Today’s gospel is the healing of the ten lepers (Lk 17:11-19).  There are several themes that one can draw out of this gospel.  One being ‘thanksgiving’ and how gratitude keeps the heart wide open as it acknowledges the extravagant gifts of God upon us, especially in our need.  The gospel concludes with Jesus addressing the one leper who returned to offer thanksgiving for the healing he received.  Jesus’ reply is telling us something very important on this journey of faith that we are all on. 

Right now, let us ask Jesus, like the apostles: “Increase our faith”.  To ask something, to desire something beyond our ego demands, what would this be like?   To desire and thus to ask from the depths, ‘Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord’…I cry, I desire for my faith to grow.

“The lamp of faith requires being continuously nourished by the heart-to-heart encounter with Jesus in prayer and in listening to his Word,” said Pope Francis.

Once again for this Sunday’s Eucharist we have very rich readings. In the gospel (Mt 14:22-33), Jesus leaves his disciples after the feeding of the multitudes and goes off to pray. The disciples, meanwhile, get in the boat and head for the opposite shore, without Jesus. Very quickly a storm erupts with strong winds. Jesus later starts out towards them walking on the water and they become fearful before this sight. Seeing their fear, Jesus says: ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’

In our retreat with Fr. Michael Dodds, OP, our second conference was on ‘the hiddenness of God’.  This hiddenness of God, the God who is unknowable leads, Fr. Michael said, to some people denying the very existence of God.  What I was struck by in this conference was the connection Fr. Michael made between the hiddenness and unknowable dimension of God to ‘faith’.