Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman with the Sunday Soundbite for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I need to make a resolution to send thank-you notes. When people do me a favor, I’m always very grateful, and I have the best of intentions of sitting down and writing a note when I get home, to say "thanks." And then, something usually distracts me, and before I know it, weeks have gone by, or I see the person and remember that I never did send that note.

Today's Gospel ought to give me a renewed incentive to be thankful. In the story, Jesus cures ten lepers; only one returns to give thanks. That one is—surprise—a Samaritan. Well, the surprise is probably more appropriate for Jesus' original audience than for us: Samaritans and Jews did not get along.

When Luke put this story together from his sources, there was much more of a punch. In the following verses, not read in church today, some in his audience ask when the Kingdom will be coming. Jesus tells them they've missed the signs; people like the Samaritan in the story have recognized the Kingdom's presence and given thanks.

Luke would have us heed the words of Jesus: The Kingdom is in our midst, but we truly appreciate it only if we walk with Christ in his suffering and death. By embracing his way of the cross, we welcome the Kingdom.

I’m Father Greg Friedman, with the "Sunday Soundbite" for St. Anthony Messenger Press, on the Web at FranciscanRadio.org.