Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 24, 2022
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten persons with leprosy met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, 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.”
As a high school Principal and head basketball coach, this verse resonates deeply: “Stand up and go, your faith has saved you.” I lose count of the times as a teacher, coach and administrator that I must lean on scripture and faith to endure the tough scenarios that accompany my role.
In the famous novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, a terrible shipwreck leaves a solitary lifeboat afloat bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. Throughout the novel, the main character, Pi Patel, must survive alongside a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. By the end of the book, we learn that Pi’s experiences may not all be as initially presented.
In the end, the author states: Life is a story…you can choose your story….A story with God is the better story. I love that line. A story with God is better.
Our students in high school will write their own stories after graduation. Some will enter the business world, others education and many will turn into community pillars, religious leaders, military officers and even tradesmen and women.
Those worldly accomplishments alone aren’t good enough. Our hope is that they write each chapter of their story with God as a main character…integrating divine providence into the daily fabric of their lives. When this happens, we will rest soundly knowing that we accomplished our goal in Holy Cross education.
After all, a story with God is better.
Prayer
God, you have made us and blessed us richly. All that we have comes from you. May we never lose sight of our dependence on you and may our whole lives be a sign of our gratitude to you. Help us to give without cost just as we have received without cost. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is not a liturgical celebration, nor is it on the Catholic Church's universal calendar, but there are significant parallels between this holiday and the Catholic Mass.
The word “Eucharist”—a term that describes both the Mass itself, and the consecrated body and blood of Christ in Communion—literally translates to “thanksgiving.” In a way, Christians have been celebrating thanksgiving every day for 2,000 years.
It is no coincidence that both the Thanksgiving holiday today and the Mass involve a meal. Sharing a meal might not be the first association we may make when we think of going to Mass, but at its heart, liturgy gathers people together around the Lord’s table.
There are other parallels between the Mass and the Thanksgiving feast we celebrate today. In both cases, (in normal times) people gather from far and wide to share community together and to build bonds of connection with one another that cross geographic or social divisions. One significant way this happens is by telling stories from our shared past—at Thanksgiving we reminisce about family lore over a glass of wine, and at Mass, we read from the Scriptures to remember what happened to those who went before us in the journey of faith. Both Thanksgiving and the Mass send us back to our lives and into the world emboldened in our identity as members of the same family.
In the Gospel, when Jesus feeds the 5,000 and when he gathers with his disciples at the Last Supper, he makes four key movements: he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and shares it. The same pattern happens at Mass—the bread and the wine are taken, blessed, broken or poured, and shared. So are we who gather to celebrate together—we are taken from our homes and our places in the world, and we are blessed by approaching God together in prayer. We are broken when we prayerfully join Jesus’ gift of himself in love on the cross. We are shared with the world when we are sent forth from Mass to display the love of Christ in our neighborhoods and families.
In whatever way we are able to celebrate today, let us attend to the ways that we are taken, blessed, broken, and shared with one another. Let us give thanks for the gift of God’s presence among us in the person of Jesus Christ, and in the love we share with those around our table. And let us remember to extend our fellowship and love to those who have no table or community to gather around.
This Thanksgiving—and at every Mass—let us give thanks and share our love with those who need it most!
If you are in need of a Thanksgiving prayer to share at your table today, you can find several from Notre Dame to share from our prayer card site—try this Prayer of Thanksgiving or browse other prayers of gratitude here.