“Returned to Give Thanks” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)
(To be preached at Our Lady of the Desert, Mattawa, WA)
Piety
And now, bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth; Who fosters people's growth from their mother's womb, and fashions them according to his will! May he grant you the joy of heart and may peace abide among you; May his goodness toward us endure in Israel to deliver us in our days. (Sirach 50:22-24)
I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and by him, you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:3-9)
And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you." (Luke 17:15-19)
Study
Our company gives out Thanksgiving turkeys to retired employees. All they have to do is stop by the plant to pick them up. A few days before the holiday, a retiree called to ask, “What time do the turkeys get in?” The receptionist, without thinking, responded, “Everyone starts at eight.” (Submitted to The Reader’s Digest by Ed Robinson, Warminster, Pennsylvania, November 2018)
Each Eucharist can become a thank-you note to our Heavenly Father who has done us a great service.
Over the past two decades, much of the research on happiness can be boiled down to one main prescription: give thanks. It increases positive emotions, reduces the risk of depression, heightens relationships, and increases resilience.
The Leper said, “Thank you, Jesus.” The return of this leper to give thanks at the feet of Jesus implies his conversion. His eternal salvation is equated with his thanks to Jesus.
And notice that when he discovered that he was cured, he turns back, praising God in a loud voice. He did not yet carry out the command to show himself to the priests. He spontaneously went right back to Jesus to give thanks.
Welling up in our consciousness and experience are two spontaneities -- one good and one bad.
So often the quick-witted, loose-tongued person who can be so entertaining and at the center of attention has to sift through these spontaneous urges to see if their spontaneity tends towards God and is thus from the good spirit, or is the spontaneity not congruent with holiness and Christ-like behavior and thus speaks to us our need for a deeper conversion.
By looking at our interior moods, feelings, and urges, which are the “spirits” that must be sifted through, we can tell which ones come from the good spirit or bad spirit. For example, St. Ignatius of Loyola was able to find God whenever he wished, at what whatever hour, though a test for congruence of his interior impulses, moods or feelings to see if it came from his true self. If it did, then he knew God’s word to him at that instant.
And if Ignatius could not find his congruent self in Christ, then he recognized the interior impulse as an “evil spirit” and he experienced God helping him go against that impulse. What comes from our true self in Christ leads to feeling peace, joy, and love. What is from the bad spirit leads to desolation.
Action
When we pray to God for Spirit-guided insight into our life we get this growing, appreciative insight into the mystery of who we are in Christ, and to see ourselves how God sees us, and we start to see each day all the gifts and graces that God gives us. We begin to see how spiritually poor we are, in a good way, and how gifted we are in our uniqueness. By this practice called the Examen, life itself becomes a humble, joyful thanksgiving.
We also must give thanks for the bad too. St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the people in Thessalonika: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
St. Bernadette of Lourdes also knew the value of giving thanks for everything, especially the sufferings and humiliations, as she shows us in her testament of gratitude. In her words:
For the poverty in which my mother and father lived, for the failure of the mill, all the hard times, for the awful sheep, for constant tiredness, thank you, my God!
Thank you, my God, for the prosecutor and the police commissioner, for the policemen, and for the harsh words of Father Peyramale!
For the days in which you came, Mary, for the ones in which you did not come, I will never be able to thank you…only in Paradise.
For the slap in the face, for the ridicule, the insults, and for those who suspected me for wanting to gain something from it, thank you, my Lady.
For my spelling, which I never learned, for the memory that I never had, for my ignorance and for my stupidity, thank you.
For the fact that my mother died so far away, for the pain, I felt when my father instead of hugging his little Bernadette called me, “Sister Marie-Bernard”, I thank you, Jesus.
For the fact that Mother Josephine proclaimed that I was good for nothing, thank you. For the sarcasm of the Mother Superior: her harsh voice, her injustices, her irony and for the bread of humiliation, thank you.
Thank you that I was the privileged one when it came to be reprimanded, so that my sisters said, “How lucky it is not to be Bernadette.”
Thank you for the fact that it is me, who was the Bernadette threatened with imprisonment because she had seen you, Holy Virgin; regarded by people as a rare animal; that Bernadette so wretched, that upon seeing her, it was said, “Is that it?”
For this miserable body which you gave me, for this burning and suffocating illness, for my decaying tissues, for my de-calcified bones, for my sweats, for my fever, for my dullness, and for my acute pains, thank you, my God.
And for this soul which you have given me, for the desert of inner dryness, for your night and the lightning, for your silences and your thunders, for everything.
For you—when you were present and when you were not—thank you, Jesus.
In addition to teaching us lessons, these trials are also sent to us as heavenly jewels we can use to purchase souls, or for some other divine purpose. I love this quote from Fr. J.P. de Caussade, from Abandonment to Divine Providence:
“All these monsters only come into the world to exercise the courage of the children of God, and if these are well trained, God gives them the pleasure of slaying the monsters, and sends fresh athletes into the arena.
“And this life is a spectacle to angels, causing continual joy in Heaven, work for saints on earth, and confusion to the devils in hell. So, all that is opposed to the order of God renders it only the more to be adored. All workers of iniquity are slaves of justice, and the divine action builds the heavenly Jerusalem on the ruins of Babylon.”
May we fully realize what St. Faustina came to know: “that in our thankfulness, true earthly joy resides that in Your love for us, Jesus, we find the heavenly harvest that strengthens our souls, until we reside in You, Jesus, forever.”
No comments:
Post a Comment