27th Sunday: The Happy Priest on Gratitude, Rarest of Virtues and Path to Happiness

Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?

The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification.  Eucharist means first of all 'thanksgiving" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1360).  Everything that we have and everything that we are is a gift from God. The virtue of gratitude can be cultivated. Gratitude can be expressed in very simple ways - and should be.  We can become a people of gratitude and thanksgiving.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Cicero, the famous Roman senator and orator once wrote, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."  This Sunday's Gospel reading (Luke 17:5-10) reminds us that gratitude is a rare virtue indeed. After the passage we hear proclaimed at Mass, Jesus told the story of the lepers who were all healed but only one came back to give thanks. (Luke 17:11 - 16)

"And one of the them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him" (Luke 17: 15-16).

The virtue of gratitude is the ability to express our thankful appreciation in word or deed, to the person whose words or actions have benefitted us in some way.  The truly humble and noble person will always be grateful for the benefits received.  He or she knows that everything and everyone is a gift. Ingratitude is ugly and displeasing to God. Gratitude brings joy to the heart of the Lord, and to our own lives. It sets us free.

How can the virtue of gratitude be acquired and cultivated?  Fundamentally, cultivating the spirit of gratitude requires us to develop humility.  We need to understand that everything that we have and everything that we are is a gift.  We might begin by taking out a pad of paper and a pen and making a list of all of the wonderful gifts that we receive each day of our entire life; a gratitude inventory.  

We could start with life.  We have been given the gift of life.  Consider the air that we breathe.  We take such things as air, water and even good health all for granted.  We need to consider our families, the houses that we live in, the food that we eat each day, our education, our jobs, and the fact that we live in a free country.   

Once we consider the obvious gifts that we have received, we can go deeper.  Take into consideration all that God has done for us.  He loves us unconditionally.  We have the Catholic Church, the Bible and the Sacraments.  We can all remember how a Catholic priest inspired us in a homily, gave us an encouraging word in Confession, or came to visit us while we were sick. 
   
We need to understand that we have received so much.  Should we not always be grateful?

The virtue of gratitude can be expressed in very simple ways.  Howeverwe do so, we should always express our gratitude. The phrase "thank you" should be a common part of our daily vocabulary.

The French philosopher Jacques Maritain once said that "Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy."  He is correct and it is important that we acquire good manners and social graces.  The loss of morals and common decency has caused the gentleman and the lady to be something of the past. 

My dear friends, you might know that the very word "eucharist" means thanksgiving.  The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the also called the Celebration of the Eucharist or simply the Eucharist.   Principally, in the Catholic Mass we are actively partaking in  the most profound act of thanksgiving. Through the profound grace we receive we are able to become a Eucharistic people, a people who are full of gratitude. In fact, this is the path to true and authentic happiness.  

In the Eucharistic celebration we are thanking Jesus for dying on the Cross for us. We are thanking God for saving us from sin, which is separation. We are thanking Jesus for rising from the dead.  We are thanking Jesus for feeding us with the Word and the Bread of Life.  This is why Sunday Mass is the greatest act of humility that we can offer to the Lord.  We go to our parish church to give thanks to God for his awesome and unconditional love. 

"The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification.  Eucharist means first of all 'thanksgiving'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1360). 

So, as we consider this Sunday's gospel narrative, we are reminded that gratitude is a rare virtue indeed.  Let us begin to acquire this virtue if we do not have it. Let us cultivate this virtue if it is a part of our lives already, so that it grows and becomes predominat.  Our life and the lives of all those around us will certainly benefit from our effort. "Ten were cleansed, were they not?  Where are the other nine?" (Luke 17: 17).

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Father James Farfaglia, the Happy Priest, is the pastor of Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Father has a hard hitting blog called Illegitimi non carborundum.  He has also published a book called Man to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men about Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life.  You can contact Father at fjficthus@gmail.com.  You can click here for the audio podcast of this Sunday homily.

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