Joke: A little boy wanted $100.00 very badly and his mother told him to pray to God with faith. He prayed and prayed for two weeks, but nothing turned up. Then he decided perhaps he should write God a letter requesting the $100.00. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to God, they opened it up and decided to send it to the President. The President was so impressed and touched that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a check for $5.00. He thought that this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $5.00 and sat down to write a thank-you letter to God, which ran as follows: “Dear God: Thank you very much for the money. I noticed that you had to send it through Washington. Dad said that as usual, they deducted $95.00 for themselves in the name of “Homeland Security” to save our country from terrorists.”

To give thanks to God is what we ought to do in our lives, and to give thanks to one another is what we are reminded to do. Have you and I had anything to give thanks to God? What would we do with the things that we’ve received that we give thanks to God for? There are twenty-four hours a day and 8,760 hours a year, how often have we given thanks to God from the last twenty-four hours? Or in the last 8,760 hours? What would we want to give thanks to God for? Why should we give thanks to God when everything we have and who we are is what we work hard for it? Excellent question. We should give thanks to God because we cannot make the sunrise and the sunset, and we cannot make the air to breathe in every moment of our lives. We cannot even make the planet live in what we called the earth. In all today’s readings, the Church puts together to help us answer this question: Why should we give thanks to God when everything we have and who we are is what we work hard for it?

In today’s first reading, taken from the second book of Kings, Naaman, after being cleansed from his leprosy under the instruction of the prophet Elisha, the man of God, offered Elisha a gift and was refused. Why did Elisha refuse to accept the gift from Naaman who was healed from his leprosy? It’s simply because it was not the prophet Elisha who healed him from his leprosy but the Lord himself. Naaman then said to Elisha, “If you will not accept, please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD.” Why did Naaman want to take two mule-loads of the earth if it’s not to worship the Lord, the true God in the presence of the soil from the Holy Land where he’s truly present to his people?

In 2019, I have a chance to lead a pilgrimage for the parishioners at Saint Paul the Apostle. As part of the pilgrimage, we had a chance to emerge ourselves in the mud of the Dead Sea in the Holy Land. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth. Why does it call the Dead Sea? It’s called the Dead Sea because there is no life, and no fish can live in it. There is no life and no fish because the water is so dense and much salt that the Dead Sea is also known as the Sea of Salt. It’s too much salt that we can float naturally in the water. Why did I mention the Dead Sea? It’s because the mouth of the Jordan River is at the Dead Sea. It was at the Jordan River that Naaman was healed from his leprosy through the instruction of the prophet Elisha. Or rather, it’s through the hands of God who brought this land into existence. So, we give thanks to God.

Physical healing is no near to compare with spiritual healing, the healing from the inner being. Jesus demonstrated his power of healing so well through his words. In today’s Gospel, Saint Luke captured a series of pictures of healing leprosy. When the ten lepers stood at a distance from Jesus and raised their voices saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” To their cry out, Jesus healed them saying, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” Unlike the prophet Elisha asked Naaman to wash in the water of the Jordan River, Jesus, through his words alone, healed the leprosy of the lepers. His creating and restoring words invite the ten lepers to cooperate with him by doing what he commanded them to do. They all went and were healed on their way. However, only one came back and gave thanks to Jesus. To him, Jesus said, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” Jesus did not only have the power to heal us from our physical illness and sickness, but he also had the power to heal us from our sins as well. Our physical being will be decayed one day, but our inner being, our soul, will live forever either in heaven or in the nether world. Should we better take care of our souls rather than our physical being? It does not mean that we ignore taking care of our physical being to the point that we often get sick, get weak, and get lazy. In taking care of our physical being, we are reminded to pay attention to taking care of our inner being, our soul.

To give thanks to God for who we are and what we are is what we ought to do. Have you ever remembered to give thanks to God as I did when someone almost hit us on the freeway? In all things that have happened in our life, have you seen the hands of God protect you and help you, or has it just coincidentally happened that way? If you believe that it’s through the hands of God protected from danger and harm, what would you do to thank God? When you do something for someone, would you expect them to thank you or to do something good for you in return? Is it benefitted you when they either give thanks to you or not after you helped them? To give thanks to God for the gift of life and for continuously keeping us in the existence is what we ought to do, and to give thanks to one another is what we ought to do also since none of us is living on this planet by ourselves, but we live with one another. Let’s take this day and this week to give thanks to God and to those with whom we come into contact this day and this week. The decision is yours.