Pay it forward - And be thankful!

Today at Holy Mass in the Gospel of St Luke, Jesus attempts to teach his friends about gratitude…Its so very important to be grateful…..But in order to be grateful, more times then not…One must learn to go without…..To fall…..To know what its like to lose…..Our human nature takes the good things we have been given in life for granted…Jesus today reminds us….Never take anything for granted………Why? - Because it is a gift………..”As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”…….Before we can properly acknowledge the gifts of our life…We must first acknowledge the giver of gifts……Why did God give you the life you have?….Have you ever thought about that?…..How you have been given so much and others in this world, who are equally loved by God, do not have a fraction of what you have - That is reality!……Do you think God expects something from you in return?……I believe when we stand before God and our life is laid bare, we will see all the good we have done…And the bad too…But I also believe God will show us what we could have done and did not do, if only we trusted him more!……Gratitude pays it forward - It takes nothing for granted….This mindset only begins when we recognize the giver of all gifts….And it propels us forward.

“In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

I am the son of a barber and a school secretary…I have been given an education…..I was raised Catholic……Given a loving family…A safe and stable place to live…..I could go on and on about all the things God has given me…..But to be very honest, because growing up most people I knew had what I had - I clearly took it all for granted…..It was not until I began to travel…To see with my own two eyes just how fortunate I was…How so many people in this world - In many ways no different then me - Maybe even more gifted then me intellectually speaking had nothing, not a fraction of what I had been given……Questions began to arise in my mind….Why did God give me what he did?…..What does God expect from me?…..The answer was as clear as day - God expects a lot from me!………………….Many years ago I was backpacking in Vietnam….I spent 3 weeks traveling through Vietnam and Cambodia…..This is my first experience up close with abject poverty in the third world…….To see children in the countryside of Cambodia, literally barefoot and naked in front of rusty old shacks was eye opening coming from the prospective of an American, who grew up in the shadows of New York City…….As I stated above in this reflection, my father was a barber and in Vietnam, I saw barbers work on the sidewalk…They did not have a shop…They were very poor and cut their customer’s hair on street corners…When I saw that I thought to myself……That man’s son really is no different then me - Yet he was crazy poor…My father does the exact same thing for a living as his Dad and I have been given a significantly better life……God clearly loves that man’s son no more than me - Right?…Yet, I have been given so much more…..Now - If God is just - And we all know he is - Don’t you think God expects more from me because of all that was given to me?……Jesus teaches us this in the Parable of the Coins in Scripture…He tells us some are given ten coins…Some five….And some one….He then goes on to say that at the end of time…God will ask us what we did with the coins given…….Did we all “catch that story”?……Do we take what Jesus said literally? - Because we should……Be grateful - Pay it forward….Those who have been given much - Much will be accepted!

“Defend the lowly and the fatherless; render justice to the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the lowly and the poor; from the hand of the wicked deliver them”

Today Jesus in the Gospel attempts to teach his friends about what it means to be thankful…To live with gratitude…..Sadly, this message can get lost in our hectic lives…We complain…We live with unrealistic expectations…..We even demand at times……As all this goes on - We lose sight of God and all the good things he has given us……Sometimes because we are human and God clearly understands our limitations…..We are forced to “go without”….We lose…..We fail……One can look at those moments two different ways…We can become bitter…Or…..We can become better……Tasting defeat in life can be the greatest gift of all - If it leads us to God…If it makes us grateful to be alive…….God is the master builder…He is the potter and we are the clay…..Allow God to “open your eyes”…..And when your eyes open - Pay it forward - And be thankful!…………………….JMJ

https://www.holywaterbooks.com/catholic-men-will-save-america.html