Accepting the Gift
ONE
A few days ago we reflected on the greatest pandemic today – that of indulging in unreal fear. The cure is to be grounded in Reality.
And when you are grounded in reality, the result should be gratitude. Being always concerned about future possibilities doesn’t lead to gratitude, but to fear and disappointment.
As we saw, to constantly imagine possible future dangers is to anxiously prepare for what will never happen – since there are endless possible challenges, but only one real challenge that we’ll end up facing. So when we dwell on possibilities, we spend a lot of time worrying about evils we’ll actually never have to face.
That’s pointless worry.
Also, living in the realm of possibility or speculation usually means not only fearing a lot of things that won’t happen, but also desiring a lot of things that won’t happen – and then when they don’t happen, we’re disappointed.
No, gratitude doesn’t come from constantly thinking about future possibilities. Nobody’s ever grateful for what might not ever be.
But we can and should be grateful for what has been, and what is, and what’s happening now. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.
So which one of these do we tend to live in? Future possibility or the gift of today?
Two
Gratitude means accepting the gift God has given you now.
If we recognize that whatever happens will be God’s gift – and remember, God gives really good gifts – then we’ll stop trying to guess what that gift from the future will be.
We wrap our birthday and Christmas presents, because part of the joy of receiving a gift – a way to enhance the delight and the gratitude – is not to know what we’ll be getting.
Surprise, unpredictability, is part of the joy of receiving, and it’s part of the goodness of God’s gifts.
If we trust that what God is going to give us will be really good, then we do not want to be told ahead of time. Its like telling you the final score of a game you’ve recorded to watch later. I don’t want them to tell me how it ends – it ruins the surprise.
Living in future possibilities and speculation is like trying to know what the gift is before it comes or the final score before it happens.
Demanding to know what the gift will be ahead of time shows a lack of appreciation, and above all a lack of trust that the Giver will do a good job.
Gratitude – which means appreciating the gifts God has already given – will help us remember that God is a good gift-giver, and we can trust Him to supply us with a wonderful surprise in the future.
Three
Anxiety for the future is – when you think about it – just the irrational fear that God will be less generous in the future than he has been in the past.
But when you meditate on God’s generosity, you realize that He is generosity – it’s who He is, it’s what He is, a loving impulse to give!
So he could never be less generous later on. In fact, His gifts only become more extravagant as our relationship with Him progresses.
The whole story of the Bible is one of God the Father giving His children gifts. Despite our ingratitude and sin, He always unconditionally ups the ante, and gives more extravagantly. He gives life, and land, and freedom, and truth, and promises for the future – and then He gives Himself, in the cradle and on the cross and in the Blessed Sacrament. Eventually He will give us the perfect joy that He Himself experiences in Heaven.
This is our God. Once you know Him, you know His character is to be extravagantly generous. That will give you the confidence to trust God will continue to be even more generous with you in the future which helps to overcome fear and foster gratitude.
Fear of the future only means you think God will stop being generous – and that means you do not know Him.
FOUR
Our own life is a story of God giving greater and greater gifts to us. He begins by giving us immortal existence. We receive all kinds of wonderful faculties of thought and sense. Parents who care for us when we are completely incapable of providing for anything on our own. Then we develop new powers – we begin to walk and talk and run around. We find friends and have whole spans of time, years of no responsibility and almost uninterrupted play. Soon we find romance and a fascination with the beauty of otherness. Then we get married and have our own children and they grow up and the most wonderful gift comes – our children become our friends – that seems to me to be the pinnacle – but it just gets better. As we grow older, we mature and some of the vices that plagued us begin to fade and we have peace. Each year, one after another is better than the year before and we die and go to Heaven. It just keeps getting better and better if we accept the Gifts as God offers them to us.
FIVE
It shouldn’t be but let’s face it, it is very hard to stay grateful. We ought to be able to thank God on our own but we can’t.
So God helps us. Jesus Christ becomes “Thanksgiving” right in front of us when He becomes the Eucharist.
Eucharist means thanksgiving – it means gratitude.
Only God really knows how much we owe Him. Only God really knows how much we have to thank Him for. So in the Eucharist, God makes Himself man and comes among us again, and thanks the Father in Our Name for all that has been given – and is given – to us.
The next time we receive the Eucharist, let’s remember to thank God for everything. Let’s say, “My good Father, I thank you so much, and Your Son thanks you on my behalf. I’m very grateful. You’re so generous. I love you.”