Life full of gratitude
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
SUMMARY: Living in gratitude should be a lifestyle for Christians. Our biggest reason for gratitude is salvation, which was achieved through the sacrifice of Christ. We should offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and fulfill our vows to Him. Giving out of gratitude to the Lord is deeply Christian and brings joy to the heart. Gratitude brings fullness of life in Christ. Let us demonstrate our gratitude this week as we celebrate His Passion.
A few days ago I read an expression that sincerely touched me. He said: "the problem is not being sinners, but not letting ourselves be transformed by love." I found it edifying. Sin, that bad companion who will always persist in distancing us from grace - he will not achieve it definitively in the heart redeemed by Christ - is not the cause itself, but ourselves. We are at times reluctant, incomprehensibly reluctant to allow the love of Christ to transform our lives.
What is our biggest reason for gratitude? Salvation, no doubt! A grateful heart that beats with the pulse that prints the grace of the Lord allows Him to delve into the innermost parts of our being and carry out his work of love. Can you imagine if we had to make sacrifices for each of our sins? A single sacrifice was enough, that of Christ on the cross, to end the confusion caused by impiety, unbelief, ignorance and contempt for the divinity of the son of God. "He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world" (1 Jn 2.2). Propitiation means sacrifice. What is the sacrifice that we should offer to the Lord? The cantor Asaf leaves us the answer written in the Psalm: "Offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and fulfill your vows to the Most High" (Ps 50.14).
Living in gratitude should be a lifestyle for the Christian. There can be no full life in Christ if gratitude does not adorn our word and our action. From the riches of his grace we drink to be transformed. Each day is an adventure and at the same time a new opportunity to enjoy its blessings and to bless others. “… Freely you have received, freely give” (Mt 10.8). There is generally an almost unanimous feeling in the Christian who says (and puts into practice) that it is better to give than to receive. Few feelings are comparable to the feeling of giving out of gratitude to the Lord. God loves the one who gives with joy (2 Cor 9.7) because there is something deeply Christian within him that moves him to give out of gratitude to the one who has given him everything.
A few years ago I went to a celebration celebrating the reopening of a beloved church in my country. Its almost hundred-year-old roofs had collapsed due to lack of economic resources to repair them, its dilapidated walls put the lives of the many faithful of the congregation at risk. In the middle of the celebration, their pastor called out to a person sitting in the front row who was trying to sing along with the church in a “Spanglish” that no one understood. His mother accompanied him. They came from another country. In an act of recognition and moved by the emotion of the moment, the pastor let slip an astronomical figure donated by that family for the reconstruction of the church. The church applauded and the donor cried like a child and with a voice broken by emotion shouted: It's the joy of the Lord, it's the joy of the Lord! (It's the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord!) And repeated in Spanish -Thank you Lord, thank you Lord! -. All of us present saw the glory of the Lord descend for an instant.
Gratitude to God brings fullness of life in Christ and joy to the heart. May this week when we celebrate his Passion, we can demonstrate it with thanksgiving.
God bless you!
What is our biggest reason for gratitude? Salvation, no doubt! A grateful heart that beats with the pulse that prints the grace of the Lord allows Him to delve into the innermost parts of our being and carry out his work of love. Can you imagine if we had to make sacrifices for each of our sins? A single sacrifice was enough, that of Christ on the cross, to end the confusion caused by impiety, unbelief, ignorance and contempt for the divinity of the son of God. "He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world" (1 Jn 2.2). Propitiation means sacrifice. What is the sacrifice that we should offer to the Lord? The cantor Asaf leaves us the answer written in the Psalm: "Offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and fulfill your vows to the Most High" (Ps 50.14).
Living in gratitude should be a lifestyle for the Christian. There can be no full life in Christ if gratitude does not adorn our word and our action. From the riches of his grace we drink to be transformed. Each day is an adventure and at the same time a new opportunity to enjoy its blessings and to bless others. “… Freely you have received, freely give” (Mt 10.8). There is generally an almost unanimous feeling in the Christian who says (and puts into practice) that it is better to give than to receive. Few feelings are comparable to the feeling of giving out of gratitude to the Lord. God loves the one who gives with joy (2 Cor 9.7) because there is something deeply Christian within him that moves him to give out of gratitude to the one who has given him everything.
A few years ago I went to a celebration celebrating the reopening of a beloved church in my country. Its almost hundred-year-old roofs had collapsed due to lack of economic resources to repair them, its dilapidated walls put the lives of the many faithful of the congregation at risk. In the middle of the celebration, their pastor called out to a person sitting in the front row who was trying to sing along with the church in a “Spanglish” that no one understood. His mother accompanied him. They came from another country. In an act of recognition and moved by the emotion of the moment, the pastor let slip an astronomical figure donated by that family for the reconstruction of the church. The church applauded and the donor cried like a child and with a voice broken by emotion shouted: It's the joy of the Lord, it's the joy of the Lord! (It's the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord!) And repeated in Spanish -Thank you Lord, thank you Lord! -. All of us present saw the glory of the Lord descend for an instant.
Gratitude to God brings fullness of life in Christ and joy to the heart. May this week when we celebrate his Passion, we can demonstrate it with thanksgiving.
God bless you!
