Thanksgiving is the most uncelebrated celebration in our Church's calendar. Gratitude is a portal by which all other graces of one's spiritual life are given. It is the quintessential grace of persons whose basic life option is to love God first above all other possible loves. There is no love of God without gratitude. St. Ignatius goes so far as to name 'ingratitude towards our loving God' as humanity's first sin. It is critical for us to notice the primacy of gratitude as a focus in our daily Awareness Examen. We human beings are regrettably slow to acknowledge God as our first love, in a life freely given.
In scholarly reflections on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola we find several 'catch phrases' that attempt to précis its essence. One easily identifiable axiom is 'Finding God in all things'. Another complementary maxim is 'All is grace'. Indeed, all life is a grace. Each and every aspect of human life - every molecule of it - is inebriated with the loving Presence of God - of God, no less! God redeems our human life and permeates us with heartfelt awareness that we are infinitely loved although sinful. We are, like the Lord Jesus Christ, members of God's eternal family, if we but choose to accept the gift!
What is God's first gift if not the salvation of our humanity? It is written that 'God so loved the world that he gave to us his only begotten Son Jesus to save the world and not condemn it.' [Jn. 3:16] St. Paul writes that 'for those who love God all things work for the good... and that nothing can separate us from God's love.' [Rm. 8: 28, 35] These words inspire the aching parched heart of any person thirsting for life's true purpose!
The core meaning and centrality of gratitude to a healthy spiritual life is further highlighted with a story. The Masi tribe of the Sudan, East Africa, have an unusual way to give thanks. They bow and put their foreheads to the ground and say before their benefactor, "My head is in the dirt." When members of another African tribe give thanks they sit before that person who gave them the favour and say, "I sit on the ground before you." Thanksgiving is an act of humility. Gratitude is kindred to humility. True gratitude is an act of one who 'stands unprotected' before life (and God), and in fact this is how we human beings are to stand. We are finite creatures who depend on a spectrum of real non-negotiable human needs like food, clothing, shelter, security, a sense of belonging to others as loved, education. I discover and nurture all that 'I am' in, with, and through a host of freely given interrelationships of love. It is not possible to earn any life gift, not one. As totally dependent but loved by God in spite of our sinfulness, we cannot but live with hands open to other persons
Who I am is who I am before God. God invites me to live every moment of every day, so as to awaken with heartfelt knowledge my unique individuality as the beloved of God. God awaits my response to this sublime reality. God's pure and unconditional donation is not only God's gift, but God in person. God gives us Jesus Christ, God-made-human for us. Thanksgiving is a womb-like 'sacred space' in which we allow God to be God for us. God is permitted to self-reveal thereby fulfilling God's dream that every human being live united in a community of loving persons no less than God lives as Trinity.
Wow, I am left breathless but not without a sigh of gratitude!
Earl Smith, S.J.
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