The Ability to understand Thankfulness is more than Words!

The Ability to understand Thankfulness is more than Words!

When someone holds a door for you, as a load of groceries will pull you down, you should give that person a big hug.  However, just a brief acknowledgment of a passing smile usually says a lot.  In traffic, as the roads are crowded, finding a generous motorist becomes a passing fancy.  Have you ever given another driver a pass and let them out of a parking spot to only hear the motorist behind honking his horn out of frustration?  What has happened to our society when being kind to someone creates a glaring sign of finger pointing and words we will not print?  

The type of being thankful goes further than just a nod or smile.  As nice as they are, we need something that says more than a passing fancy might establish.  I am talking about God and how he will allow a guilt trip to get a hold on our senses as we find the moments of drifting away from the graces he already has placed within our hearts now requires a knee-dropping position and a need for real contrition.  

For some people, or maybe many, if left in the recesses of our mind without any further attention, the little nuances of finding fault with some people can grow like a bad weed and make any further attempts to eradicate them nearly impossible.  If our problem lies with inanimate events we can work through them, at times.  But if the block is because of another person the solution now presents the need for the Holy Spirit.  Fortunately, a person of faith can reach beyond their own finite mind and seek the comfort of God’s Spirit.  Of course, the discernment needed does not always show itself immediately.  The Lord may allow us to sink a little further into anger or doubt to ensure our eyes are really open to his need and then everything changes for the betterment of ourselves.

It is through grace that all of the blessings can be felt and gives us the ability to rise above ourselves when the strain of subtle infractions appear and we do not know how to get rid of them. 

Grace is a participation in the life of God.  It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life:  By Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body.  As an adopted son, he can henceforth call God “Father,” in union with the only Son.  He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.   (CCC 1997).

His thankfulness we all must seek is found through the essence of God who plants this grace within our hearts.  

Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love.  Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.  (CCC 2000).

Therefore, we must ask the Lord for his grace and then follow through with being sanctified through his presence of which real thankfulness begins in the heart of man.

Ralph B. Hathaway