Do you realize the Gift you’ve received … God?
Homily preached October 9, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering

I have something in my pocket that most people don’t carry any more.

Do you know what it is?           Cash!          Not a plastic card ... but paper money!

Yes, I have a wad of cash in my pocket.

Well, actually it’s just 10 bills ... but they each have the picture of Ben Franklin on them … remember what that picture indicated ...

they’re $100 bills … the largest denomination bill printed in America.

And I’m thinking of giving one of them to...

each of the First 10 people who come up for Holy Communion.

And after you place the $100 in your pocket, then I’ll give you the Holy Eucharist.

Realize that I only have 10 ... $100 bills … so you people sitting in the front pews have a big advantage over everyone else to be one of the lucky ones to get $100.

There you go … there’s another good reason to sit up toward the front in Mass!

Now, after Mass, I’ll be in my normal place by the main entry doors

in the vestibule of the Church ... wishing you ... my family ... Good Day.

And if I were a betting man, I would bet that each and every person who receives one of these $100 bills will come over and say thanks to me.

$100 is no small amount of money.

It takes 10 hours of labor ... at $10/Hr ... to earn that much money.

$100 might pay one week of your rent or car payment.

$100 might pay one month of your power bill, your water bill or cell phone bill.

And so ... most people ... recognizing the value of the gift that they’ve received would be filled with happiness and would come up to me and say thanks!

Now the question I have is:

Why doesn’t everyone in this church make a point to go out the Main doors ...

and thank me for praying Holy Mass and distributing Holy Communion?

You’d thank me for the gift of $100 ... but you don’t thank me for the gift of God.

Somethings wrong with that.

The gift of God is infinitely more valuable than the gift of $100 ...

but somehow that’s not registering with many people.

For those of you who receive Holy Communion, you receive the greatest most valuable Gift in the whole wide world … for you ... have received God.

And what does the Gift of God do for you?

It washes your soul of your Venial Sins, restoring your soul to Baptismal beauty …

it pours Sanctifying Grace into your soul to strengthen you against temptation ...

and ... it renews the covenant that brought you into God’s Family ...

with the promise of Eternal Life.

Wow!

How much is that gift worth?            There’s no dollar amount you can attach to it!

The Gift of the Eucharist … which is God Himself …  is beyond price …

It is priceless!

And so, I wonder ... with that being the case, ..

why so few people come out and thank me for the Gift of the Eucharist.

There are a some of you who do.    But there are a great many who do not!

Most of the people leaving Daily Mass say thanks …

Most of the people leaving Sunday Mass do not.

You know there was a time when I didn’t say thanks to the Priest.

And then I started to comprehend the immensity of the gift of ...

both the Mass and the Eucharist.

And after that, I never left Church without thanking the Priest.

Now, not every Priest stands at the back Door, especially after Daily Mass ...

So, I’d go and find him in the Sacristy ... and thank Him ... for different things:

for being a Priest, or

for offering Holy Mass

for proclaiming the Good News

for his insights in the Homily

for the Holy Eucharist

for bestowing God’s blessing. 

When I began to comprehend the great gifts that God gives us in the Mass ...

I was filled with gratitude and just had to say thanks ...

certainly to God ... but also to his Priest ... that made it all happen.

It’s similar ... to a lesser degree ... when you fly somewhere on a plane.

When your plane parks at your destination gate and you stand up to leave:

Are you grateful for the safe flight?

Do you even think about how blessed you are to have arrived there safely?

Do you realize all the conditions ...  of pilot training and alertness and weather and equipment maintenance and communication and air traffic control ...

all had to come together to result in your safe flight.

Were you grateful for a safe flight?

Did you thank God ... and did you thank the Pilot?

During my twenty years in Sales, I frequently traveled by airplane.

I always prayed prayers for safety before we took off, and

I always prayed prayers of thanks when we landed.

And I made a point of stopping at the door of the Cockpit to thank the Pilots.

Most everybody thanks the Stewardesses, who simply brought you refreshments.

But the Pilot brought you safely to your destination.

He’s the one who transported you 600 miles ... at a speed of 500 miles/hr ... at an altitude of 30,000 ft. in the air ... and landed on a runway as wide as the interstate!

When you fly ... are you grateful for the safe travel you experienced?

Do you thank God?        Do you thank the Pilot?

This idea of expressing gratitude for blessings is the message of our Gospel.

Today we hear that Jesus cured 10 men from the disease of Leprosy ...

And, how does He do it?     He tells them to go show themselves to the Priest!

and when they did, they were cleansed on the outside. This clearly foreshadowed how Jesus would send all of us to the Priest to be cleansed on the inside (soul) in the great sacrament of Confession!

So they go and all are cleansed ... but only one man came back to thank Him.

Jesus takes note of this and asks,

 “Were not all 10 made clean; where are the other 9?”

Leprosy is a serious disease of the skin ... it’s disfiguring and deadly.

We also heard of it in our First Reading where Naaman, the Army Commander of the King, was cured of leprosy through the intersession of Elisha, the Prophet.

Scripture describes how grateful Naaman was after being cured,    indicating:

“Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.”

And he tried multiple times to give Elisha a gift of thanksgiving.

Imagine how you’d feel if you were cured of cancer!

Would you thank God?    The source of all gifts.

Would you thank your Doctor? The one who dispensed the gift medicine &healing.

Certainly you would ... because you’d be so happy to receive the gift of health.

Well, God is showering you with gifts all the time.

And the greatest, most incredible gift He offers us ... is the gift of Himself ...

in the Holy Eucharist ... and the gift of His Mercy in Holy Confession.

Do you thank Him for those gifts?

Do you kneel down after receiving Holy Communion with your heart bursting with happiness for the nearness and the grace that God has favored you with?

Or do you simply spend your time looking around and thinking of other things ...

waiting for Mass to come to an end?

Do you kneel down after going to Confession with your heart bursting with happiness for the mercy and the new beginning that God has favored you with?

Or do you simply say your penance and leave ... going about your day?

When you receive a Sacrament … it’s God’s work, not the Priest’s.

But, your disposition of gratitude should show up to both ...

both to God, the giver of the gift... and to the one who dispensed the gift.

It did with Naaman, who came back to give thanks to Elisha, even as he glorified God saying, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”

It did with the Leper, who came back to give thanks to Jesus, even as he glorified God in a loud voice.

So, when you leave Church without a word of thanks ... it makes me wonder

if you truly understand the great Gift of God that you have received.

To think that you’d thank me for giving you $100 …

but not thank me for giving you the Holy Eucharist makes me wonder.

Please hear this clearly … I don’t need your thanks!

Just as Jesus didn’t need the thanks from the Lepers.

Jesus continued to do his good work in spite of their ingratitude …

and I’m going to continue to do my work ... to offer Mass and Confession and

 serve as many people as I can … regardless of whether you say thanks or not.

Yet Luke tells us that Jesus noticed their ingratitude, when He asked:    

“Were not all 10 made clean; where are the other 9?

Has no one but this foreigner returned to give thanks?”

I don’t operate on your gratitude. But I do notice ingratitude … as Our Lord did.  

And to both Jesus and me it’s a signal ... that great work still needs to be done ...

to help you understand and appreciate what you are receiving here in Church … which is nothing less than ... the help and the healing of Almighty God!

Many Catholics who stop going to Church say, “I wasn’t getting anything out of it!”

Oh really …Well, I bet they’d keep coming if they got $100 each time.

In fact I’m quite sure they’d become a Daily Mass person!

When people stop going to Church it isn’t because they’re not getting a gift ...

It’s because they’re not recognizing and appropriating the gift that’s given.

It would be like giving a $100 bill to a 3 year old child ... or to

a foreigner from another country not familiar with our currency system.

They would take the bill and be neither grateful nor ungrateful …

because they wouldn’t comprehend what they were given ...

they wouldn’t appreciate the great value that was given to them.

The Eucharist is God’s Greatest Gift to us ... it’s the Gift ... of Himself!

He offers it to us again and again in every Mass … and He never runs out ...

there’s always enough ... even for the people sitting in the back!

Please contemplate the Gift from God …

which is the Gift of God!

And let it fill your heart ... with happiness and gratitude!