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’ll thank me for the gift of $100 ... but you don’t thank me for the gift of God. Something's 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 it 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. How much is that gift worth? There’s no dollar amount you can attach to it!

Wow!

The Gift of the Eucharist ... which is God Himself ... is beyond pricing ... 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 few of you who do. But there are a great many of you 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 never said thanks to the Priest. And then I started to comprehend the immensity of the gift of ...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 ... But I’d go find him and thank Him: for being a Priest.  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 many years in Sales, I frequently traveled by airplane. I always prayed 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 ... they 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! Are you grateful for the safe travel you experienced? Did you thank God? Did 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 of the disease of Leprosy ... and 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 was a serious disease of the skin ... it was disfiguring and deadly. We 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, saying, “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? Would you thank your Doctor? 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 Confession. Do you thank Him for those gifts? Do you kneel down after receiving Holy Communion with your heart bursting with gratitude 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 gratitude 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 mine. But yet, your disposition of gratitude may well show up to the one who dispensed the gift. It did with Naaman, who gave 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 gave 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 ... yet Luke tells us that He noticed it, saying “Were not all 10 made clean; where are the other 9? Has no one but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

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. 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 you’d keep coming if you got $100 each time. In fact I’m quite sure you’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 ... so that even the people who sit in the back can receive Him. Please contemplate the Gift from God ... which is the Gift of God! And let it fill your heart with gratitude.

Beach Condo the breeze ...the view of the settting sun and the rising moon The delicious food ... the delightful drinks
Can we ever stop thanking Him? Which are you? The 1 or the 9? The 1 who was grateful? Or the 9 who were un-grateful?

The money that you carry in your pocket will make you temporarily happy the Living Lord that you carry in your Spirit will make you eternally happy. Tell Him how grateful I bet they’d feel they were getting something out of Mass if they got a $100 bill! And yet, they receive so much more than money in receiving God’s mercy & help! When people receive Holy Communion and leave without saying thanks to the Priest for bringing them the Gift of God then they don’t really understand the magnitude of what they received.