Master·evangeli.net
Today's Gospel + short theological explanation
The prayer of giving thanks
EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)Today, do we imitate the cleansed leper that goes back to Jesus thanking him out loud? In fact, only «one of them turned back praising God in a loud voice». Jesus finds the other nine missing. St. Augustine gave the following sentence: «‘Thanks God!’: nothing shorter can be said (...) or made more efficiently than with these words».
Jesus here, as in other circumstances, says the words: «Your faith has saved you». It is faith that saves human beings, re-establishing them in their profound relationship with God, themselves and others; and faith is expressed in gratitude. Those who, like the healed Samaritan, know how to say "thank you", show that they do not consider everything as their due but as a gift that comes ultimately from God, even when it arrives through men and women or through nature.
—Faith thus entails the opening of the person to the Lord's grace; it means recognizing that everything is a gift, everything is grace. What a treasure is hidden in two small words: "thank you"!
August 25th
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Gospel and commentary video
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