Healing and Gratitude: Homily for October 12, 2025
Readings and Virtual Homily for October 12, 2025, Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time; On Retreat With the Class of 2026
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
2 Kings 5:14-17
Psalm 98:1-4
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Luke 17:11-19
Dear Friends and Family,
The twin themes of healing and gratitude inform this Sunday's readings.
The reading from the Second Book of Kings details the experience of a Syrian general, Naaman, who contracts leprosy and is advised to seek a cure in Israel. (The following part of the story is omitted from today's readings, but necessary for one of the points I want to make with this homily.)
Naaman journeys to Jerusalem where the prophet Elisha tells him to go to the Jordan River and immerse himself in its waters seven times. This will effect his cure. The story has a very human element to it in that Naaman at first strongly resists this advice. He had expected the prophet to pray over him in person (Elisha had sent word to Naaman without leaving his house). "Are there no rivers in Damascus?" Naaman indignantly asks, pointing out that the Jordan is, in essence, a creek compared to the rivers of Damascus. Feeling slighted and maybe even casually dismissed by the prophet, Naaman is ready to go home.
But his servants, whose egos are not involved in the matter, reason with Naaman that after all, if Elisha had asked him to do something very difficult, would he not have gladly done it, to be cured? Instead of which, the prophet has promised a healing simply by going into the Jordan seven times. Naaman is persuaded and "plunged into the Jordan seven times" (vs. 14; the first of today's verses). He is completely healed.
Naaman -- again, a Syrian, not Jewish -- subsequently offers a canticle of gratitude, praise and wonder. "Now I know," he tells Elisha, "that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel" (vs. 15). Naaman asks the prophet for "two mule-loads of earth" -- that is, Israeli soil -- to take back to Syria with him, for Naaman will from this point forward only worship the God of Israel (vs. 17).
A clear lesson for all of us in the rather charming story of Naaman and Elisha is that God will not necessarily do things our way. Our prayers WILL be answered, but as God wills it. Sometimes, as is the case here with the Syrian commander, we need to get out of the way and let God be God.
The psalm echoes Naaman in that it invites us to praise the Lord, "for he has done marvelous deeds" (vs. 1). The psalm resonates with the healing, the gratitude and the conversion of the Syrian general as well, when it declares "All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God" (vs. 3).
The reading from the Second Letter to Timothy encourages faithfulness in him who cannot be unfaithful, because "he cannot deny himself" (vs. 13). The passage might be related to the Gospel passage, in that of the ten lepers Jesus heals, one returns to thank him. Yet the other nine, whose gratitude comes up short, are all the same healed. Their failure to express their gratitude to Jesus did not prevent their healing: Jesus intended their healing and he cannot deny himself. God is faithful whether or not we are.
Which brings us to the passage from Luke; that is, to the ten lepers who beg Jesus to heal them and who, following his instructions, head to Jerusalem to show themselves to the priests (vs. 14). The reason Jesus sends them to the priests is that, in accordance with Mosaic law, only a priest could declare someone clean of leprosy.
On their way to the temple, the ten discover they are healed. Think about this for a moment, just to go a bit deeper with the passage. Leprosy eventually killed anyone who contracted it, but for years before that, it ruined a person's life. It was not just the gradual physical ravages of the disease. According to Mosaic law, lepers had to live away from the community; they were shorn of their families, their homes, their friends, their livelihoods. They were literally outcasts from society. These ten had formed a little community of their own, apparently, perhaps sharing a common dwelling, likely receiving food at a distance at designated intervals from family members, and so on.
Given this harsh reality, imagine the rejoicing of the ten, as they realized that they had been cured. I suppose we can speculate that the other nine thought it most important to go before the priests and be officially declared clean, and so they did not go back to Jesus. I suppose we may so speculate; but in fact it is kind of hard to excuse this grave omission. Jesus had cured them of a disease that had robbed them of their lives.
In any event just one -- a Samaritan -- returns to thank Jesus. And Jesus is aggrieved. "Were not all ten healed?" he asks (vs, 17). "Where are the other nine?"
It is a reasonable enough question. After all, there was nothing to prevent all ten of them from coming back to Jesus, thanking him, and then going to the temple, to present themselves to the priests and so obtain their clean bill of health; so returning joyfully to their lives. There was nothing to prevent the other nine from doing this, but they did not do it.
So an obvious take-away for all of us here is to be grateful -- and to EXPRESS our gratitude, as Naaman does, as the psalm encourages us to do, as the Samaritan leper does -- when a prayer is answered.
I try to be intentional in this regard. I will still sometimes remark at the end of one of our weekend Masses here in Hayward how grateful I am for the nearly-full church. In these instances I will comment on how, five years ago (and speaking of diseases that make people outcasts, which COVID certainly in its own way did) we were all praying for exactly the reality we now once again enjoy: the simple but very great blessing of being able to gather together, unmasked and with no social distancing, to celebrate Mass inside the church. This is, in fact, a very great blessing and it is surely an answer to many, many prayers, from 2020.
In my experience, when we stop and consider our answered prayers, over the years, over the decades, there is no shortage of blessings for which to give thanks and praise to God. And I am convinced that when we do remember God's blessings (as the prophets and the psalmists so often urge the Jews to do) we open ourselves up to further blessings. Gratitude begets more reasons for gratitude. In a spiritual and an emotional dynamic that I have witnessed many times in my own life, we "shift the narrative" when we give thanks to God for blessings received, for prayers answered. Our hearts become more deeply open to receive yet more blessings. Can't get into this in any depth here; this one is long enough! Just an observation on the power and the importance of gratitude.
I was on retreat again at the start of this past week, at San Damiano in Danville. This time with the senior class; the first of three Senior Retreats we will be having this year. Good to be with my colleagues. Good to be with the kids. The teens in my small group all assured me that I am very much missed on campus, this fall. I assured them that I miss my students, as well, but that from any analysis this fall does appear to have been the one that was right for the sabbatical.
The sabbatical, of course, focused as it is on projects and goals at San Gabriel Media, is in fact about transition -- I want eventually to transition to San Gabriel fulltime. My bro (the business brains of the outfit) and I joke that this is our retirement gig, but it is not actually a joke. Neither of us has any intention of ever stepping away from San Gabriel. It is, we hope, a ministry in which we will be engaged as long as we are capable of mental engagement. This reality resonated with the theme of the retreat, which, of course, being for the Class of 2026, was largely focused on transition.
The seniors remain in familiar circumstances this fall, going to class and participating in sports, drama, debate, band and so on. But they are also swamped this autumn, with advanced placement courses; with college applications. letters of recommendation, financial aid forms and so on. Many of them have already crossed the country to visit schools they may want to attend next year; many will be taking weekend trips to visit campuses in-state or anyway, on the West Coast. It is an exciting time in their lives and I was glad to be on retreat, this week, reflecting with them on the inevitable fact of transition.
And speaking of transition...I need to get back to my latest book!
Take good care. God bless.
Love,
Fr. Brawn