With Faith, All Things Are Possible
28th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Reflection for Sunday October 9, 2016
Based on readings from: 2 Kings5, Psalm 98, second Timothy 2, Luke
17:11-19
By Rev. Bob
Johnnene OFM
Mission Saints
Sergius & Bacchus
Order Franciscans
of Mercy
Link to All Fr.
Bob’s TV Shows; http://www.youtube.com/user/RevBobJohn
Link to Mission
Web Site: www.missionstsergius.org
Link to Order
Franciscans of Mercy Web Site: www.orderfranciscansofmercy.org
The Good News message for this Sunday is “with faith in God, all things are possible”.
The Gospels tell stories of people being cured because
of their faith. In the Gospel from The
Gospel from Luke 17:11 – 19 is the
story of the healing of lepers and that faith in God was the reason for the cure.
As Christ entered one of the
villages, ten lepers came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to
him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ When he saw them he said, ‘Go and show
yourselves to the priests’. Now as they were going away they were cleansed.
Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his
voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a
Samaritan. These made Jesus say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine,
where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God,
except this foreigner.’ And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way.
Your faith has saved you.”
Why is it that for some it often takes a miracle for
some people to believe in God? Why is it that some people only turn to God when
there is a problem in their lives?
Far too often in this day and age we only turn to God seeking
a favor and but when it is granted, we often forget to thank God and we feel we
deserved it.
Today, everywhere we look we find people who are seeking
material things,the perfect figure, the perfect home, the classiest car, big
fancy houses, the latest electronic gadgets, the latest fashions and ever more
money.
Far too few who have been blessed with an abundance of
God’s gifts rarely think of sharing those gifts with the less fortunate or if
they do so they need to have public recognition for their acts and it is
usually a ptiance of what they have received and certainly not 10%.
In the United States alone there are thousands who do
not have adequate medical assistance, food or shelter. All over the globe people are suffering
because of the few who seek to control the many.
A few years back, while in Fargo North Dakota, I
became aware of a program sponsored by the Lutheran Church called HOMELESS AND
HUNGRY.
This program’s purpose is to raise awareness of the
plight and struggles of the homeless by having people pledge to fast for 24
hours and live on the street in cardboard boxes like the homeless and to beg
for food stuffs and money.
Every participant pledges $365.00 each which is the
cost of feeding one person each day of the year.
The money collected that year reached a staggering
total of over $75,000 and more than 5000 pounds of food was collected. Those who participated said they never knew
how hard it was for the “Street People” and how they were discriminated
against. Many described how they were called names and insulted and some
actually described how people would cross the street to avoid being near them.
What became clear to me was that we all need to do
more to address this despicable condition in the richest country in the world.
For those conditions to exist is a major blemish on the
nation as a whole and especially the political leaders rant and rave against
spending any tax payer money when ever a program to help those in need is
suggested by government.
To have Faith in God is much more than saying prayers
and attending church but it is also having our actions reflect the teaachings
of Christ to “Love one another as I have
loved you” and “Love God with your
whole mind, soul, and body and love your neighbor as you love yourself”
In last weeks gospel lesson we learned who our
neighbor is and that we should always act like the Good Samaritan of last weeks
Gospel and the Samaritan of this weeks gospel who returned to thank God for
curing hem.
Part of the message this week is also about putting
our full trust in God because when we do anything is possible and as we learned
last week, by having faith as small as a mustard seed we could move mountains. Having Faith in God is not just seeking God’s
healing when we are sick but believing that it is possible and also doing those
things we need to do to keep ourselves and all God’s children in good
health.
People can not be healthy if they do not have proper
nutrition and medical care.
Our Nation has been blessed with an abundance of God’s
gifts but at every opportunity there are people who do everything in their
power to remove all mention of God in public places.
The ranks of those who claim there is no God is
growing at an alarming rate according to the latest statistics.
Without a living faith, a practiced faith, without
believing in a supreme being and a loving and merciful God our nation will
continue to experience more and more violence and continue to decay just as
every great nation before it that turned away from the basic values found in
most religions; peace, brotherhood, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and love for
all God’s creation.
As the gospel for today say’s; ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems
that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.’ And he
said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.”
Without faith and by that I mean a living faith that
is more than words but action in our daily lives, how can we ever expect to be
cured of the ills that plague us?
The time is now for us to turn to God and ask God for
His healing graces.
Now is the time to begin living our lives in accord
with the teachings of Christ and not those imposed by mere humans for the
purpose of domination and control.
Only God can judge and determine who is and who is not
saved.
We who are Christians have been told how God expects
us to live and how to attain everlasting life.
We will be judged on how well we lived that life in
not only word but in our deeds.
Now is the time to seek God’s guidance to overcome our
weakness.
We need to place our trust and faith in God because when
we do, we too will be healed as those in the gospel of today were healed. AMEN
