Repentant Zacchaeus. Yaroslavl. Church of the Epiphany
1. Acts of great self-sacrifice by the other evoke feelings of deep gratitude within us, and those feelings deepen with time the more we reflect on what happened. We started the discussion answering the question, "Tell us of some act someone did for you a long time ago that deepened your love and gratitude for that person years later." Most of us chose a moment with our fathers or with a sports coach, where a seemingly small act-- that required in retrospect a large self-sacrifice-- left us deeply grateful. And the more we have reflected on this incident over the years, the more in love with the giver we've become. We ended this discussion contemplating how much deeper our love for God might grow if we spent more time reflecting on his many gifts to us and being more grateful for them. Maybe we should start building a list….
2. It takes Humility to be Grateful. St. Thomas Aquinas called Humility the foundational Virtue, and as we reflected on that, we saw that Humility really is a requirement for the virtuous life on many levels. This is certainly true of the virtue of Gratitude. After all, when we lack Humility, focused more on ourselves and our "Greatness", we are often blind to the help and assistance from others, including God, that helped us achieve what we have. And without this humble acknowledgement, Gratitude is of course impossible. Do we spend enough time guiding our internal and external conversations towards others, or is it "always about me?"
3. When it comes to Humility and Gratitude, "Deep" matters. Our post-Christian, modern culture often confuses shallow forms of the great Christian virtues as "good enough." "Good deed" replaces self-sacrificing Love, "happy" morphs from Joy, "modest" replaces Humility, and "thankful" stands in for Grateful. As attractive and easier to attain the modern "virtues" are, they also tend to lead to short term positive feelings that don't last and are easily lost. The key to the virtuous life is deeper than this. Rather, our goal is to experience the great virtues from somewhere far within us, from within our souls, a place that isn't easily lost. Are we going deep enough in leading a virtuous life? Are we more than just a show, to ourselves and others? Are we spending the time it takes in reflection and prayer to allow shallower "feelings" deepen into Virtues?
4. Jesus is always pursuing us, but we might miss him without some Humility. In the story of Zacchaeus, we realized in the end that Jesus had made a long and difficult foot-journey to Jericho to find Zacchaeus and restore him to a life of Faith. But the reconciliation still would not have happened if Zacchaeus had not humbled himself before the town and climbed that tree to see Jesus. In doing so, instead of experiencing humiliation, his Humility led to his restoration by Jesus. And that act of generosity by Jesus transformed Zacchaeus to presumably a life of love and grace, to Gratitude. We presume Zacchaeus, from Jericho, then followed Jesus to Jerusalem as an early leader of the emerging Christian community, and at least one of the images of Zacchaeus from sacred art depicts him as one of three wealthy Jewish followers of Christ to the cross. Am I trying hard enough to find Jesus in my life? Am I seeking Him? Am I open to his healing me? Am I humble enough for that? To climb a tree to find him?
5. Waiting for Gratitude from others cheapens the gift. We reflected on how frustrating it can be when someone we've helped does not demonstrate Gratitude towards us. But as we thought about it, we realized that the joy to us was in the giving, not in the being thanked. And when the shoe has been on the other foot, we realized that feeling Deep Gratitude for someone is itself a gift that makes us more humble, more joyful, more capable of love. Do we see Gratitude itself as a gift? As a path to Love? And even while we are complaining about someone’s lack of Gratitude towards us, have we considered where in our own lives we have not been fully grateful to God?
Resolution: We will each go out of our comfort zone to be Christ to someone who has not shown Gratitude in the past, to help him/her experience the gift of Gratitude-- the route to love.
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