Of the Sentiment of Gratitude and Thanksgiving

H1E fourth sentiment that we should excite in prayer and meditation on the Passion is that of thanksgiving.

St. Augustine says: “What better thing can we have in our mind, utter with our lips, write with our pen than Deo gratias? Nothing can be shorter to say, more joyful to hear, more lofty to understand, more profitable to do than this.” God sets such store by this gratitude and giving of thanks that, whenever He did any singular favor to His people, He at once required them to sing Him a song of praise. Jmmolate to the Lord a sacrifice of praise (Psalm xlix. 14). Scripture we find full of the canticles that the saints and children of Israel composed in thanksgiving for the benefits they had received at the hand of the Lord. St. Jerome says that it was a tradition of the Hebrews that the sickness which befell King Ezechias and brought him to the gates of death was because, on occasion of that so signal and miraculous victory which God had given him over the Assyrians, when the angel of the Lord slew one hundred and eighty thousand of them in one night, he had not sung to God a song of praise as others had been wont to do for similar favors. Speaking of the ten lepers whom Christ healed, St. Augustine well reflects how the Redeemer of the world praised the one who returned to give thanks for the benefit received and blamed the rest who had been ungrateful and thankless. Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is none found to return and give glory to God but this stranger (Luke xvii. 17-18). Let us, then, not be ungrateful for the benefits that we have received at the hand of God, and especially for this greatest of benefits, that He has made Himself man and laid Himself on the Cross for us. Forget not the benefit done thee by thy surety, for he has given his life for thee, says the Wise Man (Ecclus. xxix. 19). Christ came forward as our surety and made payment on our behalf, giving His lifeblood for that purpose; it is reasonable that we should not forget so great a boon and blessing, but be grateful for it.

St. Thomas, treating of gratitude, says that thanks may be paid in three ways: first, interiorly in the heart, recognizing and esteeming the greatness of the benefit and holding oneself much bounden to the benefactor; secondly, by praising and thanking him in words; thirdly, by recompensing the benefit in deeds according to the capacity of the recipient. In all these ways we ought to practise thanksgiving for every mystery of the Passion. First, by recognizing in our heart the greatness of such many excellent benefits as are contained in every mystery and esteeming them much, studying in detail all the circumstances and all the blessings that thereby have come to us and shall come to us for eternity, and acknowledging and confessing our obligation to make perpetual return for them with all our strength. Secondly, by praising and glorifying God also with our lips and desiring that all creation should aid us in praising Him and thanking Him for them, according to St. Paul: Through him, therefore, let us offer a sacrifice of praise ever to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing to his name (Heb. xiii. 15). Thirdly, by endeavoring to correspond in deeds to such benefits, offering and resigning to Him our whole heart.

St. Bernard says that on every mystery that we consider we should make account that Christ our Redeemer speaks to us those words which He said to His disciples after having washed their feet: Do ye know what I have done for you? (John xiii. 12). Do you understand this mystery? Do you understand this benefit of creation, of redemption, of vocation? Oh, how far are we from knowing or understanding what God has done for us! For if I did know and seriously reflect that Thou, O Lord, God as Thou art, hast become man for me, and laid Thyself on a cross for me, there would be need of no other motive for me to melt away in Thy love and give over to Thee my whole heart. That would be true gratitude.

Here St. Chrysostom makes a very profitable observation. He says that it is the affection and sentiment of a faithful servant to esteem and be grateful for the Lord’s benefits that are common to all as though they were done to himself alone, and he alone were indebted for them and obliged to make a return for them all. So did the Apostle St. Paul, when he said: Who hath loved me, and given himself up for me (Gal. ii. 20). He had good reason for saying this, and we may say the same, says St. Chrysostom, since the benefit does as much good to me as if it had been conferred on me alone. The sun’s light lights my path as much as if it lit mine alone, and its giving light to others is no diminution of the gift to me, but rather an increase, since in lighting the way for others it gives me company to aid and comfort me and do me good. So God’s having become man and suffered death on the Cross is as beneficial to me as if it had been done for me only; its profiting others is no diminution of my profit, but rather a great increase, since it gives me companions to love me and cheer me and aid me to merit and increase my glory in heaven.

Furthermore, the love of God for each one is as great as if He had him alone to love, and no one else. So far as Christ’s will and love went, He was willing to suffer and work these mysteries for each one, if it were necessary, as for all. In fact, says St. Chrysostom, Christ’s love was so great that He would not have refused to do for one individual what He did for the whole world. Moreover, it is true that God bore us in mind individually and had me present before His eyes when He made Himself man and when He died on the Cross. I have loved thee with perpetual love (Jer. xxxi. 3). He counted the cost of His death well spent to give me life. Thus each one should consider the mysteries and benefits of the Lord as though they had been wrought for him alone. The love, also, which gave rise to the benefit should be regarded by each one as though he had been the only object of God’s love. Each should say with St. Paul: He hath loved me and given himself up to death for me. Considered in this way, the benefits and the love from which they proceeded will awaken in our soul great gratitude and great love for Him who has loved us ever with a perpetual love.

The saints add that God’s asking us to return thanks for His benefits is not because He has any need of our gratitude, but it is all for our greater good and advantage, for in this way we make ourselves worthy of new benefits. St. Bernard says that ingratitude and forgetfulness of benefits received gives God cause to strip man of them. “Ingratitude is a burning wind that dries up and consumes everything, and blocks and closes the fountain of God’s mercy’— Ingratitudo est ventus urens, fontem pietatis exsiccans, rorem misericordiae et gratiae fluenta non recipiens. So gratitude and giving thanks to God for His benefits move God to preserve and increase them. As the rivers run into the sea, which is, as it were, their fountain, to rise and return from it once more, so, when we return to God with thanksgiving the benefits received from Him, new gifts and benefits stream back again upon us.