Recently, amidst the Christmas season and its festivities, the OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults) schedule at the parish had us discussing the Eucharist and the Mass. That particular combination of themes had me reflecting on gratitude quite a bit. In a little search for some material for reflection, I came across a wonderful essay by Father Romano Guardini on the virtue of gratitude. Gratitude is an essential virtue for a happy life – indeed, just recently, I was conversing with another priest about how dangerous modern life can be – especially because of the growing sense of entitlement that subtly grows in us as everything we “want” or “need” can be at our doorstep in a matter of hours or days. Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, and Charlamagne didn’t even have it close to as good. Even further, G.K. Chesterton describes in his masterpiece “Orthodoxy” how it was the realization that he was grateful for his life itself that was the first movement out of agnosticism and into belief in God. When modern life constantly reinforces the false sense of independence and self-determined happiness, no wonder belief in a personal God becomes difficult. In his essay, Guardini draws out three basic necessities for gratitude. First, it has to be personal (meaning that gratitude only exists between persons). Second, it must be free – particularly, it must be freely offered for an act that was freely done. Third, reverence is a necessary disposition of the giver if gratitude is to follow. If I was to say that I am grateful to my house for being there, I mean grateful in a different (and less meaningful) way than saying that I am grateful to all of the people who built it. We can realize, if we stop to consider things even briefly, that the personal aspect of gratitude is really what we focus on as human persons. As Chesterton puts it: “Here I am only trying to describe the enormous emotions which cannot be described. And the strongest emotion was that life was as precious as it was puzzling. It was an ecstasy because it was an adventure; it was an adventure because it was an opportunity. The goodness of the fairy tale was not affected by the fact that there might be more dragons than princesses; it was good to be in a fairy tale. The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom. Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth? There were, then, these two first feelings, indefensible and indisputable. The world was a shock, but it was not merely shocking; existence was a surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise. In fact, all my first views were exactly uttered in a riddle that stuck in my brain from boyhood. The question was, ‘What did the first frog say?’ And the answer was, ‘Lord, how you made me jump!’ That says succinctly all that I am saying. God made the frog jump; but the frog prefers jumping.” If we want to experience gratitude (or stir it up in others) we have to respect the necessity of freedom at the heart of kindness toward others. When we do things that are compelled, it is hard to have true gratitude. Thus, the forced response of “thank you” for every single thing that happens can feel more forced than free. At the same time, being proactive (as in all virtue development) in adding words of gratitude into our speech can free us to experience real gratitude freely. Guardini comments: “True gratitude can exist only in the realm of the voluntary. The more our attitude toward human affairs approaches our attitude toward mechanical functions – this board regulates traffic, another the conditions of labor, one thing must be done according to the law at this time, another thing at another time – the less room there will be for the free response of the heart which says, ‘I thank you.’ Its place is taken by the statement that says one has received his due.” And finally, the aspect of reverence really focuses on the giver. When I do kind deeds or sacrifice for another, do I do so with reverence for the person? Do I do so without condescending in the negative sense to assert that I have a superiority to this human person in front of me? In this particular struggle, the ancient image of the Rota Fortuna (wheel of fortune) is helpful. It makes it clear that the ability I have today to help someone else might be gone tomorrow, as Guardini would have it: “True asking and giving, true receiving and thanking are fine and are human in the deepest sense of the word. They are based upon the consciousness that we stand together in our need. Accidentally here and now one person has something, the other does not; one person can and the other cannot. Tomorrow it may be the other way around.” As we break into another year with its fresh beginnings and opportunities, it is helpful to recall that gratitude stands at the center of the Christian life. After all, as the Second Vatican Council reminds us, the Eucharistic sacrifice (the Mass) is the source and summit of the Christian life. Everything about our lives flows from and comes back to a reverent, free, and personal expression of gratitude for the overwhelming gift of God to us: His perfect offering of self that we might live with Him. If we can stay focused on that central gratitude, our joyful proclamation of the Gospel in the midst of a world enslaved to entitlement and self-sufficiency will truly be what it is: words of life drawing all to the source of life Himself. Father Mark Hellinger is parochial vicar at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Wayne. The post Make the Virtue of Gratitude a Priority This Year appeared first on Today's Catholic.