Our Catholic faith is centered on the person of Jesus Christ. That simple sentence may seem obvious, but in practice, is it? 

 

All of the prayers that we learn, all of the teachings that are handed on to us such as God is three in one or the Holy Spirit continues to guide God’s Church, come from Jesus’ love for us. 

 

These components of faith, combined with the moral teachings of the Church are sometimes seen as impositions or limitations on our freedom or our enjoyment. However, they are means of leading us to an attitude and even the human feeling of friendship for Jesus.

 

Since this is true, we should ask ourselves, “Do I live a real friendship with Jesus?” The life of faith can become simply compliance with the practices and the “do’s and don’ts” of moral living. 

 

Such fidelity is, of course, good in its own way. But if it doesn’t lead us to that living friendship, in this world and pointing to life in the next, our faith still needs deepening.

 

There is also a virtue, a practice of profound goodness, which goes hand in hand with our loving faith in God. That is gratitude.

 

According to one great spiritual writer, gratitude has three necessary conditions. 

 

First, it can only happen between persons. I can, for example, be thankful to my Catholic school for the formation and education that it gave me. But I can only be grateful to the individual teachers and principals who gave of themselves for me.

 

Secondly, gratitude can only exist in a context of freedom. Specifically, the gift for which I am grateful cannot be something owed to me. Likewise, gratitude is not possible when it involves something about which I have no choice but compliance.

 

Finally, gratitude requires reverence. That reverence is both on the part of the giver who does not lord his generosity over the recipient but also must be practiced by the recipient in recognizing and genuinely appreciating the benevolence of the giver.

 

Every aspect of our Catholic faith must be filled with gratitude if we are to open ourselves fully to God and to become what He made us to be. 

 

That gratitude must be personal and heartfelt on our part. Through it we recognize God as the source of all good things. We freely accept creation and God’s will. And we are led to awe and reverence that the Creator of all things would bless us with faith and the gifts of grace.

 

The practice of gratitude is not natural to us. Parents strive to teach it to their children. And often, we get stuck on thinking of gratitude in terms of worldly blessings such as health, a steady job or a secure dwelling. 

 

But true gratitude will lead us further in faith.

 

When, for example, was the last time you explicitly thanked God in prayer for His gifts of grace? That might be the grace of faith, of baptism, of moral strength or the grace of a past conversion. 

 

How about a moment of prayer thanking God for indications of holiness in our lives or those of our spouses or our children? And what deep gratitude we owe to God that He has revealed to us the truth about this world, about salvation, or about the ultimate realities of heaven and hell? 

 

In all of this, we know God better and so enter into His friendship.

 

If we do not have gratitude we are left with indifference, or even worse, with contempt for gifts received. True gratitude moves us to open our hearts to God. It makes faith come alive and helps us to draw closer to Him.