The Healing Of The Ten Lepers (artist James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum)
Today, we are taught a lesson in gratitude. We hear of Naaman the leper, the commander of the Aramean army, an enemy of Israel, cured of leprosy by God. Naaman, cured of his illness, rejoices and gives praise to God of the Israelites, stating that their God will be the only one he will adore. In the Gospel, we hear about the 10 men, whom Jesus cured of leprosy. Only one, a Samaritan, an outsider, returns in gratitude, thanking Jesus for having been cured. As a rule, when something positive happens to us we are genuinely grateful.
The second reading presents us with a different scenario in which St. Paul, imprisoned, is giving thanks to God. St. Paul is well aware that the only way he will exit his prison cell is when he is led out to be executed. Yet, St. Paul is grateful, he rejoices in his suffering. He writes: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David: such is my gospel, for which I am suffering, even to the point of chains, like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.”
St. Paul’s words reflects that of the prophet Isaiah who wrote,” The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. Yes, the people is grass! The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever” (Is 40: 7-8). St. Paul rejoices because while he may be imprisoned, the Word of God, in which all salvation is found, is not imprisoned. And, the eternal life in glory promised to St. Paul at his death will also be promised to all those who are disciples and followers of Jesus.
While there will be times when things go our way, there will come a time in each and every one of our lives, in which things will not go our way. In the midst of our own suffering, will we have the ability, as did St. Paul, to be grateful?
When I was in seminary, one of the assignments I was given to write was a paper on aging. In my research, I came across a beautiful, simple, yet very significant statement written by the esteemed spiritual writer, Fr. Henri Nouwen. Nouwen wrote that as we age we will undergo all sorts of losses in our lives; loss of health, loss of job, loss of our purpose in life, to name just a few. We have two choices to make at the time. We can either age into bitterness, or age into grace. Listen to those words again. We can either age into bitterness, or age into grace.
This past Wednesday, I had my 7th week post-surgical appointment with my surgeon. I was told that the knee replacement surgery was successful and I was on my way to being healed. I was grateful for the good news. I asked the surgeon whether I would be ever able to get rid of my cane. He shook his head and said no. The MRSA infection I got when I had my first hip replacement in 2011, the consequent 5 ½ months of having no hip at all, while doctors were trying to find a way to kill the infection without killing me, had atrophied the muscles so badly that my left leg would never regain the strength it once had. I would need a cane for the rest of my life.
As I was driving home from my appointment with my surgeon, I remembered another drive I took on the night of March 7, 2002 in which I was involved in a car crash on Highway 21. I was going to pick my son Luke up from vocational school in Eden Prairie when a car crossed the medium strip and hit me head-on. They had to cut apart the car in order to get me out of it.
I ended up with a high femur break of my left leg, and, as painful as that was, what was more painful for me was the injury done to my right hand. I didn’t know at the time of the accident that all the ligaments in my right hand were shredded by the impact. I knew my hand and forearm hurt, and all they gave me for that was a brace to wear. By the time the severity of the injury to my hand was discovered, the hand surgeon told me that he could only restore 60% of my hand.
I was a professional pianist. It was the way I made my living. From the time I studied piano at the University of St. Thomas to that March night in 2002, I was a professional pianist. From 1977 to that night in 2002, I taught music in schools, directed choirs, and gave concerts. I was the director of liturgy and music in parishes in our Archdiocese. That all ended the night of the accident.
I was angry. I was angry at the guy that crossed the medium strip and hit me head on. I could have been very angry and bitter at God about this loss. It was a huge loss. Music is what I did, and I was very good and skilled at it. How could God treat someone who had dedicated his life to ministry in the Church in such a harsh way? Instead of being bitter and angry, I found myself grateful to God. I found myself grateful to God for the many years in which I was able to play at that high performance level. I found myself grateful to God for the musical skills which he gave me and that had served me and the Church so very well for many years. And while I grieve and continue to grieve this great loss in my life, I found myself content. In the words of Nouwen, I decided to age into grace.
As I drove home this past Wednesday, reflecting on all of this, I found myself once more grateful. While I may never again be able to walk without the aid of a cane, I am grateful that I can still walk. I am grateful for all the times I once was able to jump, and hop, ran and walked and play.
This is my story. All of us present have our own stories of loss in our lives, and, if we don’t, we will in the future. When that time comes to confront our losses will we find within ourselves the gratitude that St. Paul expressed today in his second letter to Timothy? St. Paul could have been very bitter about his imprisonment and about his subsequent execution. Yet he chose instead to be grateful. St. Paul knew that the life he was going to experience after death, would be far greater than that he was experiencing as he wrote that epistle.
We are given two choices in life. We can, as Henri Nouwen wrote, choose to age into bitterness or choose to age into grace. As a disciples of Jesus, and knowing that which awaits us after death, let us choose to age into gratefulness and grace.
