Volume II, Treatise VII, Chapter VI

The Affection of Gratitude to God

THE fourth affection in which we ought to exercise ourselves in meditating upon the miseries of the passion, consist in gratitude and thanksgiving to God. ‘Can our mind think of anything;” says St. Austin, “our mouth speak of anything; or our pen write anything better than ‘thanks be to God? Nothing shorter can be expressed; nothing more joyful heard; nothing more sublime conceived; nothing more useful done.”—(Epis. lxxvii.) God himself has always taken so much pleasure in the acknowledgment, and thanksgiving, men have made to him, that as soon as he did any extraordinary favour to his elect people, he would have them presently sing to him a song of thanksgiving— offer to Goda sacrifice of praise.” (Psalms 49:14) And the holy Scripture is full of canticles which the patriarchs and children of Israel, sung after they had received any signal benefit. St. Jerom says, it was a tradition among the Hebrews, that “the sickness of which king Zechias had like to have died,” was sent to him as a punishment; because after he had been miraculously delivered from the Assyrians by the hand of the angel of our Lord, who killed a hundred and fourscore thousand in one night, he returned no thanks.to God for it, by any song of praise. And St. Austin, speaking of the ten lepers cured by Jesus Christ, takes notice that the Saviour of the world praised the gratitude of him, who came back to thank him for his, and blamed the ingratitude of the rest. ‘ Were there not ten cleansed,” says he, “what is become of the nine others? There is no one found, but this stranger who is come back to render glory to God.” (Luke 17:17) Let us not be ungrateful as these were, for the benefits we have received from God’s hand; and much less for that greatest of all benefits, which he conferred in becoming man and dying for us upon the cross. ‘ Do not forget,” says the wise man, “the favours which he has done thee, he has answered for thee, and even has given his soul for thee.” (Ecclesiasticus 29:19) Jesus Christ has both answered and paid for us; it cost him his life; wherefore it is just, that we should have an extreme gratitude for so great a benefit, and that nothing should make us ever forget it.

St. Thomas, speaking of gratitude says, that it has three ways of working. The first, consists in having all the esteem, we ought to have in the bottom of our heart, for the benefit we haved received; and to be thankful to him, from whom we have received it. The second, consists in being thankful in words; and the third, in making our benefactors, as far as we are able, an adequate return. Let us exercise ourselves upon all the mysteries of the passion, performing those three acts of gratitude. First, let us apply ourselves to produce deep sentiments of esteem for the many benefits, which each mystery contains; examining in particular all the favours we have thereby received, or shall ever receive from thence; let us excite ourself by this consideration, ‘to feel in a more lively manner the obligation contracted by us to serve God eternally with all our strength. Let us afterwards endeavour to praise and glorify him with our mouth, according to these words of St. Paul: “Let us always by him offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, confessing his holy name.” (Hebrews 13:15) And let us wish that the universe would assist us in giving him thanks. In fine, let us endeavour to make our actions correspond to so many benefits; and for this end, let us entirely abandon ourselves to him, as we have said in ®

the foregoing chapter, and let us offer to him all that we have and are.

St. Bernard says, that in every mystery we meditate on, we ought to imagine that Jesus Christ says the same words to us, that he said to his apostles after he had washed their feet: Do you know what I have done for you? Do you know what is contained in this mystery? Do you know what is the grace of your creation, what is that of your redemption, and what also is that of your vocation? Alas! how far are we from the knowledge of what God has done for us? For if I rightly conceived, O my God! that you became man, that you died upon a cross for love of me; there would need no other consideration but this, to make me give you my whole heart; and to be wholly absorbed in your love; and this would be such a gratitude as a true Christian ought to have.

St. Chrysostom upon this subject, takes notice of one thing which may be of very great profit to us. He says, that a good servant ought to have as high an esteem of the favours his master bestows upon him in common with others, and to be impressed with as deep a sense of them, as if they were done to him alone, and as if he only were charged with the obligation of returning thanks for them. This the apostle did when he said, “he that loved me, and delivered himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Nor was it without reason, that he said so, continues the holy doctor; since every one ought to say the same; because each one derives as great advantage from the death of Jesus Christ, as if he had died for him alone. In like manner, the light of the sun enlightens me as much as if it gavelight to me alone; and the advantages I derive from thence, is, so far from becoming less by being communicated to others, that, on the contrary, it is increased; because by giving light to them, it helps them, when occasion serves, to assist and succour me; so in like manner, the incarnation and death ‘of the Son of God, is as profitable to me, as if he had made himself man, and died only for my sake. The advantage also that others receive as well as myself, diminishes nothing of what I thereby received; but, on the contrary, augments the favour; for it is the cause of their animating and assisting me, to merit the glory to which I aspire. Moreover, the love of God is as great towards each one of us in particular, as if he loved nothing else; and as for the good will and love of Jesus, he was no less disposed to suffer for one man alone, if there was a necessity, than for all men together; and, “he would not have refused,” says St. Chry-’ sostom, “to do for one man, what he has done for all.”—-(In Ep. ad (Galatians 2)) Besides it is true, that God thought particularly-on me; that he had me before his eyes, when he made himself man and died upon the cross; “that he loved me with a perpetual charity,’ (Jerem. xxxi. 5,) as he himself assures me by the mouth of Jeremias; and in fine, that he freely delivered himself up to death, to redeem my life. So that every one ought to look upon the benefits of God, as if God had done nothing, but for him alone; and consider the love whence they proceed, as if God had loved him only, and so say with St. Paul, “he who has loved me, and delivered himself to death for me.” (Galatians 2:20) When we consider all this in this manner, it will be impossible not to feel ourselves excited to great acts of love and thanksgiving to this Divine Saviour, “who has always loved us with a perpetual charity.”

The saints moreover add, that the reason why God exacts from us thanks for his benefits; is not because he stands in need of our gratitude, but only that we may render ourselves more worthy © to receive new graces and favours. “Ingratitude,” says St. Bernard, “is a burning wind that dries up the source of God’s mercy, and stops the channel of his graces.”—(In Cant. serm. ii.) And as God deprives those men of his benefits who are so ungrateful as to forget them, so he heaps them upon those who acknowledge them and render due thanks for them. The sea, which is the source of all | waters, gives back to the rivers all it has received from them; and God, who is the fountain of all those gifts and graces which we possess, gives back to us these same graces with interest, when with faithful gratitude we return to him what we received from him.

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