Homily

I don’t think I have ever mentioned this before, but every so often a feeling of great peace and thankfulness comes over me for a short time. Just a short time of feeling very blessed, very happy, very well, and very thankful. It’s like a tiny slice of being in heaven.

I consider myself to be a grateful person. I'm grateful for the many kindnesses shown to me by so many people. I'm grateful for a place to live, food to eat and good health. I'm grateful for the gift of divine life, for the forgiveness of my sins, for the Holy Eucharist. So I consider myself to be a grateful person. But how grateful am I, and is it in the proper measure? Am I as grateful as I ought to be? I don't think so.

It is not an easy thing to try and live a life that is fully grateful, truly thankful. Because it is so much easier to focus on what I do not have, instead of focusing on what I do have. And this easy, negative way of thinking involves how I see material goods, but even more importantly it affects my relationships with other people and, above all else, my relationship with God.

I suspect most of us would say that we could use a little more thankfulness in our lives, but how much more should we be looking for or working at? That's a good question and I don't have a complete answer, but I do think there are some ways in which we can test ourselves to see if we ought to make room for more thankfulness in our lives. (1) How much time, effort, thought and work do I invest into gaining or improving material goods that are not essential to life? There's nothing wrong with a new car or a remodeled kitchen, of course, but at the same time, how much do I put of myself into material goods and how important are they in my daily life? (2) How easy is it for me to become irritated, frustrated, or angry? There are, of course, irritating, frustrating and anger-provoking people and events in daily life, but how easy is it for me to become disturbed by them, and how often and how much do they affect my attitude and behavior? (3) I pray to the Lord for the things I need and want. How much of my prayer time is spent thanking the Lord for what I already have?

I think that living in gratitude is not only about the realization and acceptance that this life is not meant to be heaven, it's also about the way we value the people and the goods in our lives, and where do we see the Lord fitting into all of that? It is also about how and where I am looking for satisfaction and fulfillment; what do I hunger for and what will it take to satisfy me? If my way of thinking is repeatedly showing me what is insufficient, lacking, irritating, distressing, worrisome, frustrating, dangerous and undesirable, I think it's safe to say there is room for more thankfulness in my life. If I am able to more clearly see the many faults of the people I live and work with than I see their good points, there is room for more thankfulness in my life. If I find that I'm not spending much time talking to God because there is so much to do that I just don't have the time for prayer, there may be a need for more thankfulness in my life.

It seems to me that a lack of gratitude reflects more self-centered way of living and thinking where we try to do and get for ourselves, because God may not give it to me, and other people may not act the way I want them to act, and I don’t have the stuff I want to have, and that’s why I can’t be satisfied.

Living in gratitude is an accurate and honest realization that it is not all about me. I have been given a great deal and it has come from other hands, and it has not been because I am so deserving, but rather it was given to me in love, or in kindness, or in generosity or in goodness. I do not have all that I have because of my own doing, and I am not the person I am simply because of my own doing, but because other people have also given to me and sometimes they are the ones I first turn against when I am not feeling satisfied. Even more than that, the very life that I live is a gift from God, Who has also offered to me the gift of eternal life and adopted me as a son in the waters of baptism. He, as well, calls me to His banquet table for a feast I could never afford to pay for, and certainly not a feast that I deserve, and He promises to give me all the help I truly need to find my way to that celebration and take my seat in glory. Why am I so tempted to think I must have it all now? Why am I not more thankful for all the good that fills my life even today?

Living in gratitude is not a denial of the troubles and sorrows of life in this world. Certainly those things are also a part of our lives. But I think of St. Paul and all his many pains and sufferings, both physically and emotionally and even his spiritual struggles—and yet what consistently comes out in his letters is a great spirit of gratitude towards God, and also towards his fellow Christians. He lived and he died very much aware that he was in possession of the greatest of all gifts. I pray that all of us may keep growing in that same way, giving thanks to God for all things, even today at this Liturgy.