GIVING THANKS – ALWAYS!

  Virtues are human traits of the soul which make us and our actions good. They help us flourish as human beings and as Christians. Jesus is the virtuous one, and we Christians follow him by the path of virtues. The theological virtues of faith, hope and love relate us to God, the moral virtues order our individual and communitarian life, and the social virtues, in particular, incline us to live together in justice and love, that is, in peace. The social virtues make our life with others truly human, Christian – and enchanting!

  Charity, or love, and justice are the main social virtues. Being just to others means giving to them their dues, their rights: what belongs to them. Loving others signifies giving them not only what belongs to them, but also something – or much – of what relatively belong to you or to me. (I say relatively, because in fact everything belongs to God who created the world for all. We are stewards of our “possessions”)

  There are other social virtues, which are connected with justice and love. They are what traditional theology calls potential parts of justice. In a sense, they speak of what we owe to our neighbor, but not according to strict justice. They are also close to charity, which is the social virtue par excellence. Among them, St. Thomas Aquinas points out the virtues of religion, piety, truthfulness, and gratitude. We reflect this time on the wonderful virtue of gratitude or thanksgiving.

             THE VIRTUE OF GRATITUDE

  The word “thanks” is a wonderful word in every language: salamat, gracias, obrigado, grazie, mercie, danke…!

   Gratitude,Cicero said, “is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all.” Bernard Haring writes: “People who possess the virtue of gratitude are internally rich. They know how richly they have been blessed; moreover, they continuously remember that all good things come from God.”

  Gratitude is indeed an attractive virtue which is rooted in justice and goes beyond it to express love. It is the virtue that inclines us to answer in some way a benefactor for her or his gift to us. A donor gave us something s/he was not obliged to give us and right away, from our heart rises the need to show our appreciation, either affectively (with signs) and/or effectively (with our own responding gift). Gratitude then is a benevolent response to a received and unmerited benefit.

  Gratitude resides in the will – like justice and charity -, which is inclined to acknowledge gratefully the benefit, gift or favor received. Gratitude is not merely “a question of courtesy, or good manners, but of a good heart” (Andrés Pardo). We can say that not merely the will is grateful, or the heart, but the whole person.

  What are the elements that integrate a grateful act? St. Thomas as Aquinas mentions three: The first is to acknowledge the gift received; the second is to praise and give thanks, and the third, to recompense it according to our proper possibilities and the circumstances of time and place (see his Summa Theologiae, II-II, 107, 2).

  What ought to be the measure of the recompense to be given to our donor? This recompense is not a matter of justice – like in commutative justice -, but a matter of affection in the donor and therefore in the receiver, who answers “a debt of honesty.” Like to any other virtue, there are also sins opposed to gratitude both by excess and by defect. By excess, one may commit sin by being grateful for the bad help received (he helped us do wrong); or by being grateful too soon as if we would like to be free from “the debt” right away! Utang na loob, a lovely trait of Philippine culture may also be gratitude by excess!

  We may commit sin against gratitude by defect, too. How? We may commit a sin against gratitude by being ungrateful either negatively or positively: Negatively, by not showing our gratitude; positively, by returning evil to good, or by criticizing our benefactor, or by being negligent in expressing our gratitude. (Cf. II-II, 107, 2-3).

   While the virtue of gratitude is a beautiful virtue, the vice of ingratitude is an ugly vice. Ingratitude is “the daughter of pride” (Cervantes’ Don Quixote). St Catherine of Siena writes in her masterpiece The Dialogue that thanklessness, with disobedience, is the source of all evil, or as Haring put it, “a sort of antechamber to hell.” It is said, that there are three kinds of ungrateful people: those who keep quiet on a favor received, those who sell the gift, and those who answer it with vengeance.

  To be grateful implies not to be ungrateful. The ingrate is “cold-hearted, lonely, and, despite his self-satisfaction, basically unhappy” (B. Haring). Should one continue giving gifts to the ungrateful? Yes, at least for many times more (“multiply the benefits,”St. Thomassays), but to one who is continually and obstinately ungrateful and inconsiderate, we should stop giving gifts, according to Seneca and St. Thomas. A lovely quote from Seneca: “The reward of the good deed is to have done it.”

             REASONS FOR CONTINUING GRATITUDE

  As human beings, we have to be grateful. Indeed, “gratitude is the memory of the heart.” Doubly so, as Christians! To be a Christian is to be grateful. We have to be grateful to all, in particular to those who share their life and love with us. We are to be grateful, in particular, to our parents, to our friends, to our relatives, to our classmates or work-mates or play-mates, to the poor.

  Above all, we ought to be grateful to God. Everything is a gift from God. In reality, everything is grace: “What do you have that you have not received?” (St. Paul). “Be thankful,” St. Paul urges us (Col 3:15; see Col 3: 17).

   We have to give thanks (eucharistia), to be graceful (xaris – grace). Christian life is a continuing thanksgiving to the Triune and One God: to God the Father, our Creator; to God the Son, our Redeemer, and to the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Sanctifier. “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever” (Ps 118:1, and whole Psalm; also Ps 92: 1-3). It is said that “gratitude makes Christians capable of the Eucharist” (Haring). After consecration, the priest prays on behalf of the whole people of God: “We thank you (Father) for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you” (Eucharistic Prayer, II).

  We are grateful to God for sending to us Jesus Christ, his Son and our brother and savior. How may one be not grateful hearing this? “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). God’s numerous gifts to us demand from us, as St. Basil tells us, “total gratitude.” God created us to His image and likeness. When man sinned, St. Basil continues, “God did not desert him. Our Lord Jesus Christ restored us to life again and in a way even more amazing…” How then shall we repay him? St. Basil asks himself. His answer: “He (God) is so good that He asks no recompense except our love; that is the only payment He desires.” The great Father of the Church St. Basil felt “dread and numbness” at the very possibility of ceasing to love God and bringing shame upon Christ because – he writes- “of my lack of recollection and my preoccupation with trivialities” (Detailed Rules for Monks).

  The prophet of Nazareth spoke of the importance of gratitude in his healing of ten lepers. The ten lepers realized they were healed when they were on the way to the priests. One returned to Jesus to give him thanks. Jesus asked: “Were not ten made whole? The other nine where are they?” The other nine forgot to say thank you! (See Lk 17:11-19).

  The Virgin Mary our Mother pronounced humbly: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” Her Magnificat is a lovely and powerful hymn of gratitude (Lk 1:46-55). Indeed, the saints went through life giving thanks. Through history, all of them praised God for all they received, above all for the gift of love, which they returned to God with their cooperating love: “To be grateful for love turns itself into love” (B. Bennassar).

Among the saints we single out St. Francis of Assisi, who went through life singing songs of gratitude: he gave thanks for everything, for the Redeemer, for the poor, for the birds, for the sun, for the grass, and even for sister death! 

St. Francis, the Poverello of Assisi sung:

May you, my Lord, be praised by every creature!

All creatures praise the Lord

Be grateful for his gifts, sing his creation.

Just before her death, Saint Clare uttered these words: “Thank you, Lord, for having created me.” From oriental cultures: “When eating fruits, remember the person who planted the tree”; “When drinking water, remember its fountain.”

St Catherine of Siena prayed:

O tender Father, You gave me more, much more

Than I ever thought to ask for. I realize that our human desires

Can never really match 

What You long to give us.

Thanks, and again thanks, O Father,

 For having granted my petitions, and that which I never realized

 I needed or petitioned. 

 

            LET US BE GRATEFUL!

 Virtues are connected: they help each other to grow in us. Gratitude is closely linked to religion, which helps gratitude be grateful to God; to piety that aids us to be grateful to our parents; to liberality, which help us share with others; to truthfulness, which strengthens us to be truly thankful to all. Gratitude gives justice and charity a certain charm and freshness. As a virtue in our will, gratitude inclines us, above all, to give constantly thanks to God. With the Psalmist we pray:

 Give thanks to Yahweh, call on his name,

Proclaim his deeds to the peoples!

Sing to him, make music for him,

Recount all his wonders!

Glory in his holy name,

Let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice!

(Ps 105: 1-3)

  To be grateful means to answer God’s gifts with our lips by praising God, and with our hearts and good deeds: with our loving service! The best way to give thanks to God is by loving him and serving the neighbor, like the mother-in-law of Peter: she is healed by Jesus of her fiber and immediately begins to serve him  and his disciples (Mk 1:29-39). Let us be continually grateful to the Lord.

Yes, Lord, for all that have been thanks! And, hopefully and prayerfully, for all that will be yes!

FAUSTO GOMEZ, OP