Homily

For the past few years, every once and a while, all of a sudden for no apparent reason, a feeling of gratitude and thankfulness comes over me and I stop for a minute or two to think about some of the things I am grateful for and to give thanks to God. Why this is happening, I truly don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. It is a wonderful and peaceful and uplifting feeling to stop and feel thankful and realize how much the Lord has given to me and is giving to me. And this week, during our retreat, I have stopped several times every day or two to spend a just a bit of time being thankful to God. I never run out of things to give thanks for, which also reminds me how blessed I am. It is never a problem to remember them.

These moments of stopping and being grateful have been a wonderful new aspect in my life. It’s not because I have never been thankful, of course, but as I try and make it a daily (or almost daily) practice it has had such a positive effect on me. We may often feel weighed down by the problems and cares of life. It could be because of illness or pain that we suffer, or it might be the worries and doubts we have about our lives or the lives of those we love. It may be that we are afraid of what is happening in the world, or what might happen to us in the near or distant future, or what is or might happen to family members. We may find ourselves struggling against sin and temptations. We may find that fears and worries have a great effect on our lives and how we see ourselves moving through this world. And then there are also those kinds of neutral times and thoughts that we live with. They are just about the ordinary things of life, and they don’t weigh us down or have a negative effect on us, nor do they make us feel peaceful and stable: they just are there, in a neutral kind of way. It seems to me that both the negative and the neutral thoughts take up most of our mental space on a day-to-day basis, while thoughts and expressions of gratitude have a much, much smaller space if they have any space at all in our heads, on any given day.

I’ve been thinking how bad that is, because considering the good people, the fine things and the wonderful events that are and have been in our lives brings a true sense of joy and appreciation for what the Lord has provided. Taking the time to be thankful to the Lord for His great kindness and care lifts up our souls in truth and gives us an important balance to our thoughts and the way we see our lives. Troubles, weariness, sadness, fear, doubts, anxieties, temptations to sin, these thoughts come to us so easily and so often it is no wonder that we may find ourselves filled with a desire to protect ourselves and loved ones as best we can, and therefore spend a lot of time and energy trying to ward off trouble however we might be able. It is true that we do face problems and troubles, and sometimes they are great or persistent realities in our lives. But without the balance of gratitude, I think we allow our lives to slip further into darkness and also put more distance between ourselves and the Lord, Who is the source of our blessings and not our troubles. We do not, and should not, struggle alone.

I remember reading a short piece by a physicist who used to be an atheist but is now a Christian, and he writes that the world as seen by atheists is a very, very small world because they believe the only things that are real are things they can see and observe. The atheist world has no place for genuinely understanding beauty, love, mystery, or spirituality. So their world is very small. I think in a similar way if we do not spend a regular time being grateful, we allow ourselves to live in a much smaller world, a world where ordinary life and troubles in life have the greatest amount of space and gain the greatest amount of our attention. When we neglect noticing and paying attention to the truth of all the good that has been and is even now present in our lives, we live in a small world and we do not see clearly what is real and what is false. We live unbalanced lives, and that can never be good.

As I was thinking about all this, I realized that I am in a good position right now in so many ways. My health is good, my relatives are doing well, I am not facing bankruptcy and I am not worried about losing my job. (At least not yet.)

Yet, I know that some of you are facing challenging and difficult times and situations. But, even so, I still want to talk about gratitude and thanksgiving to God, because even in the midst of troubles, there is still much to thank Him for. Even in the midst of troubles we are still in His compassionate care. Even in the midst of troubles He will never let us sink into the pit, if we bear our troubles with Him Who has done so much for us already. This world is not our permanent home, but the Lord God is forever our Father. Taking real moments to consider all He has done for us is so important to keeping a good balance in our spiritual lives, and, in truth, it always makes me feel better.

The virgin Mary once said to Elizabeth,

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior…for He Who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is His name.”

These should be our words as well because they are also true for us, we, who have been given life in Christ and eternal life as well. Though we are unworthy we have been given truly great things, along with all the other good gifts we can personally remember that have blessed our lives.

My friends, let us work at spending a bit of time every day in gratitude and thanks to our Lord for every good gift. It lifts up our souls, it warms our hearts, it clears our minds, and it points us, back again, to where we ought to put our hope, even as it strengthens the hope that we already have. I say during the Liturgy, “Let us give thanks to the Lord.” And you reply, “It is proper and just….” May it be our practice to do that here at every Liturgy, and a work that we do every day at home as well. We need to give thanks. Let's not deny ourselves this duty and this pleasure.