By Fr. Glenn Jones:
I pray that all had a blessed and joyful Thanksgiving this year, especially after last year’s separation from loved ones due to the dangers of COVID. We now pray also that this new “omicron” variant does not become widespread, but rather will fizzle out quickly. God bless all of you and your families, and keep all of you safe.
But … back to Thanksgiving and its theme of gratitude.
St. Thomas Aquinas—along with St. Augustine, one of the greatest theologians and philosophers in Christian history—noted that gratitude is not only a courtesy, but a virtue and a moral obligation, for through giving thanks we express appreciation to benefactors for gifts freely given, many of whom gain nothing materially by their generosity. Largesse could just as easily NOT have been given, so the giver is at very least due the graciousness and recognition of expressed appreciation. A corollary is noting also the disposition of the giver. Aquinas, referring to the Roman philosopher Seneca’s De Beneficiis, remarks that there is a greater obligation to give thanks for the small gift given with generous heart than a larger gift from a grudging heart—though obligation remains to both. Did not Jesus teach that what is given in proportion to one’s ability matters more than the size of the gift itself (ref., the widow’s mite story of Mark 12:42-44)?
On a personal note, I was gifted with seeing my “little” niece (47 years old, but don’t we tend to cherish remembrances of them when they were little) and her young children as they passed through Albuquerque the other day. It was so very gratifying to witness her young ones unfailingly observing the courtesy of thanking our server at our eatery as she herself was taught. Ah … it warmed the old great-uncle’s heart to see the little ones “brought up right”. 🙂
Conversely, St. Thomas describes ingratitude for gifts received as a moral fault—indeed, a vice and sin—in three types: 1) failure to return a favor received; 2) failure to express thanks for a favor; and 3) failure to notice that one has received a favor at all—especially if failure of thanks is due to contempt or pride rather than carelessness or negligence. So … get out those “Thank You” cards—a simple gracious act that says much about the beneficiary/recipient of gifts, for “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation.” (Samuel Johnson).
And yet, we ought not refuse a favor to the ungrateful, Thomas says, as God showers His own gifts upon both the just and the unjust (cf. Matthew 5:45), and upon the grateful and the ungrateful. True charity and love of neighbor, after all, should not look for what it gets back. Jesus addressed this as well: “…do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.” (Luke 6:35)
(I think enabling self-destructive behavior would not fall under this, however, for true love often has to be tough love and doing what is truly best for the person despite a person’s requests, or even pleadings).
God gives us the capacity to be charitable, resisting the temptations to grasp as much as we can for ourselves alone. Empathy for others is itself a feeling for which we should give many thanks, for it is in practicing charity and love that we perhaps most resemble God Himself—Jesus Himself—in having created us absolutely gratuitously, and for having given Himself up for our eternal happiness. God IS love (1 John 4:8), and when we practice love and charity, we allow God to work through us with His never-faltering grace. We need always remember, too, that there was no obligation whatever that any one of us needed to exist … that we were drawn out of oblivion, so to speak. We cannot help but wonder at times: Why does MY consciousness exist, and why am I THIS person and not one of the other billions who have, do and will exist?” And yet we realize nonetheless, as Rene Descartes so famously verbalized: “I think, therefore I AM.”
Existence itself is a gift par excellence for which we rarely adequately give thanks. But with this gift we are imbued with others, differing for each person … the talents that we are to invest not for ourselves alone, but for the good of others (cf., Matthew 25:14-23) … for the good of the whole of mankind (cf., 1 Corinthians 12).
There is, of course, no knowing the thoughts of God—He who says: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) How truly marvelous, how truly awesome, that He gave each of us our existence and the opportunity of eternal life with Him. And so: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…” (Psalm 103:2)
——————
Blow, blow, thou winter wind!
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude.
(Shakespeare, “As You Like It” Act 2, Scene 7)
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend!
(Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4)
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
(Psalm 106:1)
Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.