Reflection - 85

 “O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His loving kindness is everlasting” 1 Chronicles 16:34. “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him” Psalm 28:7.

Today we are going to meditate up on thanksgiving. It is said that the best attitude is the attitude of gratitude. We all are called to be grateful as our life is depended on the other. In simple words, as man is a social being he is depended on the other. It is also said that there is no rich man who deserves any help from the other and there is no poor man who cannot offer any help to the other. So we all are depended thus our very nature is demanding a thankful heart from all of us.  

Gratitude is nothing but being aware of the favors and helps that the other offers to us and its respond in words and deeds. Or Gratitude is the combinations of two acts namely being aware of the favor and help and saying thanks. Without the awareness of the favor from the other we cannot be thankful. But sometimes we concentrate on saying thanks not even being aware about the favor. Thus automatically we become thanks givers without the awareness of the favor. Being aware of the favors that we receive help us to be more worth.

For example, as we walk up , if we have the awareness that God is the protector of life and there are many who cannot even to see the fine morning we will automatically give thanks to God. Also we will be thankful to our timekeeper who helps us to walk up every day in time. As we move on we will come to know that the web of dependence is getting wider and wider. In this sense we are grateful to the farmer who works in the field and the fisherman who goes across the sea to fish and even many thing that we use namely food, dress, table, pen and so on. Then we came to know that the web of dependence go beyond our imagination and at the end it reaches to the provider of all things. This awareness will help us to have the real gratitude of heart and word.

Dear friends , the attitude of gratitude is the awareness of the favor that we receive from the other and help us to say thanks as well as help us to be more humble and make us ready to stretch our hands to help others. 1. Thesa. 5: 18 says: “Give thanks in every circumstance for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.  So dear friends let us try to be more aware of the favor and help that we receive from the other and let us try to say thanks and pray for them. Thus let us try to cultivate the attitude of gratitude through which we can attain the humility the mother of all virtuous.

                                                                                   Bro. Abin Mathew Cyriac