Is it Possible to Give Thanks Always?
Thanksgiving Day has developed into a day of feasting, family and football. For this Aggie Priest, it is a particularly highlighted year of the connection of Thanksgiving weekend and football as the #3 Aggies take on the #17 Longhorns, but we must not forget the day’s original roots of being a day of gratitude. Gratitude is the virtue of the Thanksgiving holiday!
But what is gratitude? How would you describe it to a family member? In short, the virtue of gratitude is recognizing goodness in one’s life and that the source of such goodness comes from outside of yourself, namely God. St. Paul says in his first letter to the Thessalonians, “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:1618). When I hear these words from St. Paul, I sometimes wonder if it is possible to rejoice always, can I have gratitude all the time? When the Longhorns lose to the Aggies tonight, will the fans wearing burnt orange be able to still have gratitude? In order to be able to rejoice and give thanks to the Lord in all things, we must grow in virtues. Virtues are habits that allow us to choose the good. These habits will then be our spontaneous and automatic response even when life is tough. Just like growing our muscles in the gym, the more we exercise virtues, the larger and more apparent they will be in our lives. Not only is growing in gratitude something that allows us to become more like Jesus, studies have also shown on a secular level, that when a person experiences gratitude, they feel more fulfilled in life.
Alright, so we know what gratitude is, but what are the traps or the pitfalls we can experience in life (like Cashius Howell sacking Arch Manning) in which the virtue of gratitude can help bring us back to the good? The ugly vices in our lives that we experience that hinder gratitude are envy, comparison towards others, negativity, pride, and self-pity. I think we see this in our own human experience like the times when we envy another person’s house, or the times when we compare our lives to others on social media. Moments like these are when we need gratitude. The virtue of gratitude helps us to prevent these vices from sacking us throughout our lives and help us to get back to God’s original game plan.
Well, does gratitude just happen naturally? How do we grow this virtue? What do we do when envy or comparison begin to surface in our hearts? One way to grow in gratitude is to take time to become aware of the little ways God is blessing our life. When we slow down, especially taking time of prayer each day, it allows us to see the goodness of our life and the goodness of God. We could also write down what we are thankful for in a journal or do a litany of thanks to God in our time of prayer. These small acts can help keep us grow in gratitude.
On this Thanksgiving weekend, in between the feasting, family, and football, may gratitude, the virtue of Thanksgiving, make an appearance in our homes too, but not only this weekend, but throughout our lives.
And as St. Paul challenges us, can we have gratitude in the high times of life like an Aggie win, but also in the low times of life as well? Deo gratias - thanks be to God!