2 Kgs 5:14-17;2 Tim 2:8-13; Lk 17:11-19

How often do we forget the people who have helped us get where we are, as if everything we have accomplished has been solely our own doing? How often do we forget the God who has given us everything in the first place?

In today’s Gospel story, only one who has been healed thinks any further about God. The rest disappear from view, never to be heard from again. According to this story, only to this one, grateful person is salvation assured, for he alone of the ten had the faith to know that his cure came from God. He alone was thankful enough to praise God for the miraculous healing.

If we are to live fully, we must try to remember and believe that our life and all its accomplishments are God’s gift to us. And if we are witness to this faith we must share the gift with others be helping them reach the fullness of life. And, as the Jews at the time of Jesus had to learn that salvation is meant for everyone, not just them, we each have to realize that salvation lies not only in “my” way of doing things, but possibly in the ways of others that are very different from my own.

This is clearly expressed in the first reading, Naaman, a foreigner, is healed by the Israelite prophet, Elisha, and then proclaims that the God of Israel alone is the one true God. The author of the second letter to Timothy says that despite his sufferings for the sake of the Gospel, he will continue to preach so that all might be saved.

To be for life, to be for the Gospel, is to be willing to forego oneself and to be for others; it is to be ready to give up one’s ideologies and to look for the truth which is more than anyone can possess.

Life will continue to call us beyond ourselves, and it is not easy to get beyond ourselves. A great start in this process is simply to admit that we have failed and our motives are quite selfish at times.

 If this should cause us to suffer for the sake of conversion, so be it. If we hold out to the end, we will reign with God.