One Hundred Times a Day

Homily for Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

St. Paul usually follows the introduction or greeting of his letters with a prayer of thanksgiving. However, in his Letter to the Ephesians, the greeting is followed by a prayer form that is common to Judaism; namely, a berakah.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,…”

One cannot help but be impressed with the repetition of the verb form “to bless.” I must admit that I spent quite a bit of time yesterday with this particular verse. I kept repeating it over and over again trying to come to an understanding of what St. Paul was doing with this prayer. I looked up the definition of the verb “to bless,” and I read through many different examples of how to use this verb in everyday speech. I have to admit that my preoccupation with this word was still rumbling around my head at 11 o’clock last night.

In the course of my reading about this prayer form, I happened upon a piece of information that further intrigued me; namely, the Talmudic sage, Rabbi Meir, declared that it was the duty of every Jew to recite one hundred berakah every day. In Judaism, a berakah is a formula of blessing or thanksgiving, recited in public or private, usually before the performance of a commandment, or the enjoyment of food or fragrance, and in praise on various occasions. Think about that for a moment. According to this Jewish rabbi, it was the duty of every Jew to find one hundred reasons to thank God every day.

I suspect that St. Paul would have been able to do just this. Despite the fact that St. Paul endured great suffering because of his mission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, I feel certain that he would have been able to fulfill this notion of thanking God for at least one hundred blessings a day. In his Letter to the Ephesians, he tells us that God is the source of every blessing in our lives. It would certainly be one way to make a difference in our world if we were able to think of one hundred reasons to be thankful each and every day of our lives.

As we gather around the table of the Eucharist, let us remember that it is the best way thank God for the gift we have been given – the presence of God in our midst. This is certainly the first thing for which we need to be thankful each and every day of our lives.