Becoming Grateful: Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025

Becoming Grateful:

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 

October 12, 2025

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2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 98; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

 

These passages remind us of the virtues of being grateful. Naaman the Syrian dedicated his life to God when he was cleansed of his leprosy following the instructions of the prophet Elisha. He recognized his dependence upon God for restored health and a good life and he made a suitable offering. Jesus, acting like Elisha, sends ten men to the priest to show proof of their recovery, and only one of them return to express gratitude. Jesus asks about those who did not return to give thanks.

 

Most preachers will talk about the benefits of gratitude, but today, let us spend some time with ingratitude. What does that look like? A life of ingratitude often looks empty, restless, and disconnected. Do you see people like this in society today? A person might express constant dissatisfaction and is vocal about what she does not have. An entitlement mindset pervades one’s attitudes, and the person takes an affront to every indiscretion while expressing bitterness and resentment. A person may have shallow or strained relationships and lack inner peace. A life of ingratitude tends to miss the small, beautiful details that make life rich and meaningful and cannot see the goodwill offered to them. Ugh. It does not seem to be a desirable way to live. I imagine Jesus wanted something better for the nine lepers.

 

How does one become grateful? Living gratefully is a deliberate choice. It is a practice in which one notices the small details that seem ordinary and then celebrating them. It often involved recognizing the goodwill or positive intention of another person. We teach children to say thank you so that they recognize they are in relationship with another person and so that they do not become self-absorbed or narcissistic. It is about seeing and recognizing the other person and to recognize that one has received a gift from someone else’s generosity. This is often a gift that was not deserved. There is a difference between being thankful and saying thank you out loud. Naaman and the one leper returned to say thanks, and they are recorded in history for their actions. 

 

A helpful statement to remember is: If you compare, you despair. Stop equating what you have received with what another has received. This is childish behavior. It is more important to recognize the goodness you have just received. Another way to attain gratitude is to recognize that life is hard and you can find something positive during those times when you suffer or experience hardship. You can change the lens of your sight when matters become difficult. It is like changing the lens of your camera. If you change your lens, you can change your world. This allows you to acknowledge the hard times, but to celebrate what is right with the world. You can find acts of goodness or thoughtfulness or the blessings on God’s glory in each moment of life. You can see the web of life beyond you that is helping you in your evolution. It helps root you in a larger world that is held together by compassion and care. It roots and grounds you in love.

 

At the end of each day, we have to ask ourselves these questions: Did I act with love? Did I speak with love? Acting with grateful love heals and restores your life as it healed Naaman and the leper. With love, even the most difficult situations can be examined in a way that transforms. It engages the brokenness that is within you and around you. Love is about letting your heart be softened so you see the goodwill of others. Gratitude helps us reclaim love as the highest form of strength. Everything that we do must be infused and informed by a grateful love. Then we have a full life.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Romans 1) Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.

 

Tuesday: (Romans 1) I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek. For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous by faith will live."

 

Wednesday: (Romans 2) You, O man, are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things. We know that the judgment of God on those who do such things is true.

 

Thursday: (Romans 3) Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.

 

Friday (Romans 4) Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God. For what does the Scripture say?
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. A worker's wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due.

 

Saturday (2 Timothy 4) At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 11) While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
"This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

 

Tuesday: (Luke 11) After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.

 

Wednesday (Luke 11) “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others.

 

Thursday (Luke 11) "Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.

 

Friday (Luke 12) So many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, "Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.

 

Saturday (Luke 12) The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.

 

Saints of the Week

 

October 12: John Beyzym, S.J., priest (1850-1912), was Ukrainian-born, entered the Jesuits, and petitioned to work among the people of Madagascar who had Hansen’s disease (leprosy.) Since the lepers lived in remote shanty buildings with no windows or facilities, Beyzym worked hard to improve their living conditions, build a hospital, and a church. He died after contracting the disease. 

 

October 14: Callistus I, pope and martyr (d. 222) was a slave of a Christian who put him in charge of a bank that failed. He was jailed and upon his release became a deacon and counselor to Pope Zephyrinus. He became the first overseer of the official Christian cemetery that was eventually named after him. When he was elected Pope he introduced humanitarian reforms. He died during an uprising against Christians.  

 

October 15: Teresa of Avila, doctor (1515-1582), entered the Carmelites in Avila and became disenchanted with the laxity of the order. She progressed in prayer and had mystical visions. She introduced stricter reforms through her guidance of John of the Cross and Peter Alcantara. They founded the Discalced Carmelites for men and women.

 

October 16: Hedwig, religious, at age 12 married Henry, a prince who would become king of Silesia. As a monarch, they built a Cistercian monastery for women. They soon built many other religious houses and hospitals. She chose to live in austere poverty to be in solidarity with the poor.

 

October 16: Margaret Mary Alocoque entered the Visitation Order at Paray-le-Monial in 1671. She received visions of Christ's love and told her Jesuit spiritual director, Claude la Colombiere, who asked her to write about her experiences. They developed the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her community resisted her promotion of the devotion at first, but later came to see the power of the prayers.

 

October 17: Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (d. 107) was born around 33 A.D. and became a leading figure in the new church at Antioch. He served as bishop for 38 years before he was persecuted and killed under Emperor Trajan for being a Christian leader. He wrote seven letters about church life in the early second century and is the first-mentioned martyr of Roman heroes in the first Eucharistic Prayer.

 

October 18: Luke, evangelist (first century) was the author of his version of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He is described as a doctor and a friend of Paul. He was a well-educated Gentile who was familiar with the Jewish scriptures and he wrote to other Gentiles who were coming into a faith.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• October 12, 1976: The murder in rural Brazil of Joao Bosco Burnier, SJ, who was shot and killed by soldiers for protesting the torture of two poor women. 
• October 13, 1537: At Venice the Papal Nuncio published his written verdict declaring that Ignatius Loyola was innocent of all charges which had been leveled against him by his detractors. 
• October 14, 1774: A French Jesuit in China wrote an epitaph to the Jesuit mission in China after the suppression of the Society. It concludes: "Go, traveler, continue on your way. Felicitate the dead; weep for the living; pray for all. Wonder, and be silent."
• October 15, 1582: St Teresa of Avila died on this day -- the first day of the new Gregorian calendar. She always wished to have a Jesuit as a confessor. 
• October 16, 1873: About two weeks after Victor Emmanuel's visit to Berlin, where he had long conferences with Bismark, rumors reached the Society in Rome that all of their houses in Rome were threatened. 
• October 17, 1578: St Robert Bellarmine entered the Jesuit novitiate of San Andrea in Rome at the age of 16. 

October 18, 1553: A theological course was opened in our college in Lisbon; 400 students were at once enrolled.