The main reproach that St. Paul addresses to the pagans is that, having known God, they did not glorify him as God, nor give him thanks10. Let us not be ungrateful. This year for which we give thanks has been full of gifts from the Lord: some are clear and visible; others, sometimes more valuable, have been hidden: dangers of soul and body from which our Father God has delivered us; people whom we have met and who will have a decisive importance in our salvation; graces and help that have passed unnoticed; even events that perhaps we have interpreted as something negative (an illness, a professional failure...) we will see later that they have been a gift from God. Our whole life is an undeserved good. This is why thanksgiving must be continuous: it must be an act of piety and love to be practiced always.
We understand that in the Preface of the Holy Mass, the Church reminds us every day that it is our duty and salvation to thank you always and everywhere, O Lord, holy Father. Even when pain or sickness comes upon us: My God, thank you! And the soul is filled with peace, because it understands that from what seems unpleasant or undesirable, God will draw much fruit. "This grace is like the wood that God showed to Moses, which he threw into the bitter water and turned it into sweet water (cf. Ex 15:25).
The Founder of Opus Dei used to recommend to his children to thank the Lord pro universis beneficiis... etiam ignotis, for all his benefits, also for those that pass unnoticed12. Possibly "one of our greatest embarrassments when we reach the judgment will come from there: from the enormous quantity of divine gifts that we did not know how to appreciate, and to be grateful for, as such gifts; from the unnecessary annoyances that we take for what we qualify as divine indifference to our prayers. At least then we will thank him, ashamed, because he had the goodness not to listen to so many foolish requests we formulated to him. It is quite possible that, if he had listened to us and given literal satisfaction to our prayers, we would have heard on the last day the same words as that tormented Epulon, triumphant here below: Son, remember that you have received your good things in life (Lk 16:25) "
What a surprise when we discover that men, with more faith and supernatural vision, would have been able to see a great good in many of the events they considered as evil! Our gratitude is very much related to Heaven, of which it is already a foretaste, but also to Purgatory. "How we will thank the Lord for the sorrows He allowed in our life! These are the kindnesses of a Father who wants to see his children clean, purified, ready to come to him immediately at the end of our journey through this world.
Because he loves us, he does not want for us the delay of an indispensable Purgatory, and he does us the mercy of facilitating it in this life. In the end we will thank him, above all, because he has granted one of our prayers in particular: the one in which, perhaps without realizing it, we ask him with the Church for spatium verae penitentiae, the opportunity for a true and fruitful penance "
Let us give thanks to the Lord at all times and in all places, in all circumstances, but in a very particular way at Holy Mass, the thanksgiving par excellence. And with the Liturgy of the Mass, we say to him: We offer you, Lord, this sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for the gifts you have given us; help us to recognize that what we have received without deserving it is your gift
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