Life is not easy right now – for some of us, things could not get any
worse. Our frustrations and impatience get the better of us. We avoid
confrontation for the most part, but we quietly seethe at being
disrespected or dismissed or overlooked.
Gratitude is a much more difficult attitude to embrace – it demands a
total recalibration of how we look at our life and world.
In his book, “The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the
Twenty-Third Psalm, Harold S. Kushner reflects on the importance and
blessings of gratitude:
“I read of a person who had formed the habit of writing Thank you on
the lower left corner of every check he wrote. When he paid his electric
bill or his phone bill, he would write Thank you to express his gratitude
to the companies that made those services available to him at the press
of a button. Even when he paid his taxes, he would write Thank you on
the check as a way of reminding himself (he didn’t think the Internal
Revenue Service would notice it) that his taxes were the price he
willingly paid for living in the United States with all of its benefits…..”
“Each night as I prepare for bed, I put drops in my eyes to fend off the
threat of glaucoma that would rob me of my sight and take from me the
pleasure of reading. Each morning at breakfast, I take a pill to control
my blood pressure, and each evening at dinner I take another to lower
my cholesterol level. But instead of lamenting the ailments that come
with growing older, instead of wishing I were as young and fit as I once
was, I take my medicine with a prayer of thanks that modern science has
found ways to help me cope with these ailments. I think of all my
ancestors who didn’t live long enough to develop the complications of
old age, and did not have pills to take when they did”.
The kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims is centered in a spirit of
gratitude for what we have received and the humility to seek to share
those blessings with others – and in that spirit of gratitude, we discover
the happiness that is centered in the Spirit of God. The workers in
today’s Gospel feel cheated by the vineyard owner’s generosity – their
resentment at their coworkers’ good fortune diminishes them and clouds
any satisfaction in being able to provide for their families. Jesus calls us
to a change in perspective: to look beyond what we do not have and
realize and rejoice in all that we have been given, including the love of
family and friends, good health, opportunities to learn and grow, the
freedom and resources to live lives of fulfillment and meaning.
Tags: 9-24-2023