1 For I am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God but by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been in vain. This quote of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, gives us a good idea that holiness of life and overcoming one s sins is always a possibility because "nothing is impossible with God." We have all received adoption as children of God by the Holy Ghost in Baptism. The normal fruit of this Sacrament in our lives is preparing the soul to follow promptly divine inspirations. Divine inspirations are described as motions of God in which we submit ourselves to His will for our sanctification and salvation. The gospel today tells the healing of the deaf man and how we also must work to open our ears to the still small voice of God by his inspirations. St. Paul admits he struggled like all of us to cooperate with grace and the inspirations of God. He writes, in his second letter to the Corinthians 12:7, about the thorn in his flesh that he struggled with a good part of his life. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. St. Augustine, St. Jerome and St. Gregory the Great were of the opinion that this thorn would have been St. Paul s struggle with vanity, pride or even purity. Our Lord s response to him indicated that power and strength in virtue should increase, and be perfected in weakness, and by temptations, when they are resisted. So what specifically will enable inspirations of grace to have a better effect in us so that we may also say with St. Paul that the grace of God was not vain in me?
2 One particular virtue that we do not practice enough and, it seems, only in times of happiness and prosperity and that is the virtue of gratitude: thanksgiving for everything that we have received and what we have been blessed with. The virtue of gratitude reminds us of where our strength lies and to whom we should draw from in times of peace and happiness as well as times of discord and discouragement. There can be no doubt that if we make it a habit of offering our gratitude to God for all that we do receive than we will be given more. St. Therese of Lisieux commented once in a letter to her sister Celine: What most draws down graces from our dear Lord is gratitude, for if we thank Him for a gift, He is touched and hastens to give us ten more, and if we thank Him again with the same sincerity, what an incalculable multiplication of graces! I have experienced this: try it and you will see. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God 1Thess. 5:18. Father Solanus Casey, a simple Capuchin priest, who lived in Detroit the beginning of the twentieth century and died in 1957, was the porter to the Capuchin monastery there and by his prayers and holiness he performed terrific miracles and healings. Fr. Solanus would tell people that they should thank God ahead of time. In other words even if our prayers seemed not to have been heard or granted immediately, Fr. Solanus obliged us to thank God anyways. This mark of gratitude will be pleasing to God since we accept that He will hear our prayers and we will increase confidence in Him who knows all things. The practice of gratitude often will free us from worry and concern because we give it to Christ and allow Him to fulfill His will in time. Continuing ingratitude toward God imprisons us within ourselves and closes us to His influence. This tendency to see ourselves as victims is very common today.
3 Self-anointed victims spend their time complaining, asserting and demanding because they have little confidence in God and they regard their difficulties or sufferings as someone else's mistake. Praise and gratitude are the great remedies of healing from this victimhood. We are led to the acceptance of life as it comes to us, even with the weight of suffering and disappointments. Thanking God also helps us to give up victimhood and accept responsibility. The me-centered focus of today s world can lead us to think we are somehow entitled to everything. As a result, we can end up thinking we have the right to demand without giving anything in return and without giving thanks for what we are given. Consumerism, which prevent us from enjoying and being thankful for what we have which always drives us to want more and more. Ambition, which can lead to a perpetual sense of dissatisfaction and unhappiness with what we have. Before all else, we must never forget that as parents we are the model that our children will imitate. We must be the first ones to live everything that we want to teach them. 1. Always smile and say thank you for everything you receive, even if it is for apparently small and unimportant things. 2. Take care of your things, keeping them in order and sharing them with whoever needs them. We should work not to be wasteful. 3. Thank others with gestures and actions, such as a note, a little gift, etc. 4. Every morning, thank God for a new day and tell him you will try to live it well with His grace.
4 Studies have shown that most people upon making an expression of gratitude found that it contributed to feeling "extremely happy" or "somewhat happy." A growing number of studies have linked gratitude with higher sense of happiness and a greater desire to practice generosity. This same study found that depressed persons generally have a negative attitude and are frustrated with all the bad things that are happening to them. For some reason, it is far easier for us to focus only on the bad things that have happened to us rather than good things. Depressed persons think that they are getting a raw deal from life and just don't have the ability to get what they want always. Gratitude, on the other hand, is uplifting because it recognizes that another person has done something good for us. Instead of a negative self-focus, gratitude has a positive other-focus and gratitude naturally pushes us to act. Depressed persons have difficulty of focusing and mustering the energy to do much of anything. As the world around us continues to serious deteriorate and collapse from any sense of gratitude to God and responsibility to Him and each other, all the more we should look around us and thank God for what we do have. It is easy to bemoan the state of the country, the decline of simple courtesy and natural reason, focus far too much on the state of the Church and what the Pope seems not to say and even do. Remember in comparison to our neighbour who is probably floundering because they do not have the Faith or grace, they don t know enough about God and their responsibilities to Him, and are suffering much as a result. Yet, what do we have in comparison to them: We have the Faith, God s grace and hopefully our active work in preserving it and increasing it within our souls, we have the Liturgy and our parish, we all live in comfortable homes, with clothes on our backs and food in our stomachs.
5 We still afford to pay for gas to put in the car to get us here from near and far. In comparison to other parts of the world, life is pretty darn good. Thank you God! Last Sunday we read about the tax collector who prayed simply, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner (Lk 18:13). Jesus tells us the tax collector went home justified while the Pharisee did not. In reality, the tax collector did give thanks to God because recognition of sinfulness is also a form of praise of God upon whom we completely depend. St. Teresa of Avila one day was so overwhelmed with all the favors and graces Christ had given to her and did not know how to thank Him appropriately. Jesus appeared to her and simply told her the best way to offer thanksgiving to Him was to attend one Mass. So for all of us here today we can do that at least once a week. To offer our Sunday Mass or better yet arrange for a Mass to be offered to Jesus in thanksgiving for all blessings received and all blessings to be given in the future; remember to thank God ahead of time.