Scripture Reflection for Oct. 12, 2025, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

A writer once said that the two most popular prayers on earth are "Help, help, help!" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I won't disagree. A lot of us are very good at praying the first one. But how well, or how often, do we actually pray the second?

This Sunday's Gospel is a helpful reminder of something we easily forget: the importance of living with an attitude of gratitude, especially gratitude to the Lord. We spend so much of our time on our knees pleading with God to bring us what we need -- a cure, a job, a solution, an answer, a sign to help us take a certain path.

But what happens next?

How many of us grew up hearing our mothers nudge us on the day after Christmas: "Have you written your thank you notes yet?" (I heard that a lot!) Don't we owe as much (or more!) to God? The Lord will not be outdone in generosity.

Whether we realize it or not, he is continually showering us with gifts. We can't take them for granted. The gifts of life, of hope, of Christian faith are too numerous to count. As a classic hymn puts it, we give thanks to our God, "who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices." Rejoice at what he has given us!

But there is more going on in this passage from St. Luke than just a lesson in good manners. Luke -- the only Gentile to write a Gospel -- was also offering a lesson about inclusion, and Christ's own extravagant mercy that extends even to Samaritans, a group of people the Jews of Jesus' day despised. In this Gospel, when Jesus healed the 10 lepers, the only one who returned was a Samaritan who fell at his feet to give thanks.

By describing this encounter, Luke was telling his non-Jewish readers that the salvific power of Christ knows no limits. It is available for everyone. No one is cut off from being healed, restored, renewed, reborn. All that is required is faith -- as Jesus told the Samaritan, "Your faith has saved you."

In some ways, this healed leper might be considered another "Good Samaritan" in Luke's Gospel, but a Samaritan whose goodness is measured by his willingness to express humble gratitude and reveal to Jesus his faith.

Faith. How often do we take time to thank God for that?

Blessed Solanus Casey used to offer this advice to people who came to him seeking counsel: "Thank God ahead of time." Have faith in God's goodness. Don't wait for a prayer to be answered, a miracle to be announced or some knot to be untangled. Thank God anyway. When you least expect it, in God's own time, a blessing will come. A prayer will be answered. A stumbling block will be removed. Something surprisingly good will come into your life. Be grateful for everything. Thank God for that. And don't wait. Do it now.

Thank God for listening. Thank him for patience, for second chances, for new beginnings. Thank him for mercy, for grace, for moments of peace. Thank him for the car that starts, the umbrella that you didn't forget, the short line at the checkout, the friendly smile from that stranger who held the door for you.

And we should all thank God for the many times he heard "Help, help, help" and came to our rescue, maybe in ways we never even realized.

As the Samaritan learned, God loves and gives without conditions, without limits, without boundaries or borders. All he asks of us is faith.

When we consider God's profound generosity and limitless love -- love that sacrificed his only son for our salvation -- what more can we say?

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."