Gratitude, the Act of Reception
Catholic conferences and retreats speak extensively on the subject of being receptive and endeavoring to receive in truth what Christ offers in truth. As someone who values clarity and practicality, I am wont to ask, "But what does that mean?". Such questions can be hard to answer since to do so would be to describe spiritual realities, we cannot well perceive, and they very well defy description anyway by definition. Nevertheless, I think consideration helps here. I would posit that any attempt at intentionally receiving remains incomplete without an expression of gratitude since it requires both internalization and response.
First, truly receiving something requires internalization. Internalization, as I use it, refers to the psychological indexing of that which is received, this opens up the subject to critical thought, practical use, and emotional response. Often, Catholics, and Christians more broadly, fail to truly receive faith because they fail to think critically about it. Theologians and Catechists aspire to help their interlocutors and listeners overcome this by asking the question "What do you believe?" Belief is worth its own post, but suffice it to say that what we believe, is that which determines how and when we act, it is the foremost theory which guides our actions. If there is only One God, He loves me infinitely, and loving Him means being like Him, then I will look at everything differently than I currently do and this will cause me to act differently, to regard past actions differently, to reevaluate dreams, and to engage with loved ones differently. If we do not apply critical thought to what governs our smallest, even instinctual actions, how can we say we are guided by what is most true, that our actions are for the best, and that we are doing our best? The moment we bring "love as I have loved" into our reason and consider how it applies to what it means from interacting with people at work, at the grocery store, and in the Church, it is then and only that it can bring its transformation connecting with God's grace into practical moment-to-moment use (Ephesians 6:18). After we apply it as in a scientific experiment, we can evaluate its effect and then ask when it was the new approach or the recipient that brings about which effects (Romans 12:2). In all this, the Gospel can grow exponentially in our hearts and minds (1 Corinthians 2:16). This is the process of internalization that gratitude is the final end of and which allows us to use the gifts God has given us.
Second, once we have been given and taken in all which God offers us we realize it makes no sense without bringing others to share in its goodness, truth, and beauty. Even if trading one's soul yielded the power, wealth, pleasure, and honor it seems to offer, it usually becomes very lonely (ordered contra-communion). In that case too one has made generous trade for lesser goods than what was cost, and all one has to thank is oneself for the trade since if truly received it is the other party who honored the bargain even if in their (the enemy's) favor and power.[1] When we receive what God offers, it incorporates personal, intimate, practical action on our end but ultimately depends on God's generosity and grace.[2] The enormity of goodness, truth, and beauty it brings to us would justly produce a very intense measure of gratitude, perhaps the greatest one is capable of. This level of recognizing what God has done for one's life should just as justly inspire one to act and to offer that goodness on God's behalf to all others. To withhold or stifle such a response is an injustice of the highest order because it both rejects the grandiosity of the gift (if not also the gift itself) and wills the absence of it upon one's neighbor (Proverbs 3:27). Thus to truly receive what Christ offers us, we must not only internalize it but offer it. Incorporating gifts into communion with others is what prolongs and extends their value and efficaciousness
In conclusion, "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you"(1 Thessalonians 5:18). "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body."(1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Honoring a gift is a necessary aspect of gratitude and gratitude is necessary for the spiritual life, without it, we can be ignorant of what God has done for us.[3] If we do not seek to be grateful for what Christ has done, have we truly received it? If we have not truly received it, how can we be saved?
"Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters,[of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe" (1 Corinthians 15:1-11).
Indeed, we have literally everything to thank God for such that even in the midst of great suffering, may we have the semblance of mind to continue receiving in truth what Our one true lover, remains always our One True Love. Recognizing that suffering does not originate with Him, but He accepted it in the worst ways for our sake.[4] May we recognize the power we hold in our gratitude to truly be in a relationship with God and receive His immense generosity for all we can (Romans 8:31-39).
"On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”" (Luke 17:11-19).
FN:
- Carter Carruthers, "Evil and nonbeing", Vivat Agnus Dei, May 23, 2021.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 1987-2029.
- Carter Carruthers, "What determines the worth of a gift? How does that apply to salvation?", Vivat Agnus Dei, December 27, 2020.; Carter Carruthers, "Worthiness to recive communion?", Vivat Agnus Dei, June 26, 2022.
- Carter Carruthers, "The Giver, not the Gifts", Vivat Agnus Dei, November 28, 2021.; Carter Carruthers, "The Source of All Sadness", Vivat Agnus Dei, January 24, 2021.;
