Dear Readers,
For what are you thankful?
As we gather around our festive tables with family and friends this November 23, who will say grace? Will it be Grandma or Grandpa or will one of the kids be assigned the task? Will it be a heartfelt extemporaneous expression of gratitude or a recitation of someone else’s carefully crafted prayer found from a Google search? Or, will everyone contribute, going around the table one at a time sharing what each is most thankful for?
No real surprises, right? Things we are thankful for today are basically the same things families were grateful for 402 years ago at the first Thanksgiving when 90 Wampanoag and 53 Mayflower survivors celebrated for three full days. This is the holiday when we set aside life’s many struggles to give thanks to God for all the positive things, all the gifts we’ve been given. The items on that 1621 appreciation list will no doubt be repeated once again this year: Freedom, plentiful food, good health, warm houses, family, friends, and faith.
Might it be time to expand that list?
Ignatian Spirituality teaches the Daily Examen, a required practice for all Jesuits; it’s a thoughtful, prayerful reflection of the day with gratitude for everything that occurred. Yep, gratitude not just for the good things that happened, but gratitude for the good the bad and the ugly as well.
I was thrilled in first grade when a group of older fourth grade girls invited me to play jump rope with them. My delight was short lived, however, when at my highest height mid jump, the two “turners” suddenly yanked up on the rope knocking my legs out from under me, causing a headfirst plunge to the concrete playground. Not once have I ever thought about thanking God for that “blessing.”
It’s much easier to be thankful for a tax refund than it is to be thankful for a speeding ticket. It’s easy to be thankful when given a clean bill of health from the doctor, but it’s not so easy to be thankful when given a dire diagnosis.
Isn’t it enough to just accept our crosses in life? Must we celebrate them too?
St. Ignatius was not the only guy who insisted gratitude in the face of suffering is essential. I recently read in the New Testament, St. Paul implores the faithful more than forty times to thank God for every opportunity to suffer.
“We rejoice in our suffering knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance, character, and character, hope” (Romans 5:3). “I am content with hardships, persecutions, and calamities for when I am weak, I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). “I rejoice in my suffering as I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the Church” (Coll 1:24).
And “ALL things work for good for those who love the Lord” (Roman 8:28). Ah ha! So, not all things are good, but all things work for good!
Patrick Madrid said we’re like the small child who can’t understand how the parent she loves and trusts could take her to the doctor’s office so a nurse can give her a very painful injection; she can’t comprehend how today’s pain will bring about a greater, long-lasting good in the future.
Similarly, we can’t understand how God permits our suffering in order to bring about a greater good somehow, somewhere, sometime.
We can, however, with the help of the Daily Examen and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, prayerfully contemplate how the suffering we endure may actually be teaching us something, giving us insight, or allowing us to grow closer to God and to others.
Many, many books have been written about suffering — redemptive suffering, salvific suffering, suffering as a means of fulfilling temporal punishment for past sins. Theologian Lorenzo Albacete summed up the thoughts of many spiritual teachers when he said, “Suffering is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.” And a gift to be appreciated.
When I returned home from the hospital after the recess incident, my older brother told me he was glad I hit my head because maybe it knocked some sense into me, but I think he was just jealous of my exciting ambulance ride. But maybe he was right; maybe it did do me some good or maybe, just maybe, it did a great deal of good for those two fourth graders who at that time might have been well on their way to a life of crime and juvenile delinquency but were made to feel so guilty by Sister Mary Loretta and their parents that they reformed their ways and became model citizens who will one day be canonized.
“Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices. . .” for everything!