Love God. Live the Eucharist.

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Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, October 9, 2016, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

At the end of September, I was gone for a few days.   I bought a hat from where I was visiting. Tell me if you can guess where I was [Put on Mickey Mouse cap]. That’s right; I went to Disney World in Florida. My brother’s kids go to school where the Rider Cup Tournament was held, so they cancelled school. He and his wife invited me to join their family. It was a great time. Not so much about the theme parks, but about spending so much time with my nephews and nieces.

 

The odd thing about this cap . . . is that when I put it on, I feel goofy. I feel more playful and ready to have fun. When I left the parks and took the cap off, I didn’t feel so goofy. Odd?

 

As Christians, we don’t have a special cap to put on . . . but St. Paul tells us again and again in his writings to PUT ON CHRIST (e.g. Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27).

 

St. Paul alludes to that in the 2nd reading when he says that if we have died with Christ, then we shall rise with Christ.

 

It is like there is this flow of grace. That is, a momentum of goodness that God constantly wants for us. Think of yourself standing in a river . . . it flows all around you. And you can fight the river, or curse the river, but the invitation is to let go and trust.   Trust in God.

 

The tenth leper from the gospel is a great example of being in the flow.   He recognized the flow of God’s grace. He come back and to say thank you. Now it is easy to say thanks when healing happens, or when things work out fine. But we are invited to put on Christ ALWAYS, not just when times are good.

 

I wonder what the other nine lepers thought as they realized they were healed. Maybe they looked at their skin and thought . . . “Wow, what a coincidence, I met this man and now I’m healed”, or “Gee, was that lucky.”

 

The Eucharist is food for the journey. It is help for us to trust and believe that even in darkness there will come light. Even in death, there will be life.   I believe that God has great things planned for you. That God’s deepest desire is to be connected with you and to have you as a close friend.   But we need to trust God . . . . and it can start by practicing saying “thanks” in all situations.

 

It is can become part of your meal prayer . . . for one person (or everyone take turns) and say something they are thankful for. It is in the midst of depression . . . to still think of what there is to say thanks for.   In the midst of being overwhelmed with work or with a project . . . pause and start thinking of what there is to be thankful for.

 

I am always amazed when people who are in a bad situation (like a sickness, or a loss of a job) will say later on, “That was the best things that ever happened to me.” God always has this flow of grace for each of us . . . trust that it will always work out

 

We are invited to “put on Christ” not with a hat, but with our attentiveness, our trust and our gratitude to God . . . in all things.

 

The mystic priest from the 14th century, Meister Eckhart, says, “If the only prayer that you ever make is thanks, that is enough.”

 

 

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