THIS is the ideal situation. Our hearts should overflow with gratitude. In the first place, because there are many, endless reasons to be thankful. Then, such gesture would make us simple, very human and ultimately united to God and the others.
A heart that is not thankful is an isolated heart. It’s a lonely heart that thinks it can live and do things simply by itself, in violation of our nature and what we actually feel deep in our hearts. It has no other way but to be unhappy.
A thankful heart will never be alone and sad. It recognizes the many blessings and good things that it continues to receive. And it knows where they come from, and also for what purpose they are given. It will always be happy.
We need to do everything to cultivate this abiding mentality of thanksgiving. We have to deliberately do this task, given the desensitizing effect of the flurry of activities and other concerns our modern world is bombarding us with.
Gratitude forms an essential part of our relation with God. It is the adequate response we give upon seeing the continuous attention and care God gives us. It makes us stick to the reality of our life. It keeps us from inventing a world unhinged from its Creator and from others.
More, when we are thankful, we exercise our heart in one of its most spiritual modes. We bare it to God and to others, and allow it to stay vitally connected with them. It makes our heart a heart of flesh and not of stone. It keeps us simple and humble.
When we are thankful, we open our heart to the workings of grace and the innate goodness that comes with our nature, at least that part that is still unaffected by sin. In a way, gratitude is a main language of the heart. It’s a major expression of love.
This is one of the main problems we have. We see people becoming less and less thankful. We now seldom hear the word. And if we do, we can’t help but notice it to be simply formalistic, just an external sign of courtesy, with no soul. It’s quite dry.
We have to make sure that thanksgiving comes pouring out from our hearts everyday. In the Gospel of St. John, there’s a little expression that can serve as a spur for us to be thankful, words Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman: “If you only knew what God is offering…” (4,10)
It might be worthwhile to remember these words, if not to say it often during the day, to remind us about God’s loving providence over us. To be sure, he continues to intervene in our life. He can never be detached from us, indifferent to our needs.
This is our problem. We tend to take all the goodness of God for granted. We are notoriously short-sighted and narrow-minded. We hardly consider anything beyond what our senses can perceive, what our intelligence can understand. We fail to be guided by faith that allows us to see the spiritual and supernatural reality of our life.
We have to see to it that everyday, we are conscious that we are always thanking God and others. In fact, we need to continue lifting our heart in thanksgiving all throughout the day, as a Latin phrase beautifully puts it: “Ut in gratiarum semper actione maneamus.” (May we always be giving thanks.)
A day without saying “thank you” is a bad day. It’s a clear sign we are quite self-immersed only, blind to the continuing proof of the goodness of God and the others. We have to get out of that predicament.
In the Gospel, our Lord was always saying “thank you” to his Father. And he praised the gesture of giving thanks to high heavens as in the case of one, a Samaritan, among the ten lepers who got cured and returned to give thanks to him.
“One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks… Then said Jesus, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’” (Lk 17,15-17)
We have to thank God for everything, including the apparently negative events in our life, because in the end, with God everything works out for the good. (cf Rom 8,28)
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