Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 144, "Where are the others?"

“I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD." (2 Kgs 5:14-17)

Thanksgiving to God for all He has given us, for creating us, is the highest and best thing we can do, the holiest act we can perform. But our poor human love cannot reach to God. Wonderfully, in Jesus Christ God who has reached out perfectly to us, by becoming one with us in His death on the Cross, so that we our lives of thanksgiving-love can become one with Him forever in heavenly glory.

This is why to refuse thanksgiving to God, to reject the holy Mass by remaining at home, remaining apart from the Lord’s people. His Body on earth, as we offer the sacred liturgy, is one of the greatest sins we can commit, forgiveable only by the Lord Himself in confession.

 Let us not be like the ones about whom He says in the Gospel: “Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" (Lk 17:11-19)

Saint Paul teaches that witness is essential to love:

"But if we deny him he will deny us.If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself."