Gratitude is a certain indicator of spiritual health. A person living in a deep relationship with the Lord is profoundly aware of the mystery and wonder of existence, the grace of God’s love manifested in the varied and gifted details of life, and feels increasingly overwhelmed by the goodness of the divine abundance.
I find myself asking the Lord less for favors in my prayer and simply thanking Him more for all that has already been given.
He has blessed, gifted, and forgiven me much more than I could ever deserve, imagine, or even dare to desire.
As we approach Thanksgiving once again, we pause to offer our gratitude and praise to God.
The Eucharist is our most normative and fruitful way to thank the Father for the gift of Jesus Christ and the salvation offered to us through His death and resurrection.
How different Mass becomes for us, when we take even just a few moments to remember thoughtfully what we want to offer to God on the altar today, both in terms of sacrifice and praise.
What particular blessings and graces did I receive this week? What efforts to love, forgive, and give of myself, what joys and sorrows, do I want to lay before the Lord as my oblation of the heart? How do I increasingly make my life a gift in imitation of the Lord, who loved me and gave Himself for me?
Being grateful is easy
It is relatively easy to be grateful for the good things we enjoy — the consolation of love, family and friends, meaningful work, health, food, books, travel.
Thanking God for His consolation and mercy, for the gift of the Church and the sacraments, the wisdom of the Scriptures, the incalculable gift of salvation and forgiveness comes rather easily when we really think about such extraordinary things that He offers us through faith.
All of this readily flows from a heart in love with the Lord.
It comes much harder for us to accept and even be grateful for the crosses, difficulties, contradictions, and sufferings that come inevitably to all of us.
We can naturally think that things should go our way most of the time, that life should be relatively pain-free and easy, and that the Lord should protect us from terrible tragedies and wrenching sorrows.
Suffering often feels like a divine punishment or, at least, a divine negligence. How could God allow this to happen to me? The cross is easy to venerate when we are not hanging on it.
Thankful for challenges
This Thanksgiving, I want to take the time to not only think about the blessings that I am naturally grateful for but to also grapple with being grateful for the people, situations, difficulties, and struggles that I just wish would depart from my life.
Can I truly be thankful for the cross, the one that the Lord, in His divine providence and wisdom, has chosen for me and calls me to carry?
Can I embrace the hard and dark things of life in faith, hope, and charity, and dare to believe that such unwelcome realities bear within them seeds of grace and salvation?
When I read the lives of the saints, they all appear to have spiritually crossed the great divide that stretches out between the cross of Christ and human frailty.
They accepted physical sickness with joy and equanimity. They suffered slander and calumny with love and forgiveness. They embraced contradictions and difficulties as treasures sent from Heaven.
Many went to a terrible martyr’s death as if they were going to a wedding feast.
The saints came to see that the cross was the sacred intersection of God’s invitation to share in the sufferings of Christ and their opportune chance to completely hand their lives over to the Lord, finding the freedom and joy we all can discover when we let go of our will, ambitions, and plans.
These days, there are plenty of things to have legitimate complaints about.
Anger, frustration, fear, and resentment can crush our spirit and spread their toxic influence into every detail of our lives.
Many aspects of our country, the Church, and the world right now need transformation, conversion, and help.
We must do what we can to help build a civilization of life and love, always dedicated to carrying out the will of the Father and seeking to be courageously prophetic in such a challenging moment, but we can never let the darkness of the world rob us of joy, peace, and gratitude.
This Thanksgiving, I want to be grateful for both the pleasures and the pains, the joys and the sorrows, the victories and the defeats, the consolations and the crosses.
God is in all of it, calling us to fidelity, trust, generosity, and surrender.
Despite our challenges and problems, life is still a beautiful gift from God.
I am grateful for all of you, the beautiful priests, religious, deacons, consecrated, and laity of the Diocese of Madison!
In the Eucharist, we are joined in love and gratitude. Serving you is a grace, blessing, and consolation!
Happy Thanksgiving!