{"id":1924,"date":"2016-10-09T12:32:24","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T16:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2016-10-09T12:32:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T16:32:24","slug":"28th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/28th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

28th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\n2 Kings 5:14-7
\nPsalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
\n2 Timothy 2:8-13
\nLuke 17:11-19
\nOctober 9, 2016<\/p>\n

Both our first reading today and our gospel tell of people who was thankful for being healed of their leprosy.<\/p>\n

In the first reading, it is Naaman who wasn\u2019t even Jewish.\u00a0 He was a great military leader but afflicted by leprosy.\u00a0 Someone tells him about the prophet Elisha who can help him.\u00a0 Elisha tells him to go plunge into the Jordan River.\u00a0 At first, he didn\u2019t want to but others convinced him to.\u00a0 When he made at \u201cact of faith\u201d to do what didn\u2019t make sense to him, then<\/em> he is healed.<\/p>\n

Once he is healed he goes back to Elisha to thank him and <\/em>he becomes a believer in the God of Israel and no other God.\u00a0 He is thankful and a man of true faith.<\/p>\n

In the gospel, it is not just one but ten lepers who ask Jesus for help.\u00a0 The ten lepers cry out to Jesus \u201cHave pity on us<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 We need to realize they did so standing at a distance.\u00a0 Leprosy was not a pleasant thing physically but add to it that anyone who had it had to be isolated made it even worse.<\/p>\n

What is Jesus\u2019 response?\u00a0 Does he heal them right then?\u00a0 No, He told them to \u201cGo show yourselves to the priests<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 When a leper was healed they were to go to a priest so the priest could see them and declare them clean.\u00a0 But they haven\u2019t been healed yet.<\/p>\n

Yet, they do as Jesus said.\u00a0 In doing so, they make an act of faith and then they are healed.\u00a0 However, only one returns to give thanks.<\/p>\n

How often do we ask God for help?<\/p>\n

Why are we even willing to ask God?\u00a0 I think we are willing to ask God because hearing the many <\/em><\/strong>stories in the Bible about God healing people gives us hope<\/em><\/strong> that God will provide for us too.\u00a0 As we sang in our response verse, \u201cThe Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 This revelation comes through the stories in scripture.<\/p>\n

I suspect when we feel a need we all remember to ask God for help.\u00a0 The need helps us to remember.\u00a0 However, I also suspect that we aren\u2019t so good about thanking God when we receive help.<\/p>\n

When we are truly thankful for what God has done for others before us and what he has done for us, then we can live with an \u201cattitude of gratitude.\u201d\u00a0 This is turn fills us with hope but not just an ordinary hope.<\/p>\n

In ordinary hope, we expect there are better things to come but in the hope that goes with faith, we know that God is with us even when things are difficult.\u00a0 The hope of faith gives us the strength to get through the tough moments rather than just trying to pray them away.<\/p>\n

The hope of faith transforms the way we live.<\/p>\n

We see this in Paul.\u00a0 As Saul, he had been a zealous Jew who believed that Jesus was a false messiah and thus heavily persecuted the Christians.\u00a0 Jesus had to directly intervene with Paul to get him to see the \u201clight\u201d and become Christian.\u00a0 Then, as Paul, he was a zealous promoter of the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

What does Paul\u2019s work as an apostle get him?\u00a0 As he writes to Timothy he is in prison.\u00a0 He could have lamented being in prison.\u00a0 He could have pray to get out of prison.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 He just trusts that God will help him in whatever situation comes before him.<\/p>\n

Paul is thankful for what God has already done for him.\u00a0 When I say thankful, not just for some healing or any one time miracle.\u00a0 Paul is thankful because he realizes that God could have condemned him to Hell for his persecution of the Christians.\u00a0 Instead Jesus reached out to him with forgiveness that Paul realizes he didn\u2019t deserve.\u00a0 What is Paul thankful for?\u00a0 His salvation.<\/p>\n

We are here to celebrate Mass.\u00a0 That is \u201cwhat\u201d we are here to do but why do we come?<\/p>\n

We might come because life isn\u2019t going so well and we want God to help us.\u00a0 In the first part of Mass, we hear God\u2019s Word from the Bible and the stories of how God has taken care of his people can help us find hope in our own needs.\u00a0 Thus, we are strengthened in the Word of God.\u00a0 Are we thankful for this?<\/p>\n

Then we celebrate the Eucharist.\u00a0 We must remember that the word \u201cEucharist\u201d means thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

Why should we be thankful for the Eucharist?\u00a0 The most obvious is because of what we receive in the Eucharist.\u00a0 It is not just bread and wine.\u00a0 It is the Body and Blood of Jesus<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 It is Jesus giving himself to us to strengthen us.\u00a0 This alone is reason to be thankful.<\/p>\n

However, this is not all the Eucharist represents for us.\u00a0 The words of consecration \u201cthis is my Body\u2026this is my blood<\/em>\u201d come from Jesus\u2019 own words at the Last Supper.\u00a0 When He said those words he spoke of his Body being given up for us, his Blood being shed for us.\u00a0 This establishes a direct connection between the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Cross.<\/p>\n

This is why whenever we celebrate the Eucharist, we have a Crucifix present.\u00a0 For us, it is right next to my chair.\u00a0 Seeing the Crucifix is to give us hope.\u00a0 It reminds of the sacrifice we celebrate.<\/p>\n

Here we must appreciate it is a Crucifix, not just a Cross.\u00a0 The Cross is the instrument of our salvation but when we see Jesus on it, we see Jesus himself giving his life for us.<\/p>\n

Thus when we celebrate the Eucharist, we have much to be thankful for.\u00a0 We are thankful for what we receive in the Body and Blood of Jesus.\u00a0 We are thankful of Jesus giving his life on the Cross for us.\u00a0 We are filled with hope.\u00a0 We can be transformed by the hope that comes from the Eucharist to be filled with an \u201cattitude of gratitude.\u201d\u00a0 We are filled with hope and transformed to look at the world differently as we go out in faith and hope to live our lives trusting in Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C 2 Kings 5:14-7 Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19 October 9, 2016 Both our first reading today and our gospel tell of people who was thankful for being healed of their leprosy. In the first reading, it is Naaman who wasn\u2019t even Jewish.\u00a0 He was …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[198,196,32,197],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-v2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1926,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions\/1926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}