This week's readings Sunday, Oct. 14: Reading I: 2 Kgs 5:14-17 Reading II: 2 Tm 2:8-13 Gospel: Lk 17:11-19 Monday, Oct. 15: Reading I: Rom 1, 1-7 Gospel: Lk 11, 29-32 Tuesday, Oct. 16: Reading I: Rom 1, 16-25 Gospel: Lk 11, 37-41 Wednesday, Oct. 17: Reading I: Rom 2, 1-11 Gospel: Lk 11, 42-46 Thursday, Oct. 18: Reading I: 2 Tm 4, 9-17 Gospel: Lk 10, 1-9 Friday, Oct. 19: Reading I: Rom 4, 1-8 Gospel: Lk 12, 1-7 Saturday, Oct. 20: Reading I: Rom 4, 13. 16-18 Gospel: Lk 12, 8-12 Pope's Prayer Intentions October General Intention Appreciation for the riches every culture and religion contribute to the common good. The wisdom to appreciate the cultural and spiritual riches contributed by the different ethnic groups and religious minorities in every land. October Mission Intention A Pentecost-like missionary renewal in this third Christian millennium. Renewal of the missionary fire of the first Pentecost at this dawn of the third Christian millennium.

Where are the others?

Thank God for His many gifts

(Oct. 14, 2001 -- 28th Sunday in Ordinary time)

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

Have you ever given or sent a number of gifts to various people, for example at Christmas, and got back some nice thank-you notes, and then you realized "Hey, so-and-so didn't send a thank-you." Most of the time we'd recognize that people get busy, or maybe something happened and it slipped their minds. No big deal.

But we take note of it, and sometimes with hard feelings. A little note of acknowledgment and thanks goes a long way.

Now imagine that you sent out those nice gifts and no one sent a note, or maybe only one out of the many. Unusual? Yes! Your feelings? "What a bunch of turkeys!"

Sunday readings for Oct. 14 2Kings 5:14-17 Psalm 98 2Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

Jesus cleansed 10 lepers, all of whom begged him, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" All needed healing from their disease, as each of us needs healing from our sins. All went to the priests, realizing on the way that they were cleansed.

Only one returned to give thanks, praising God loudly for the gift of his healing and mercy.

Where were the others? What happened then to those nine? Did their leprosy return? No, God doesn't work that way. Saint Paul writes, "If we are unfaithful he remains faithful." God doesn't take back his gifts.

Note in the Gospel that it is a Samaritan who returns to offer thanks for the miracle of his healing -- a "foreigner," as Jesus calls him. In other Gospel passages we've learned of Samaritans, who were considered outsiders by Jesus' own people, used as examples of faith, generosity, and discipleship. Here Jesus says as he often does, "your faith has saved you."

The other nine are more like the rest of us. Sometimes we take for granted God's many gifts: the Church, her Sacraments -- maybe even the Eucharist and Reconciliation -- our talents, the material wealth given into our stewardship, the time we have on this earth to do God's will in service of others.

It's easy to do that, to take for granted what we have received. We forget to send that thank-you note to God and to others around us. We use our gifts poorly, not at their full potential. Sometimes it takes a foreigner, someone outside our normal circle, to call us to remember God's generosity and love.

Jesus often used examples, parables, and people to turn our ordinary pre-conceived notions on their heads. His disciples wouldn't have expected a Samaritan to provide a good example.

We might see a person who doesn't often go to church and think "what can we learn from such a person?" As with the publican in the back of the Temple in another Gospel passage who prays "Have mercy on me, O Lord, a sinner," we could learn to have faith in the God whose mercy knows no end.

God can turn human hearts to himself, so that in unexpected places we find him at work.

Where are the others, those other nine? We do not know where they went.

Perhaps they were ungrateful. Perhaps they were neglectful. Perhaps they went off praising God, spreading the story of what Jesus did to others around them.

Whatever they did, we should all realize that our praise and thanks to God should be central to our life of discipleship, and we should always return to the Lord to say "thank you" and to spread the good news.

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.