WITH GRATEFUL HEARTS

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his love endures forever.

It is now 14 months since I arrived in this country, I tell you that I can easily count the days I have spent here, but I am unable to number the marvelous things I have received from the Lord in this one year. I believe for all of us it is with grateful hearts that we are gathered here on the eighth day of our novena. The theme is: “With grateful hearts”.

What is gratefulness, why should we be grateful, and to whom should we be grateful? I am sure you have heard a lot about gratefulness, but let me add something. Gratefulness is a word that shapes the entire Christian life, it is "the basic Christian attitude" referred to as "the heart of the gospel." As Christians, we believe that we were created by God; we are strongly encouraged to praise and give gratitude to our creator. God is seen as the selfless giver of all good things and because of this, there is a great sense of indebtedness that enables Christians to share a common bond and to be grateful to our God.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Yes, everything that we are or that we possess is because of God’s loving kindness. Therefore, it is good for us all to pause and say, "Thank You, God" because we cannot be hopeful about the future without being thankful for the past and grateful for the present. It is only through gratitude that life becomes rich.

There is a short story: Mr. Tom thanked the grocery boy, for delivering a loaf of bread to him. "The boy replied: Do not thank me. Thank my boss; he gave me the loaf to deliver." Tom went to the boss. But this one said, "I got the bread from the Baker. He makes it, so he deserves the thanks." So Mr. Tom went to thank the baker. But baker told him that the Miller is the one to be given the gratitude. "Without the Miller’s flour, I could not make bread, he said. Tom went to the miller who told him: thank the farmer instead, because I made the flour from the farmer’s wheat. But the farmer also protested, "Don’t thank me; thank God, if He did not give my farm sunshine and rain, I could not grow wheat."

The point is: if a common loaf of bread can be traced back to God, what about the good things that I possess or that you possess? Sometimes we take our blessings for granted and forget to say thanks to God because we think it is normal to be who we are, and it is out of hard work that we have what we possess. We ignore that if we wake up the morning with more health than illness; we are more blessed than millions who will not survive this week.

We ignore that if we have never experienced the danger of battle, or war, or the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the starvation; we are ahead of millions of people who are suffering in the world.

We ignore that if we can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death; we are more blessed than millions of people in the world who cannot worship publicly.

We ignore that if we have food in the refrigerator, clothes in our closets, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep; we are richer than many people in this world.

Our gratitude should be an acknowledgment of God’s generosity to us. It is not simply a sentimental feeling; it is a virtue that shapes not only emotions and thoughts but actions and deeds as well. Let your thankfulness overflow into concrete gestures. As we come to God with grateful hearts, we are invited to be aware that not everyone has the same blessings. Our gratefulness to God has to be translated into concrete acts. Are you thankful that God has blessed you with good things? Why not use some of those blessings to help those who might need a hand?

If God has really blessed you in a certain skill area, have you thought about volunteering to use that gift for a person or an organization that could really benefit from your expertise? This is the lesson Jesus is giving to his disciples and to us today: To be great in the kingdom one must serve, as the Son of Man came to serve, and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave”. Jesus is telling us that it is not a passive union with him of sitting one at the right and the other at the left that we should ask for, but an active union of serving with him, being servant with Christ.

Our thanksgiving to God multiplies and bears much fruits when we let it overflow and reach others so that the world may come to praise God for the gift He has given us. Let us pray that the Lord may make of us blessings for one another.