Simple courtesy facing extinction in Britain

A WORD OF THANKS

Lk. 17:11-19

I recently read an article entitled, "Simple courtesy facing extinction in Britain."  The author told of four different instances in which he had gone out of his way to be helpful, and not one of the persons whom he had helped had bothered to say 'thank you'.

My guess would be that most of us here can recall similar experiences.  You held a door open for someone laden with their shopping, and the person passed through and hurried away without a word of thanks.  You paused to let a driver puII into your lane of traffic, which he promptly did without so much as a wave of a hand or a friendly smile.  Such experiences are common and make us wonder what is happening to our society.  This kind of behaviour is not peculiar to our part of the world.

Today's Gospel reading tells a similar event in the life of Jesus.  On His way from Galilee to Jerusalem, He was met by a band of ten lepers, who stood at a distance and cried out for His help.  He instructed them to go and show themselves to a priest, and on the way they were healed.  Realising what had happened, one of them ran back to thank Jesus for healing him.  The other nine continued on their way and, as far as we know, never made the effort to show appreciation for their healing.

When Jesus asked, "Were not all ten made clean?"  We can see He was hurt.  If we were to tell those nine lepers who had been healed that they hurt Jesus by not expressing their gratitude, they would tell us we had got them wrong.  They would say, "You don't understand what leprosy had done to us.  We were outcasts.  We couldn't live with our families.  We lost our jobs.  We couldn't worship in the synagogue.  We couldn't mix in society.  We had to wait for food that would be thrown at us or left at a distance for us to collect.  We were as good as dead men.  Jesus had changed all this.  How could you ever think that we would want to hurt such a kind person?  Yet their very failure to say thank you did hurt Jesus.

We can be charitable to those nine lepers and say that in the excitement of the moment, in their rush to get back to families and friends, common courtesy slipped their minds.  It wasn't that they were truly ungrateful, they simply forgot to express their gratitude.

There you have it - ten men helped, and only one of them takes the time to say 'thank you'.  Failure to show gratitude is not a new thing.  It has been around for a long time, and in my view that proportion of one in ten has not changed down the centuries. If we have been guilty of being ungrateful it may not be too late to do something about it.  A late 'thank you' accompanied with an apology is better than none at all.  Anyone can forget, but we need to develop a habit of being grateful for everything, so that gratitude becomes as natural as breathing.  Children receive presents from their grandparents and their eyes light up with delight.  Grandparents are pleased that their surprises are appreciated.  But their happiness is complete when the grandchildren hug them and say 'thank you'.  How often children have to be reminded to say 'thank you' for a gift or to write a letter, but adults should not need to be prompted.

There are so many things for which we should express our gratitude.  Our freedom, the home in which we grew up, the school in which we were taught, the Church where we worship - these were all provided by the hard work and sacrifices of those who went before us.  We should be mindful of this and spare a thought and a thank you for them in our prayers.  Notice the similarity between the two words 'think' and 'thank'.  The person who thinks is the person who thanks.

People who are constantly thankful are happy people.  They are able to appreciate all that is done for them and the good things they enjoy.  The do not suffer from envy or discontent.

St. James says, "Everything that is perfect, which is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light." (James 1:17).

Life itself and everything that makes it worth living is a gift from God.  To forget to say thanks to Him is unacceptable.

Lord Jesus, help us to remember that a perfect way to end each day is to thank our heavenly Father for all the gifts we have received from Him today.  This is something we can do. It only takes a little thought.

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