Perpetual Gratitude

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, St. Paul encourages us to give thanks to God at all times. However, we can easily be thankful to God when everything seems to be going our way, but how can we do this when they don't? Does God, for instance, expect one to be joyful when dealing with loss, or when we’re being treated unjustly? No, life requires that we experience the full range of human emotions. We find this in praying the Psalms, for instance, which covers a wide range of experiences. We should then grieve with others at a funeral and rejoice when a newborn comes into the world and so on.

What point is St. Paul then conveying? His exhortation to be always thankful at all times helps us to live by supernatural faith because we believe that God can always bring a greater good from any unfavorable circumstance. Jesus brought all of creation to an entirely new level after dying on the Cross. A spiritual nuclear bomb was set-off that altered creation at its core. Heaven was once again opened for mankind, and God's mercy can now forgive the sins we commit. God's love for us transformed to an entirely new level what the Devil shattered—union with Holy Trinity—so we can now always live in faith, even when we face death itself! My mother, for instance, died just a little over three years ago. After spending time grieving, I was enabled to get beyond my sorrow because of my faith in the Resurrection. Since Christ died and rose from the dead, our faith helps us to live in the hope that we too can live forever in heaven after our time on earth. Moreover, I didn't want to stop loving others by allowing myself to be emotionally paralyzed by my mother's death. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother, but I was determined not to allow myself to be stuck in grief because I want to always be available for others. I knew that the less we love then the less human we become since we'd close ourselves to how God intended us to exist.

We're then called to live by having supernatural faith in joining our sufferings in prayer to the Lord's Passion. We're not rejoicing in suffering itself—we're not masochistic—but that we're enabled to be sanctified by Christ, who’s the reason why we can ultimately rejoice in whatever situation befall us. We should then consider that we don't have the BIG PICTURE, but only God. Circumstances that seem unfavorable for us today may be a blessing in the future. On the other hand, something we consider to be a blessing today may be seen as unfavorable later on. We can never be certain what the future will bring with what we have at the moment since we're not always in full control of many things around us, but acknowledging our limitations makes us humble.

If we place our faith in God, however, we can always be confident that whatever challenges we’ll experience will benefit us for eternal life. We need to keep our focus on the Lord so that we don't get distracted or succumb to the fears this world may bring us. We must join the Psalmist in saying, “I will praise the Lord at all times. I’ll constantly seek his praises.” With this kind of supernatural faith, we’ll always be grateful to receive Christ in whatever manner he desires to present himself to us, which often comes in ways that we least expect.