Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Faith

Ever brought to your knees?

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This Gospel reports two stories of healing.  One story tells us about a father’s great love for his dying daughter.  The other story, the one I have chosen to focus on, tells us about a desperate woman who risks much in a courageous act of faith to seek healing from Jesus.  This woman has lost everything to find a cure to a condition that has separated her from the community.  We women can commiserate with her.  We may have memories of “those days” or know someone who understood why some referred to a woman’s “gift of God” as “the curse of Eve.”

This woman’s is a true story, not one of Jesus parables.  This woman had suffered from bleeding for 12 long years.  Whether this hemorrhaging was constant or irregular, it caused the woman much suffering, and with the loss of blood much weakness as well.  She also suffered a great deal at the hands of the many doctors she consulted for a cure.  Not only didn’t she get better, she actually got worse.  In addition, she didn’t have good health insurance so now she was broke and wasn’t eligible for food stamps.

We need to realize, too, that this woman would have been quite isolated:  lonely, shunned and shamefully treated because she was considered ceremonially unclean under the Law of Moses.  She could never perform the rituals that would have reconnected her with society.

What a suffering!  Broke.  Required to live as unclean, in isolation and shame.  She had very little hope for a better future.

I have to tell you, earlier in the week I had gotten this far in putting thoughts on paper when God literally dropped a reflection on this Scriptural episode into my lap …  the book I’m reading here in chapel by Basil Pennington, fell open to a chapter entitled “Who Touched Me.”   Here is an adapted summary of Pennington’s reflection.

Jesus was setting out for the house of Jariaus where he had promised to see the desperate man’s daughter.  He and his apostles are being knocked about from every side.  Suddenly Jesus stops and asks: “Who touched me?”

Peter in his usual obtuse way responds: How can you ask, who touched me?  Everyone is touching us.  Everybody is pushing us about.

 On our part (says Pennington) The increase of media and people contact – the over-scheduled day, the relentless demands on our time – almost necessarily means a decrease in spiritual contact, unless all our contact is grounded in contemplation and the operation of the gifts of the Spirit that are set free to work in our lives by contemplative prayer.

 We do not need to go out and about to find meaning.  It is all here within.  And when we go out, we find the same Reality.  Whether within or without, it fills us with presence, joy, and completeness.  Grounded in prayer, we can truly touch the lives of others and be touched by them. (Basil Pennington)

So, it seems to me, the final fact in the woman’s story – remember it’s a true story – is Jesus’ affirmation of her faith and daring.  Jesus knew she had touched him and his power had healed her.  The woman knew what had happened.  The power of the miracle dropped her to her knees.  The response of Jesus is so encouraging.  He calls her “daughter” affirming that she is very precious to him.  He reminds her: your faith has healed you.”  Many others that day touched Jesus, jostled him, shoved him but only this one woman touched Jesus with faith.  Finally Jesus tells her: Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

What incident in your life brought you to your knees knowing that you were healed … and more than that, assured that you are loved?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
First Reading  Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24     Second Reading 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15
Gospel Mark 5:21-43 ( shorter form, Mark 5:21-24,35b-43)

 

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Words can also have an equally powerful ability to bring about healing and reconciliation… something we all need to keep in mind.

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Today we are with Jesus when he meets a distraught woman with a special needs child.  Maybe you have seen her, too, at the local Publix or Walmart or you might remember the parent of a child in your school, or a child-relative in your family or you’ve seen her trying to shop at Daystar.  This is a mixed breed woman; a foreigner.  Her family has disowned her.  And when she told her boyfriend she was pregnant he fled.

Somehow this courageous woman has survived as a single mother. But, when her daughter began having seizures, gossipy opinions surface: “She deserves what she gets. See what happens when you make the kind of decisions she’s made.”  On top of that she is a woman in a society in which women have no real value or standing.  To make matters worse she’s a screamer with a crazy kid.  Now, she is out of options.

But, she’s heard that a Jewish miracle-worker is passing through the area.  He’s reported to have authority over demons.  She’s tried appealing to all the pagan gods of her culture, but none answered her plea.  Maybe, just maybe, this Jesus is the answer to her prayers.

The woman approaches Jesus, requesting that he heal her demon-possessed daughter.  At first Jesus says nothing.  It appears he is ignoring her.  The disciples ask Jesus to send her away, and Jesus seems to agree, remarking that he was sent to minister to the Jews alone.

But she’s already endured a series of obstacles that would threaten the best of us.  She’s jumped social hurtles to ask a favor of Jesus and she will not be deterred.

She persists, paying homage to Jesus, and yet again Jesus denies her request.  She can’t believe what her hears – is he being rude to her?  Did he really refer to her using a Jewish word of derision for Gentiles, “dog.”  But the woman cleverly turns Jesus’ own words against him.  Only then does Jesus grant her request and heal her daughter.

So, let’s consider why Jesus would lead this mother through a humbling process for pursuing her request.  He stays in conversation with her but seems harsh.  Could it be Jesus used this encounter to help her develop a deep courageous faith that would sustain her for the rest of her life not just this one-time healing?

She is tenacious in her pleading.  With the odds stacked against her, she pushes forward.  When she gets knocked down by life’s circumstances and criticism, she gets back up.  When others told her to quit, to get lost because she was wasting Jesus’ time, she continued to keep Jesus attention.

Notice she referred to Jesus as Lord, acknowledging that He is worthy of praise.  Don’t miss the lesson that she praised Jesus in the midst of her pain.  She is obviously a very humble woman.  Perhaps Jesus had her in mind when he spoke the beatitude “Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth.”  Never confuse humility with weakness. Pride would have been offended by the “dog” comment.  Pride would have returned insult for insult, and pride would have gone away empty; without a miracle; without a healthy, whole child.

It’s a nice story but what does it teach us?  Lessons in skilled, reverent, peaceful confrontation; tenacity, humility and focus on the important matter for winning a hearing with a happy outcome.

The past couple of weeks the world has been on edge, at the escalating acts of violence and the war of words between the North Korean regime and President Trump.  The spiraling verbal threats may be the result of mounting public frustration with the lack of solutions to a serious problem but a frightened world cannot dismiss the situation as mere venting of empty words.  Indeed, the harsh language appears to be increasing in the intensity of potential danger of a rash move being made by one side or the other.  The world has seen too many incidents to ignore or downplay words that have had the power to do real damage.  The old adage “sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you” has long been proven a false premise.  But words can also have an equally powerful ability to bring about healing and reconciliation… something we all need to keep in mind.

Let us remember also in our intentions this weekend the people who are waiting in terror for Monday’s total solar eclipse.  Thousands are gathering for the once in a life time event but others view it as a harbinger of doom.

Heeding the example of the Canaanite woman we must come to stand before God, united in our plea for an end of racism in our country and for peace in our world, for calmness to conquer brashness, humility to counter pride and tenacity to win out over discouragement.

There is a tale told about former President Andrew Jackson.  His childhood friends were reminiscing about their childhood with Andy and expressing surprise at how successful he’d become considering all his flaws – he wasn’t as smart as some and many were stronger.  They recalled how the class bully would throw Andy three out of four times when they wrestled.  A listener asked: “What happened on the fourth time?”

Andy’s friend spoke up: “I guess that was Andy’s secret. He just wouldn’t stay throwed.”

Like the Canaanite woman and Andy, if life circumstances throw you down, don’t stay “throwed.”  You’ve heard it said that Benedictine community life is a series of beginnings.  Like a daruma doll, those weighted-bottom Japanese good-luck dolls, we just keep bouncing upright – as one author put is: we fall down and we get up.  Or as the saying goes: seven times down; eight times up.  So let us stand firm in praying for peace that we may hear the same response Jesus gave to the Canaanite woman: “Great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
1st Reading Isaiah 56:1, 6-7,
2nd Reading Romans 11:13-15; 29-32,
Gospel Matthew 15:21-28
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God at our Calling

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First Reading  Jeremiah 20:10-13    Second Reading  Romans 5:12-15
Gospel Matthew 10:26-33

In this Gospel passage, we rejoin Jesus during the first year of His public ministry.  Jesus directs the disciples to keep their focus on God.  He reminds them that those who can harm the body do not have ultimate power; God does.  Persecution and suffering may not be avoided or prevented but Jesus’ reassures us that God is always and forever at our call to care for us and protect us.

Jesus uses a simple, mind-opening analogy to illustrate his point.  His listeners knew that the cheapest life in the market was a small bird of the field, perhaps a sparrow.  Yet, God’s providential care knows even when this smallest of birds dies.  He is using here a rabbinic argument technique which compares a light matter to a heavy one. His idea here is to overcome fear and encourage the disciples, and us, to trust God.

From the moment we are born, we know fear – we squall at the change in our environment.  The startle reflex is tested in a baby’s first pediatrician’s visit.  Separation anxiety develops by 6 months and may raise its ugly head later in life feelings of abandonment.  Over time we may grow to fear even those who are closest to us.

Jesus recognizes that fear may cause failure on our part.  Jesus’ disciples, and we, courageously leave the security of home and family to follow a dream. As faithful followers of our “summons” to His call, may inevitably put us on a collision course with the allurements of the world. Jesus is starkly realistic about the threats we will face, at the same time he builds the case for why we should not let fear win out or hinder our ministry.

We see in the Gospels, how on the one hand, the disciples are granted remarkable powers to heal the sick, exorcise demons, cleanse lepers, even to raise the dead. But at the same time, Jesus denies the disciples money, extra clothes, or a staff to aid in climbing the ups and downs of life or to protect themselves from wolves.  He even denies them a pair of sandals to shield their feet from rocks and stones, or if they travel the fields in Florida, sandspurs.  They are to undertake their mission in complete vulnerability and dependence on God with an awareness that they go as “sheep in the midst of wolves.”

We know their stories: they faced arrests and beatings, hatred and persecution and opposition even from family members.

With great care and compassion Jesus names aloud the suffering to be endured and its causes.  This is the first step in freeing them from the tenacious grip of fear.  Benedict knew this, didn’t he?  Remember what he says about receiving newcomers (chapter 58).  Do not grant newcomers an easy entry … test the spirits, let them keep persistently knocking at the door four or five days … they should be clearly told the things of everyday living in community; all the hardships and difficulties that will lead to God … she, the newcomer, must be aware of what the Rule requires so that she may know what she is entering.”

It is clear in Jesus’ conversation with his disciples that the most important element in the sharing of the warnings and the loving reassurance lies in the integral relationship between the disciples and Jesus.  And, between Benedict and the novice .. and it should be evident between our community and the Seeker.

Just as Jesus modeled the way for his disciple, we make a commitment to the newcomer, and to each other, to model Benedictine living.   An example: A young boy, out for a walk with his father on a cold winter day, was scared to cross a frozen pond … afraid of falling through the ice. But then his Father offered to lead the way.  Now the boy didn’t hesitate to go across the ice. The ice hadn’t become less frightening, but he was able to follow his father, trusting his father wouldn’t lead him to harm. He followed his father without fear across the ice.   Jesus leads us; we lead each other; and we each help lead our Seekers.

As we sing in the Suscipe: “Upon me, O Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live, and do not disappoint me in my hope.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

 

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What is the Astuteness of the Christian?

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3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Right to Life (January 23)  St. Paul (January 25)

First Reading   Isaiah 8:23-9:3          Second Reading  1 Corinthians 1:10-13,17
Gospel Reading  Matthew 4:12-23

In this Gospel the power of Jesus’ call is immediately evident – Peter, Andrew, James and John dropped everything to follow Jesus immediately.  Jesus doesn’t have to pitch the idea to these individuals nor does he need to persuade them.  Each has little reason to leave their current way of life.    Each seemingly has a steady job.  Most importantly they have familial ties to their vocations as family men and fishermen.  Now, in the new lifestyle they were inaugurating, their security would come from life in a mutually supporting community, where the needs of each one were taken care of.

Having begun to assemble his company of companions, Jesus turns to his ministry, as the Gospel describes it: teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.   He moved quickly and determinedly from one place to another … planting dreams, raising expectations, and opens doors of possibility.  His followers witnessed a dramatic alternative to the emptiness and despair that filled the lives of the people immersed in an atmosphere devoid off their trust and hope.

Whether man or a woman, when one joyfully responded to Jesus’ call to follow, and entered Jesus enterprise, their lives were dramatically changed.  They became agents of new possibility for all who came into contact with them – beacons of encouragement for the discouraged – inviting the stranger to faith in God and purpose in life.

The late Speaker of the House “Tip” O’Neill loved to relate a valuable lesson he’d learned early in his career. During his first political campaign, one of O’Neill’s neighbors told him: I am going to vote for you tomorrow, even though you didn’t ask me to! O’Neill was surprised and said: Why, Mrs. O’Brien, I have lived across from you for eighteen years, I cut your grass in the summer, I shoveled your walk in the winter; I didn’t think I had to ask for your vote! Mrs. O’Brien replied: Oh, Tommy, let me tell you something … people like to be asked!

A vital faith community will always be asking … inviting followers just as Jesus did.
It is never enough to simply welcome people when they happen to visit, we must also invite them to join us in our worship and ministries.  Without a direct “ask” a vocation may be stifled or a prayer-partner lost.  My mother spoke with great admiration for the Benedictine Sisters who were her teachers in elementary school.  I asked her once when she didn’t become a Sister – she replied “None of them asked me – so I figured I was not worthy.”  Of course, I would not be here telling you this story if she’d been asked and said YES.

Tomorrow (Monday, January 23) the church leads us in prayer for the sanctity of all life: for an end to abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty.  And more than that: to honor, respect and love all God’s people without reservation.  I invite you to listen to these words of Pope Francis (adapted slightly to be gender inclusion):

The Christian cannot allow her/himself the luxury to be an idiot, that’s clear. We don’t have the luxury to be fools because we have a very beautiful message of life and we’re not permitted to be fools.  For that reason, Jesus says, “Be astute, be careful.”  What is the astuteness of the Christian?  In knowing how to discern who is a wolf and who is a sheep. 

And when … a wolf disguises itself as a sheep, (the Christian) knows how they smell. “Look, you have the skin of a sheep but the smell of a wolf.” And this, this mandate that Jesus gives us is very important. It’s for something very great.  Jesus tells us something that attracts our attention, when someone asks him: “Well, why did you come into the world?” “Look, I come to bring life and for that life to be in abundance, and I am sending you so that you can advance that life, and so that it will be abundant.”

Jesus didn’t come to bring death (of the body), but rather, the death of hatred, the death of fighting, the death of slander, that is, killing with the tongue.  Jesus came to bring life and to bring the abundant life, and he sends us out, carrying that life, but he tells us: “Care for it!” Because there are people bringing us today the culture of death.  That is, life interests them insofar as it is useful, insofar as it has some kind of utility and if not, it doesn’t interest them.  And throughout the world, this weed has been planted, of the culture of death.

How beautiful is caring for life, allowing life to grow, to give life like Jesus, and to give it abundantly, not to permit that even one of these smallest ones be lost.  That is what Jesus asked of the Father: “that none of those whom You have given me be lost, that all of the life that You gave me to care for, might be cared for, that it might not be lost.”  And we care for life, because He cares for our life from the womb.

Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing.  Father, is that why there are so many wolves who want to eat us?  Is that why, tell me?  Who did Jesus kill? No one.  He did good things. And how did he end up?  If we go down the road of life ugly things can happen to us, but it doesn’t matter. It’s worth it.  He first opened the way.

So, go forth and don’t be discouraged.  Don’t be fools, remember, a Christian doesn’t have the luxury of being foolish, I’m going to repeat this: an idiot, a fool – you can’t give yourself that luxury.  You have to be clever, be astute!     Care for life. It’s worth it! “

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Perseverance of Prayer

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luke-18-1-8-2First Reading    Exodus 17:8-13.                  Second Reading    2 Timothy 3:14—4:2
Gospel           Luke 18:1-8

Here we have a lesson about perseverance in prayer.  The point of the story is not that prayer is nagging God for what we want.  Nor is it meant to teach us that God is like the judge in the parable – worn down by requests and coerced to respond.

The key to understanding the meaning is found in the description of the judge as corrupt and unjust.  Since God can be neither, we must understand Jesus to be saying that if even an unjust judge responds to the persistence of the widow, how much more will God listen to our prayers.  God truly wants to hear our needs and respond generously.  Didn’t Jesus say: “Ask and you shall receive?”   Jesus is telling us that God wants us to be like the persistent widow, staying in relationship with God, confident that God hears and answers prayers.   And He understands how easy it is to lose heart.  He asks: “Will such faith, the faith of the widow, be found when the Son of Man returns?”

A beginning of the answer to the question appears to be that the Son of Man will find faith, but it may be in unexpected places, as it has been in the Gospel — not among the religious professionals or the ones certain of their own righteousness, but among the outsiders, the unlovely, the unclean, the ones certain of their sinfulness.

The parable suggests that a sign of faith will be a willingness to persist in prayer, as we see in this widow who persists against all odds in her fight for justice against the powerful judge.  Another sign may be in what we pray for: daily bread, the Holy Spirit, the coming of the kingdom, justice.

In his gospel, the evangelist Luke portrays widows as vulnerable but at the same time prophetic, active, and faithful.  The widow of this parable is forceful enough to get the justice she demands even from an utterly unjust judge.

If we could read the Greek version of this parable, we’d get a glimpse of Jesus sense of humor.  Now by “Greek” I don’t mean the language we refer to when we say “It’s all Greek to me.”  In the Greek Scriptures the judge gives in to the widow because if he doesn’t he fears she may give him a black eye.  Jesus uses a metaphor from boxing to make his point about the need to continue in prayer.  Be as persistent as a boxer in the ring when it comes to prayer.  Jesus gives a second teaching in the parable. If an unjust judge answers the pleas of a widow how much more will God answer our prayers.  We just don’t know WHEN.  Remember the words of the prophet Habakkuk?  “The vision still has its time and will not disappoint.”  God takes the long view … knows what is best and we may sometimes have to wait until we’re, as they say: “on the other side of the grass,” where we’ll understand that all along God knew best.

Luke seems to be very much aware of the real danger of giving up, of losing heart when we suffer injustice.  Luke is saying that if we pray hard enough and if we don’t lose heart, God will give us justice, right?  Well, does God?  Is there justice in the world?  In our country?  In our local communities, and (sadly) in our churches?  We have only to watch the evening news or read the day’s headlines to learn of multiple cases of brutality and injustice.

Could it be possible that God’s justice looks different than our justice?  Good question. Yet, somehow I trust that God gives us a righteous sense of justice–especially if it is a selfless sense of justice–one that is concerned with others.  Look at our widow. What does she do to obtain justice? She is persistent.  She is stubborn.  Perhaps we should call her attitude a kind of “holy stubbornness.”  She doesn’t give up – she doesn’t lose heart.  She keeps knocking at the judge’s door.

Now, I believe I don’t have to explain “stubbornness.”  Some of us had it sprinkled on us in our cradles!  We can prettify it, call it by another name, whatever we want: high principles, perseverance, tenacity, determination or just plain pigheadedness.  Yes, we seem to be naturally endowed with the “great gift of stubbornness” and the only thing God has to help us with is to learn how to be stubborn for the right causes — God’s justice.  In that case we may talk about a “holy stubbornness.”  That happens when we start not only to pray our prayers, but when we start to live our prayers.  In other words, we put our actions where our words are.  Victims of poverty, injustice or violence don’t want to hear about God’s commandments, about moral values, about self-denial, or even about justice.

Luke is right: it is easy to lose heart and go with the flow rather than go against the current.  It takes more than a petition at Mass to make our prayers effective. Think of all the corporate commitment action opportunities we are offered.  When we support our petitions with a donation to Christmas for the residents at Heritage, attend the Sunrise Prayer Vigil, write letters asking for legislative action on behalf of the poor, make a donation to the Soup Supper or volunteer at Daystar.

You may ask, or be asked: “can prayer move God’s arm?” Jesus turns this question back on us today and concludes his parable with the question: “Will the Son of man find faith when he returns?”  In other words he is asking: “Can prayer move your own arm?  Are you willing to put your actions where your words are?”  God always has relied on his children–people like you and me–to usher in His Kingdom.  God will give us strength, God will empower us, but we still need to stubbornly live out our prayers for justice.  The first reading reminds us we don’t have to be alone in our entreaties.  One of the beauties of living in community or being part of a faith community is that, like Moses’ (in tomorrow’s first reading) – we have friends who “hold our hands until sunset” – we have the prayer support of many others.  Are our prayers effective?  The answer lies squarely with us: “it depends on how effective we help make them.”

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Are You the One of Ten Who Found Salvation?

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luke-17-11_19First Reading   2 Kings 5:14-17              Second Reading    2 Timothy 2:8-13
Gospel    Luke 17:11-19

This Gospel has much to say about gratitude and salvation.  All 10 of the lepers were given the gift of healing, but only one found salvation because he recognized the gifts he had been given and knew to whom he owed thanks.

At the outset of this story we know that these ten men are stuck – Stuck in a “no-man’s” land of being socially, religiously, and physically unclean having to distance themselves from but all other lepers.  By the end of the story, all ten were made well.  But one has something more. He has seen Jesus, recognized his blessing and rejoiced.  Because he saw what had happened, this man is not just healed, but is made whole, restored, drawn back into relationship with God, and his family, friends and neighbors. In all these ways he has won salvation.

Recently I heard a true story of gratitude that wrought salvation.  The lady who told the story works downtown in a large city.  Every morning, she encountered a middle‑aged woman in a shabby coat soliciting spare change from passers-by.  She greeted everyone with a smile and a pleasant “Good morning.”  The lady who told the story almost always gave her something.  After almost a year of this routine, however, the woman in the shabby coat disappeared.  My friend wondered what had happened to her.  .

Then, one beautiful morning, she was in her place in front of the church, still wearing the same, shabby coat. As folks reached into their purses or pockets for their usual donation, the woman stopped each of them. “Thank you for helping me all those days,” she said. “You won’t see me again because I’ve found a job.” With that, she reached into a bag and handed each one a wrapped package. She had been standing at her old spot waiting, not for a handout, but for the people she recognized so that she could give each of them a doughnut.  She recognized those who had given to her in her time of need. This is gratitude!

In our account today ten men encounter Jesus and called out (the scripture say “loudly” or yelled) “We want to be well!”  You may know that leprosy also attacks the vocal chords so that these men probably could only make a raspy sound. But that didn’t stop them from raising their voices and crying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” The gracious Lord Jesus will never turn a deaf ear to a cry like that!

Jesus appears to do nothing, but quietly directs the men:  “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”  Now, you have to understand that the local priest, besides leading worship services was also something of a health official – to test and certify a complete removal of the dread disease and then to announce that the person was healed.

As these men took heed of Jesus’ words and set out in search of the priest, one may have noticed his hand, once eaten away by the disease now tingled with life.  Or maybe he dropped his crutch when we saw his leg was back, healthy, whole and complete.  Their skin was beginning to clear and regain natural color.  One looked at the other, another looked at the rest, and the screaming started. The smiles broke into cheering, and a sweet madness. They raced off in the distance, hardly believing that the nightmare was finally over.

But in order for the miracle to happen, the men had to start a journey in faith before their circumstances had begun to change even one tiny bit. We are not told whether the ten lepers had a debate about whether or not to go. I can well imagine one of them arguing, “We’ll look like fools if we show up before the priest in our present condition!” Another countered, “Yes, but we’ve got nothing to lose; this is our only hope.” “But it hurts to walk on these leprous feet!” “I know, but if we do what He says, maybe we’ll be healed.” “But this isn’t the way He healed the other lepers. Why doesn’t He heal us in the same way?” “I don’t know, but we must obey.”

Maybe they didn’t have any such debate, since the text doesn’t record any, but at any rate, it says, “as they were going, they were cleansed.” It must have been a marvelous experience!

One of the men came back to Jesus.  The gospel does not make it clear whether he had seen the priest and been declared clean.  The evangelist tells us he praised God. He was thankful. He was public about it. He was loud – he wasn’t shy at all.

Why was he so loud? This guy had been forced to yell for as long as he’d had leprosy. Might have been years? He’d probably yelled so long, he didn’t know how to come to the Lord quietly, or even in a normal voice. When he came back and fell at the feet of Jesus, he was just louder than the normal person, and he was praising God.

He had reversed his steps, put his family on hold, put the priest on hold, and came back to the one who was the Cause of his celebration. His response, his thankfulness led to action.

Jesus asked: “Where are the other nine?”  They had got what they wanted from God in terms of healed bodies.  But, according to the story, they never returned to Jesus to receive salvation. They received the temporal benefit of healed bodies, but it is only to the one thankful leper who returned that Jesus proclaimed, “Your faith has saved you.” In the same way, it is possible to receive special blessings from God in answer to prayer, and yet to fall short of the best blessing of all. Thus when we realize that God has blessed us with some temporal blessing, we must not become satisfied with that and stop before we’ve thanked the Source of all blessings.

A story is told of a man who was lost in the woods. Later, he told how frightened he was and how he had even finally knelt and prayed. Someone said, “Well, obviously God answered your prayer?” “Oh, no,” the man replied. “Before God had a chance, a guide came along and showed me the way.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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