There is a story Jesus told about ten lepers who came to him for healing. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. The priests were those who examined folk to make sure they were ritually clean before entering the temple. Leprosy made you ceremonially unclean. As the ten lepers went their way, they were made clean. They were healed of their leprosy. Yet, only one came back to thank Jesus for his healing. This one was not only a leper, but an outsider too. He was a Samaritan, not one of the chosen people. Jesus commended his rust in God.
The story is rich in meaning at many levels.
I want to comment on the healed leper’s thankfulness.
In our Way of Living of the Lindisfarne Community, we commend the practice of mindfulness. This is a rich practice that includes as a main element finding God in all things and being thankful.
There are two ways to think of being thankful. The first is thankfulness as spontaneous emotion. This happens when something good comes your way and you are flooded with the emotion of gratefulness. You express it more often than not with a phrase like “Thank you, so much!” or “I can’t believe it. Thank you!” It is a spontaneous verbal ejaculation born of a deep feeling. The second is thankfulness as practice. A practice is a way of living born of habit. It is what we have in mind when we teach children to say “Thank you!” when they receive something. The parent repeats again and again, “What do you say?” The childe responds “Thank you.” In process of time, the habit builds into a practice that shapes the life and character of the child. It is not spontaneous, but habitual. Both types of being thankful, the spontaneous, joy-filled thanks and the habitual practice of being thankful for all that is given to us, are necessary for a balanced life. The leper who returned to Jesus probably had both kinds of thankfulness. He was truly and spontaneously thankful to be made clean. Yet, perhaps he had built a pattern of thankfulness into his life and he returned to Jesus to express his thanks. Of course, we could not know for certain.
Why we thankful?
a) Thankfulness is major part of well-being. It is hard to say, “Thank you!” without a smile. It creates inner well-being, inner harmony. When our inner harmony is missing we are miserable. Who wants to be miserable?
b) Being thankful implies that you care—the healed leper cared enough to find out Jesus. Caring is the foundation of the moral life. There has been much creative scholarship (mostly feminist) on caring as a basis of morality. When we care for others (humans, nonhumans, the environment) then we more often act in the right way toward them. It would be difficult to kill someone you care for. If you care for Gaia, Mother Nature, you will be less likely to use and abuse her.
c) Thankfulness implies relationship—the healed leper wants to talk to Jesus, to express his thanks, to have the beginning of relationship. Martin Buber, Jewish philosopher and theologian, spoke of relationship as “I-Thou” and “I-It.” “I-Thou” is a subject-to-subject relationship. “I-It” is a subject-to-object relationship. “I-It” is when you do not respect the subjectivity of the other: you use them. “I-Thou” is when you have face-to-face relationship and respect the other as subject. Being thankful is an “I-Thou” relationship.
If we think of thankfulness as for our own well-being, as a way of caring (hence the basis of morality) and as the way of relationship, then it is clear how important the practice of being thankful is.
How do we develop it?
In much the same way that our parents first taught is thankfulness. We need to make it a habit. To wake each morning and to remember to be thankful. At first any habit needs careful remembrance. I have recently taken to playing the ukulele. I have been a guitar player for 34 years. My fingers had formed the practice of playing the guitar, knowing where the frets are; knowing the length of the fingerboard. Having practiced guitar for 34 years, you do not need to look at the fingerboard. To change to the ukulele (a much smaller instrument) was at first quite strange. My fingers needed to learn a new practice. There were many errors. Fingers in the wrong place. Discordant notes. Yet, practice makes it once again “second nature.” (I am not yet at that point on the ukulele!)
To train us in being thankful will make thankfulness “second nature.” As it becomes such, then our well-being will increase, we will find ourselves as those who care and we will build better relationships.
+Ab. Andy
The story is rich in meaning at many levels.
I want to comment on the healed leper’s thankfulness.
In our Way of Living of the Lindisfarne Community, we commend the practice of mindfulness. This is a rich practice that includes as a main element finding God in all things and being thankful.
There are two ways to think of being thankful. The first is thankfulness as spontaneous emotion. This happens when something good comes your way and you are flooded with the emotion of gratefulness. You express it more often than not with a phrase like “Thank you, so much!” or “I can’t believe it. Thank you!” It is a spontaneous verbal ejaculation born of a deep feeling. The second is thankfulness as practice. A practice is a way of living born of habit. It is what we have in mind when we teach children to say “Thank you!” when they receive something. The parent repeats again and again, “What do you say?” The childe responds “Thank you.” In process of time, the habit builds into a practice that shapes the life and character of the child. It is not spontaneous, but habitual. Both types of being thankful, the spontaneous, joy-filled thanks and the habitual practice of being thankful for all that is given to us, are necessary for a balanced life. The leper who returned to Jesus probably had both kinds of thankfulness. He was truly and spontaneously thankful to be made clean. Yet, perhaps he had built a pattern of thankfulness into his life and he returned to Jesus to express his thanks. Of course, we could not know for certain.
Why we thankful?
a) Thankfulness is major part of well-being. It is hard to say, “Thank you!” without a smile. It creates inner well-being, inner harmony. When our inner harmony is missing we are miserable. Who wants to be miserable?
b) Being thankful implies that you care—the healed leper cared enough to find out Jesus. Caring is the foundation of the moral life. There has been much creative scholarship (mostly feminist) on caring as a basis of morality. When we care for others (humans, nonhumans, the environment) then we more often act in the right way toward them. It would be difficult to kill someone you care for. If you care for Gaia, Mother Nature, you will be less likely to use and abuse her.
c) Thankfulness implies relationship—the healed leper wants to talk to Jesus, to express his thanks, to have the beginning of relationship. Martin Buber, Jewish philosopher and theologian, spoke of relationship as “I-Thou” and “I-It.” “I-Thou” is a subject-to-subject relationship. “I-It” is a subject-to-object relationship. “I-It” is when you do not respect the subjectivity of the other: you use them. “I-Thou” is when you have face-to-face relationship and respect the other as subject. Being thankful is an “I-Thou” relationship.
If we think of thankfulness as for our own well-being, as a way of caring (hence the basis of morality) and as the way of relationship, then it is clear how important the practice of being thankful is.
How do we develop it?
In much the same way that our parents first taught is thankfulness. We need to make it a habit. To wake each morning and to remember to be thankful. At first any habit needs careful remembrance. I have recently taken to playing the ukulele. I have been a guitar player for 34 years. My fingers had formed the practice of playing the guitar, knowing where the frets are; knowing the length of the fingerboard. Having practiced guitar for 34 years, you do not need to look at the fingerboard. To change to the ukulele (a much smaller instrument) was at first quite strange. My fingers needed to learn a new practice. There were many errors. Fingers in the wrong place. Discordant notes. Yet, practice makes it once again “second nature.” (I am not yet at that point on the ukulele!)
To train us in being thankful will make thankfulness “second nature.” As it becomes such, then our well-being will increase, we will find ourselves as those who care and we will build better relationships.
+Ab. Andy