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Young people praise God for exam results and successful endeavours.  Let us join the chorus of thanksgiving to God!

Fr. Eamon Flanagan, C.M.

14th September 2007