Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

GRATITUDE

            I would like to define gratitude borrowing the words of Emmanuel Kant. Kant’s account of gratitude as described in his “The Metaphysics of Morals”, begins with what we might take as a definition: “Gratitude,” he states, “consists in honoring a person because of a benefit he has rendered us”. Kant next states that gratitude is no ordinary duty, nor “a merely prudential maxim of encouraging the other to show me further beneficence.” Gratitude is, rather, a sacred duty. And a duty is sacred, according to Kant, “if the obligation with regards to it cannot be discharged completely (so that one who is under obligation always remains under obligation)”.

            Kant goes on to explain that pride and resentment are the main causes of ingratitude. We are ungrateful, he argues, because being under the obligation of gratitude is the same as “seeing someone above oneself and feeling resentment at not being able to make oneself fully his equal. Among the Lilliputians ingratitude was a capital offence: “Whoever makes ill Returns to his Benefactor,” they reasoned, “must needs be a common enemy to the rest of Mankind, from whom he hath received no Obligation; and … such a Man is not fit to live.” While never to my knowledge advocating the penal measures of the Lilliputians, moral philosophers, like the Lilliputians, generally denounce ingratitude in the harshest terms, and command gratitude with a matching warmth. Yet on the nature of gratitude they are less eloquent, and what little they do say is often as puzzling as it is illuminating.

            The more common approach, widespread in the ancient world and followed with reservations by Aquinas, treats gratitude as a species of justice. An understanding of the ethics of gratitude is important to understanding the ethics of friendship between parties who are distinctly unequal in power. Those who are relatively powerless may develop a certain misplaced gratitude to those with power over them – gratitude for ordinary decencies, for less abusiveness than was possible, and, as we shall see, for genuine benefactions. Recognition of misplaced gratitude is all but nonexistent in philosophical literature. Gratitude is almost always opposed there simply to ingratitude. Perhaps undeserved gratitude seems harmless or even beneficial to others and therefore not cause for concern. However, it indicates a misjudgment of others, a lack of self-respect, or both. Either can have serious consequences for interpersonal relationship.

            In the readings meant for our reflections on the 28^th Sunday in ordinary time, Jesus discusses gratitude and ingratitude. In the Gospel the Lord heals ten lepers – by sending them to the priests. The priests were responsible for declaring lepers unclean (Lev. 13:10-11), but also to establish the fact of recovery from the disease and to rescind the verdict of uncleanness (Lev. 13:17). Clearly Jesus alone accomplished the miracle that took place while the lepers made their way to the priests, but the liturgical prescriptions of the law were so decisive for the lepers who were Jews that they located the meaning of their healing entirely within the prescribed ceremonies. This is not unlike many Christians who consider “practice” to be the center of religion and thereby forget the grace bestowed by God who is the origin and goal of “going to church.” The end disappears under the means, which often have little to do with genuine Christian life, and which have often become little more than pure custom, unexamined tradition. In such circumstances we need a “foreigner”, someone unaccustomed to the traditional ways, who, on the way to the “health authorities”, realizes that grace underlies his path, and then expresses gratitude to the proper source.

            Preceding the first reading’s pericope, the Old Testament parallel to the healing of the ten lepers in Luke began by sketching the Syrian’s courage at having to obey Elisha’s requirement that he bathe in the Jordan River in order to cure his leprosy. Do we not have rivers aplenty at home? His servants are the ones who have to persuade him to obey Elisha. He is healed, not really by faith but on the basis of his obedience. Now come his immense astonishment and exuberant gratitude. He would like to show his gratitude through gifts, but the prophet will accept nothing. He is simply “at your service”. This leads to the second, inward healing of the Syrian, followed by renewed amazement, no longer at the miracle-working powers of the prophets but at the power of God himself. Now all he wants to do is worship God on the soil of the land that belongs to God, some of which he takes back to Syria with him. A distance from religious custom is necessary in order to experience what a miracle is and how much gratitude one owes to it. Jesus said this very clearly in his programmatic sermon at Nazareth (Lk 4:25-27).

            The second reading shows that beneath a spirituality deadening deformation into mere traditionalism true Christianity takes the unnerving form of martyrdom, which is nothing other than a (not necessarily bloody) suffering for one’s confession of Christ. Here St. Paul endures suffering for the “sake of those whom God has chosen”, so that despite their sleepiness they “may obtain the salvation to be found in Christ Jesus and with-it eternal glory.” One ought not focus merely on the concluding phrase of this little hymn that ends the pericope: “If we are unfaithful he will still remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” This thought, though true, can lead to laziness. We have to take the preceding clause equally seriously: “If we deny him, he will deny us.” If we treat God as a sort of religious robot, he will show us that he is anything but that – that he is a free, living God who is also the eternal Word, which proves itself to be free and unfettered when we find ourselves “chained like criminals” for its sake. Only “if we die with Christ shall we also live with him.

            The spirit of gratitude fully expressed by two foreigners in today’s readings while nine people disgraced themselves because of their ingratitude. It is important that we give thanks to God for his favors and blessings; and, if we are honest with ourselves, there are many of them, in fact so many that we cannot count them even if we try. The first and the most obvious reason why we must thank God for his blessings is that God himself wants us to do so; he demands it for us. Again, as both the first reading and the Gospel passage of today’s Mass clearly teach us, God is pleased at our gratitude and displeased at ingratitude.

            Another reason is that thanksgiving to God is the right and proper thing to do whenever we receive any blessing from him. It is like that in our human interactions. Whenever anyone does us a good turn, if we have any sense at all, we know that we must say “Thank you.” Parents teach even their little children, mere toddlers, to do that. It cannot be different with God. We cannot just receive blessings from God and walk away without giving thanks, like the nine lepers.

            Yet another reason why we must give thanks to God is that we need to do so; it is in our own interest to do so. When we give thanks to God for favors received, we open the door for more of his blessings to flow into our lives. Our thanksgiving renders us capable of receiving many more blessings from God. But if we fail to give thanks for favors received, we shut the door to further blessings coming into our lives. It is not that our ingratitude will stop God giving us any more of his blessings. Oh no! God’s blessings will still be there, flowing in abundance. But our ingratitude will render us incapable of receiving them. The blessings will still be coming our way alright, but since we have shut the door against them, they will just pass us by.

            In short, it pays to give thanks to God; it pays to say “Thank you” to God. It is something we should be doing all the time because each day, every moment, God is giving us one blessing or another, he is doing us one favor or another. We should make a habit of saying “Thank you”, like the one leper who returned to thank Jesus. Let us learn to show appreciation to those who show us kindness.