28th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C

INTRO:

Glad you are here tonight (today). Is not worship beautiful and impressive?

I did grow up with the steady practice of attending not only Sunday Mass, but even weekday Mass! Those of you here who do attend weekday Mass, wouldn’t it be something to see two young boys and their sister (with NO PARENT) walk into church, almost down front at 8:00am in the morning, every morning, for Mass???

All through fifth through eighth grades we went. We may not have understood everything at this youthful age, but the PRACTICE was made.

So why am I mentioning this?

I am mentioning it because of the cure of the Samaritan leper. He knelt, falling at the feet of Jesus, and thanked Him. For him doing that is really a metaphor for US doing the same; the leper is teaching us that WORSHIP of GOD IS NECESSARY.

And besides that, the First Reading too has a cleansed leper who worships and thanks God.

Worship is necessary, my brothers and sisters, and I am so glad you know that, but to understand our worship I may have to remind you that, while mass is necessary, it is also an expression of our Gratitude and THANKSGIVING for what God has done in our lives! Even the word “eucharist” is the Greek word for “thanksgiving”!

Today’s Mass is calling us to recognize that we too have been cured of our “leprosy” or in other words, “original sin” and that cure was done through the waters of baptism.

And it is because of that, no matter when it happened for you and me, that, we, each week are to be eagerly and eternally GRATEFUL to GOD FOR THIS, (and many other things, too!) and our expression then of this gratefulness is this very necessary form of giving God thanks by attending Mass.

You know, even if we did not have DIVINE REVELATION or the BIBLE, all humans could reason that GOD EXISTS and secondarily that it would be morally necessary to give God worship because we know he exists.

CONCLUSION

So, make the best of all masses you attend, thanking God for the waters of baptism, curing us of our leprosy that gave you entry into this beautiful religion.