October 13, 2013
28th Sunday of the Ordinary Time C
Daily Mass Reading - Audio
Gratitude vs. Entitlement
Human
beings are so funny in a way. They know ridiculous ways to make
themselves as well as others unhappy even though there is no need to be
so. Today’s first reading taken from 2 Kings tells us the story of the
miraculous healing of a man called Naaman who was a valiant and well
respected army commander of Benhadad, the king of Aram. Unfortunately he
was suffering from leprosy, one of the most dreaded and disfiguring
diseases. At his request Benhadad sent him to Joram, the king of Israel
with a letter which read: “With this letter I am sending my servant
Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” King Joram had a
shock of his life – to cure a leper! He was sure that the mighty
Benhadad was looking for a reason to attack and plunder his country. He
tore his garment and cried aloud. However Elisha the prophet consoled
him saying that he will take care of it. Eventually Naaman was cured of
his leprosy. Naaman was ready to reward the prophet generously; but
Elisha refused to accept any remuneration for the divine blessing
granted for which he just happened to be a channel.
In
fact, we are all channels of divine blessings. We are stewards or
storekeepers of the divine treasure house. Our vocation is to distribute
the divine blessings in the particular situation we find ourselves in.
God gave birth to us and she is still taking care of us for a purpose
(Did I say she? Yes, it was not a slip of tongue; I meant it. As far as I
came to know, he is a she!), God wants us to be her representatives in
the particular situation in which she placed us in order to distribute
her blessings and gifts to her children. When I say her children, I do
not mean human beings alone. Every bit of creation, including our mother
earth is her children. Nobody else can fill-in the position that God
has created for us. Ours is a unique position, whether we succeed in
that role or not. Failing in our role does not mean that we can defeat
God, we can fail only ourselves. In due course, even without our support
and cooperation, God will accomplish her plan through introducing
somebody else to rectify our failures. If we play our role efficiently
we make God our mother proud and our brothers and sisters happy and our
own life worthwhile. Now what are we supposed to distribute? It is
already given to us - our time, our talents and our treasures. We are
stewards of these 3Ts – time, talents and treasures. We are not their
owners. These are given to us freely for free distribution – not to
hoard up or to own them as our private property. They will be with us
only for a short while. Whether we deal them out or not, they will not
stay with us forever. We will run out of our time, talents and treasures
sooner or later!
Now
let us have a look at the gospel story - healing of the ten lepers -
nine of them Jews and one Samaritan. All of them pleaded with Jesus and
as usual he felt pity on them and sent them to the priests so that they
may pay the tribute and get reinstated publically into the society from
which they were cast out on account of their dreadful disease. On their
way they found themselves cleansed of their repulsive disease. They went
home happily. But one of them, as St Luke says, “came back glorifying
God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.”
And he was the Samaritan. Why did the Samaritan come back and why the
Jews not? The reason is simple and obvious. The Jews never felt that
they need come back and thank Jesus, because they know that they were
entitled to get cured by Jesus a fellow Jew, whereas that Samaritan had
no right or claim to receive such a miraculous healing. In fact Jesus
deserved to be condemned for treating a Samaritan in the same way he
treated his fellow Jews. There is nothing wrong in the Samaritan being
grateful because he had no right; he never deserved to be healed. I hope
you noticed, at the very beginning of today’s reflection I said, “Human
beings are so funny in a way. They know ridiculous ways to make
themselves as well as others unhappy even though there is no need to be
so.” We are a funny bunch. By claiming “entitlement” we make our own
life as well as the lives of other who associate with us miserable. The
moment we are given something generously, we own it and later on claim
that we deserved it. To get and to forget is our nature.
It
was not because of any merit of theirs that people of Israel was chosen
by Yahweh. But the moment they were chosen they began considering
themselves special and above everybody else. This attitude of
entitlement we can see in almost every person. The moment a girl gives
her consent to marry a boy, he starts possessing her - dictating terms
and conditions. The moment a person is employed out of sympathy for his
miserable situation, he starts striking for better wages he is entitled
to have. Husband think he is entitled to have a better treatment from
his wife while wife thinks that she is entitled to be better cared for
by her husband. Parents think that they are entitled to get all the
respect from their children, children think that they are entitled to be
treated better by their parents. Teachers think that they are entitled
to be treated better by students, students too feel the same. Thus we
are all people of entitlement – only rights no duties! Nobody thinks
anybody deserves to be thanked for. Why should we show gratitude towards
anybody, even towards God! Is it not his duty to take care of us and
provide us what we need? Or why did he create us? In fact God should be
condemned for his partiality – he is extra generous to some people while
utterly stingy towards others! Why this favoritism and preferential
treatment? Why all were not treated equally? How can we be grateful to
God or, for that matter, to anybody else when it is quite evident that
in comparison we got less than others! We are entitled to have a better
deal than what we have at present. Dear friends, when gratitude is
replaced by an attitude of entitlement everybody suffers. If we replace
our attitude of entitlement with an attitude of gratitude, our world
will turn out to be heavenly.
Dr Kurian Perumpallikunnel CMI
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