Blessing others

In today's Gospel, of the ten lepers that were healed, only the Samaritan returned to thank Jesus. He was the only one who took time to express his gratitude properly, not that the other nine were not thankful (I would have been ecstatic if I were cured of an incurable disease). It was, as Father Romeo put it, the recognition of a moment, and thereby doing justice to that moment.  

I found what he said next to be very profound: The recognition of the present moment is the beginning of blessings.  By returning to bless Jesus with gratitude, the leper received yet another blessing from Jesus, the blessing of salvation that comes from faith.

For someone who rushes around much of the work day, I find myself often motoring on without recognizing the present, and thereby missing many opportunities to act with openness and love.

I miss chances to be available to others, and in so doing, to be able to give thanks to the Almighty who blesses me constantly and creates many moments in my day for me to possibly act with sanctity. To meet Him face to face.

Recognizing the moment and expressing gratitude must be done a certain way, it must be done joyously. Here is where something I read this morning segues in nicely. 

Doctor Edward Mulholland wrote this of the Pope's visit to Assisi on his namesake's feast day, that he "gave religious and all Christians a one-question conscience exam on sanctity: do you smile like a stewardess?"

Pope Francis was emphasizing to the cloistered sisters he met that a genuine smile that brims with joy best represented their humanity. He said:

“When one goes along the path of the contemplation of Jesus Christ, of prayer and of penance with Jesus Christ, one becomes immensely human. Cloistered nuns are called to have a great deal of humanity, a humanity like that of Mother Church. To be human, to understand all things about life, to be people who know how to understand human problems, who know how to forgive, who know how to pray to God for people. Your humanity. And your humanity goes down this path: the Incarnation of the Word, the path of Jesus Christ. And what is the sign of a sister who is that human? Joy… joy... when there is joy! It saddens me when I see nuns who aren’t joyful. They might smile, but it’s a flight attendant’s smile. But not with the smile of joy, the joy that comes from within.”

When I read this, I felt challenged for I am not the sunniest of personalities around. And yet, what best represents my love for Jesus is joy. When I think of Him, I melt. I smile. So do I translate this interior smile externally? If I do not exude this joy to others, what's the point of being good? Merely performing good deeds with a surly air and snappish, exacting ways sucks all the good out of any deed. Something I do quite well, unfortunately.

Now that I have been inspired to be mindful of the present, to give thanks with joy and thus be a blessing to others, the last piece of my reflection today is to bless others not just through my actions, but in bold words that speak of God.

Last night, M told me a story that Father Gino told retreatants last weekend about blessing others. Father Gino would unfailingly greet the bus driver on boarding a bus and give a farewell blessing to the driver before he got off. As he travelled a certain route every day at a certain time, he would meet the same bus driver, on occasion.

One day, lost in thought, he missed his stop. However, because the bus remained stationary, he looked around and realized that this was his stop. So he quickly got off. But the bus still did not move. Thinking he had perhaps left something on the bus, he went up the bus again, only to be told by the driver that he had forgotten to bless him. So he blessed the driver and the bus was finally able to go on its way.

Father Gino related this anecdote to communicate that we should not be hesitant in blessing others (the talk was centred on evangelization), even if we thought that others may not share our faith, for fundamentally we all want to be blessed by God.

So if you are reading this, I hope that you will be blessed with mindfulness, gratitude and joy this week, and bring joy and blessings to all you meet.

May God bless you abundantly!