Several years ago, a Chicago High school student went to Nicaragua during his summer vacation to do volunteer work. He accompanied a medical team to a tiny mountain village. Life in the village was primitive. The high school student found the whole situation heart breaking he started feeling sorry even guilty for the condition these people lived in. He became homesick and depressed. One night as he was sitting outside in the darkness, he was thinking about his home, his girlfriend and asking himself why people had to live like this, whose fault was it? Why did God permit it? Then he heard someone move in the darkness. It was Jose Santos, the local schoolteacher, the father of the family he lived with. He sat down beside the student and after a minute Jose broke the silence and said: Isn’t it great all that God has given us. His eyes were staring at the sky and when the student looked up, he hadn’t noticed that the sky was lit up with millions of stars. Never had he felt so thankful for all that God has given him. Never had he felt so loved. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem when ten lepers approach Him, keeping their distance but crying out: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They are suffering, isolated, and rejected by society. Yet in their pain, they turn to the one person who can restore not only their bodies but their dignity – Jesus Christ. Here, Jesus makes a distinction. All ten were healed, but only one was saved. The others received physical healing; this man received something deeper – a healing of the heart. Gratitude opened him to salvation. This Gospel invites us to ask: Are we among the nine, or are we the one who returns? So often, God blesses us quietly – health regained after illness, a friend’s kindness, a problem solved, a day without worry – and we move on without pausing to give thanks. We have all been touched by God’s mercy. We’ve been healed from illnesses, lifted from despair, rescued from bad choices, and given countless blessings – from the air we breathe to the love we share. Gratitude is the bridge between a miracle and salvation. It’s the moment we recognize that the good things in our lives aren’t just luck or destiny; they are gifts from a loving God. Several years ago I visited Washington and went to Arlington cemetery to visit the grave of John F. Kennedy. Right in front of the grave you have a large plaque with snippets from his speeches and one of these phrases was from his inaugural address on Capitol Hill in 1961 – “Ask not what you’re …” Sometimes I think we have created another phrase – “what can everyone do for me”. We have become very self-centred. Because of all the challenges that we are now facing, we are  invited to live a simpler lifestyle, to live each day as it comes and to be grateful for having enough. Many times, it happens that it is only in their absence that we understand and appreciate how precious certain gifts are health, family, faith, community, friendship, etc. How many of us use the word thanks during the day?  Let’s never fail to appreciate all the good things that God has given us, and we have so much to be grateful for. Today’s gospel invites us to ask ourselves two things: To which group of people do we belong? To those who are grateful like the Samaritan or to those who are ungrateful like the other nine lepers. Second are we teaching our children to be grateful? May we never take our blessings for granted. May we learn to see, like the Samaritan, that every healing, every moment of mercy, every grace received is an invitation to return to the Lord with thankful hearts.