The practice of freedom: Leaning to live the virtues part 6

Gratitude: Receiving Life as Gift

The faithful follower of Christ learns to receive everything with thanksgiving, knowing that nothing is truly ours except what we have received from God.
St John the Baptizer says: A person can receive nothing unless it has been given from heaven. (John 3:27)
And St John writes: From His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16)

Gratitude begins here: life is received before Life is achieved.
Our breath, our abilities, the people who love us, the beauty of creation, the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of eternal life are gifts.
Even our capacity to work, create, serve, and give is first given to us.
The grateful person doesn’t deny effort or responsibility.
Rather, he or she knows that beneath everything she or he accomplishes stands the mercy of God.

Thanksgiving runs throughout the worship of God’s people.
The Psalms repeatedly call us to gratitude: Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.
O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, for His mercy endures forever.
In the New Testament, thanksgiving becomes the very heart of the Church’s life. The word Eucharist means thanksgiving.
At the Divine Liturgy, we lift up our hearts and hear the invitation: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
We give thanks as the Church remembers Christ’s saving work—His Incarnation, Cross, Resurrection, Ascension, and the Kingdom that is and is to come fully.
The Eucharist reveals the proper movement of human life.
We receive creation from God as gift; we offer this back to Him with thanksgiving; and He returns this to us as communion.
St Maximus the Confessor and St John of Damascus teach us to see humanity as creation’s priest:
called to receive the world with love and offer it back to God in praise.
Gratitude, then, is not merely good manners, but is the way of standing before God and His creation.

The opposite of gratitude is not simply forgetting to say thank you. It is the belief that life owes us something.
Entitlement says: “I deserved better.” “I should have what they have.” “My life should have unfolded differently.”
When that attitude takes root, disappointment becomes resentment and resentment becomes bitterness.
As an old school chum used to say whenever anyone complained: “Quit yer belly oakin’!”
There are, of course, genuine sorrows that should never be dismissed with a humorous saying.
Yet ordinary complaining often reveals that we have stopped seeing life as gift.
We compare our portion with someone else’s and decide that God has shortchanged us.
The righteous Job, having lost almost everything, said: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)
Job did not pretend that his losses did not hurt. He wept, questioned, and struggled.
Yet beneath his anguish remained the knowledge that his life still belonged to God.
Humility gives birth to gratitude because the humble person knows that everything is received by mercy.
Gratitude, in turn, weakens pride, envy, and the constant demand for more.

St Paul writes: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16–18) That’s easily read when life is pleasant.
But what do we do with prolonged illness, financial loss, betrayal, the death of someone we love, or a prayer that seems to receive no answer?
Christian gratitude doesn’t mean calling evil good.
We do not thank God because betrayal is good, because disease is good, or because death is good.
These belong to the brokenness of a fallen world. Christ Himself wept at the tomb of Lazarus.
We give thanks because evil does not have the final word.
We give thanks because God has not abandoned us.
We give thanks because Christ has entered suffering and death and opened the Way through them.
We give thanks because even what wounds us may, when placed in God’s hands, become a space of repentance, compassion, endurance, and deeper communion with Him.
St Paul assures us that God works in all things for good with those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
He does not say that everything that happens is good.
He says that nothing—not even suffering—lies beyond God’s power to redeem.
This is why St John Chrysostom, dying in exile after great injustice and physical suffering, could say: Glory to God for all things!
Sometimes those words can be spoken joyfully. At other times they can be spoken only through tears. God receives both.
We need not demand an immediate answer to the question, “Why has this happened?”
Some things can be understood only from a distance; others may remain mysteries throughout this life.
Faith does not always receive an explanation.
Faith receives Christ.

Gratitude rarely appears fully formed. The heart must be warmed and trained through attention.
We live hurried lives. We race from one demand to the next like hamsters on a wheel.
When rescuers search for survivors beneath a collapsed building, they periodically turn off the machinery.
In the silence, everyone listens for the faintest sound. Something similar is needed in the spiritual life.
We must sometimes stop the machinery of our lives so that we can notice the quiet mercies of God.
A few simple practices can help:

1. Begin the day with thanksgiving.
   Before reviewing your troubles or reaching for the telephone, say: “Glory to God for all things. Thank You, Lord, for this new day.”
2. Pay attention to small gifts.
   Notice a meal, a conversation, birdsong, a needed rest, an unexpected kindness, or the strength to complete an ordinary task. He who is faithful in little will also be faithful in much.
3. Give thanks promptly.
   When you recognize a mercy, do not postpone gratitude. Offer a brief prayer: “Thank You, Lord, for this moment and this breath.”
4. Bring sorrow into thanksgiving.
   When life hurts, we may pray: “Lord, I do not understand this, and I cannot yet see any good within it. But I trust that You are here. Do not let this sorrow separate me from You.”
5. Live Eucharistically.
   Bring your whole life—joy, work, failure, grief, hope, body, and soul—to the worship of the Church. There we learn repeatedly to lift up our hearts and give thanks to the Lord.

Gratitude changes our relationship with Life. Gratitude frees us from measuring ourselves against others and
teaches us to need less rather than endlessly demand more.
Gratitude loosens the grip of resentment and helps prevent sorrow from hardening into despair.
Above all, gratitude turns our attention away from the gifts long enough to recognize the Giver!
The grateful person does not possess a trouble-free life.
The grateful person has learned that, whether in joy or sorrow, Life can still be received, offered, blessed, and shared.
Gratitude is therefore not merely one virtue among many, but is the atmosphere in which the virtues grow.
The more deeply we trust God, the more freely we can give thanks.
And the more freely we give thanks, the more clearly we discover that all of Life is grace upon grace.

Questions:

What have I begun to treat as something owed to me rather than as a gift—and how has that affected my relationship with God and others?

Is there a sorrow or disappointment for which I cannot yet give thanks? Can I bring it honestly to Christ and say, “I do not understand this, but I trust that You have not abandoned me”?

Prayer

O my Lord and my God, Thank You for the sacrifices that love requires, even when it is hard or uncomfortable.
Thank You for the pain that comes with being truly devoted to You.
Thank You for the difficult times, the struggles, and even the times people mistreat me for my faith.
I know You use these hardships to clean my heart, strengthen my soul and body, and transform me into a person beautiful and pure, like gold refined in a fire.
Thank You for the gift of repentance—for showing me my missing of the mark and giving me a fresh start.
Thank You for filling my soul and body with Your Light.
Thank You for every good and every difficult circumstance in my life.
Thank You for defeating death for us.
Because of You, my physical death is not the end, but a peaceful rest from my hard work,
and the moment I will finally see You face to face in Your Kingdom.
Dearest Lord, thank You for the sacrifices of love.