28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

2 Kgs 5:14-17
Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
2 Tm 2:8-13
Lk 17:11-19

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman with the Sunday Soundbite for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I need to make a resolution to send thank-you notes. When people do me a favor, I’m always very grateful, and I have the best of intentions of sitting down and writing a note when I get home, to say "thanks." And then, something usually distracts me, and before I know it, weeks have gone by, or I see the person and remember that I never did send that note.

Today's Gospel ought to give me a renewed incentive to be thankful. In the story, Jesus cures ten lepers; only one returns to give thanks. That one is—surprise—a Samaritan. Well, the surprise is probably more appropriate for Jesus' original audience than for us: Samaritans and Jews did not get along.

When Luke put this story together from his sources, there was much more of a punch. In the following verses, not read in church today, some in his audience ask when the Kingdom will be coming. Jesus tells them they've missed the signs; people like the Samaritan in the story have recognized the Kingdom's presence and given thanks.

Luke would have us heed the words of Jesus: The Kingdom is in our midst, but we truly appreciate it only if we walk with Christ in his suffering and death. By embracing his way of the cross, we welcome the Kingdom.

Scripture:

•For I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other God. (2 Kings 5:17)

•All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God. (Psalm 98:3)

•If we have died with him we shall also live with him. (2 Timothy 2:11)

•Standup and go; your faith has saved you. (Luke 17:19)

Reflection:

•Where do you find Jesus Christ?

•How do you recognize Jesus?

•Have you experienced Jesus as your salvation?

•How have you responded to being saved?

•Did you return to thank Jesus?

•What is his (Jesus’) response?

Holiness is the fruit of “life in the spirit” (Galatians 5): a life which impels the baptized person to follow and imitate Christ by living the beatitudes, by heeding God’s Word, by taking part in the Church’s sacramental and liturgical life, as well as by personal prayer, and above all practicing the commandments of love and service, especially to the poor and suffering. (Malawi 1989)