The teaching in this Sunday’s scriptures is that there are always reasons to give thanks to God. One of the hallmarks of Christianity is thankfulness. God’s goodness comes to us each and every day. For this reason, in humility, we return to God saying thanks.

In the Gospel, Jesus meets ten lepers who asked for healing. All ten of them were trusting in God’s mercy and they were given it. At the end of the story, only one of the lepers, the foreigner, returned to say thanks. 

It is amazing how some of us feel that we are entitled to God blessing us whenever we ask. It is God’s free gift that is given to us even before our request ever reaches our lips. God is constantly looking to do what is good for us.

With gratitude and humility, we must acknowledge what God has done for us. Our entire life must be directed by our gratitude to God. All that we have and all that we hope to be comes from God.

The gospel writer makes a point of telling us that the healed leper who returned to give thanks was a foreigner and a Samaritan. The other nine lepers should have known to say thanks but they didn’t. Maybe their sense of entitlement to God’s blessings didn’t allow them to be humble enough to say thanks.