GRATITUDE--AFFIRMING LIFE

Gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has—as opposed to a consumer-oriented emphasis on what one wants or needs. Gratitude is getting a great deal of attention as a facet ofpositive psychology: Studies show that we can deliberately cultivate gratitude, and can increase our well-being and happiness by doing so. In addition, grateful thinking—and especially expression of it to others—is associated with increased levels of energy, optimism, and empathy.

…………Psychology Basics, Psychology Today

I woke up this morning thinking about gratitude. Not sure why that happened but it got my mind working and as usually is the case the best way for me to think is to write. As so often happens I started wondering where the word came from and what its original meaning had been. So the dictionary says it comes from the late Middle English either from Old French or Medieval Latin gratitudo from Latin, Gratus, “pleasing, thankful”. Living in Colombia I hear Gracias all the time and I am sure it comes from the same root.

Given my orientation I came at the idea expressed In the quote above that gratitude is an appreciation for what one has and not for what one wants or needs by thinking that gratitude is only possible when you affirm the life you have. This took my mind to Paul Tillich’s sermon You Are Accepted (http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=378&C=84) which I used to teach and which has had a powerful influence on my life. I want to share Tillich’s thinking about Sin and Grace because I believe that Gratitude is the emotional expression of something much deeper and profound in our lives.

Tillich begins by quoting from Paul’s letter to the Romans:

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Romans 5:20.

This is important because we cannot have knowledge of sin without knowledge of grace and vice versa. They are inescapably linked to each other for all eternity. He says that sin is not an act and we should never use the word in the plural. Sin is separation which consists of separation from others, ourselves and from the Ground of Being. He writes,

Separation which is fate and guilt constitutes the meaning of the word "sin". It is this which is the state of our entire existence, from its very beginning to its very end. Such separation is prepared in the mother's womb, and before that time, in every preceding generation. It is manifest in the special actions of our conscious life. It reaches beyond our graves into all the succeeding generations. It is our existence itself. Existence is separation! Before sin is an act, it is a state.

He then explores the three fold nature of sin as separation. Showing how our separation from others manifests itself in the world within our societies and between nations. Then he talks about our separation from ourselves where he says, “Life moves against itself through aggression, hate, and despair.” Finally he says that this separation from others and ourselves exists because we are separated from the Ground of our being. Here he paints a powerful picture:

We are separated from the mystery, the depth, and the greatness of our existence. We hear the voice of that depth; but our ears are closed. We feel that something radical, total, and unconditioned is demanded of us; but we rebel against it, try to escape its urgency, and will not accept its promise.

We cannot escape, however. If that something is the Ground of our being, we are bound to it for all eternity, just as we are bound to ourselves and to all other life. We always remain in the power of that from which we are estranged. That fact brings us to the ultimate depth of sin: separated and yet bound, estranged and yet belonging, destroyed and yet preserved, the state which is called despair. Despair means that there is no escape. Despair is "the sickness unto death." But the terrible thing about the sickness of despair is that we cannot be released, not even through open or hidden suicide. For we all know that we are bound eternally and inescapably to the Ground of our being. The abyss of separation is not always visible. But it has become more visible to our generation than to the preceding generations, because of our feeling of meaninglessness, emptiness, doubt, and cynicism -- all expressions of despair, of our separation from the roots and the meaning of our life. Sin in its most profound sense, sin, as despair, abounds amongst us.

And then Tillich turns to Grace and begins by reminding of us of Paul’s words: “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” I would like to quote his entire long paragraph where he talks about the occasion of Grace in our lives but I will content myself with just quoting the end:

It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!" If that happens to us, we experience grace After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance.

He goes on to talk about what this experience does to our relation to others and to our self and I will quote them since they are fundamental to what I want to say about gratitude:

In the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to others and to ourselves. We experience the grace of being able to look frankly into the eyes of another, the miraculous grace of reunion of life with life. We experience the grace of understanding each other's words. We understand not merely the literal meaning of the words, but also that which lies behind them, even when they are harsh or angry. For even then there is a longing to break through the walls of separation. We experience the grace of being able to accept the life of another, even if it be hostile and harmful to us, for, through grace, we know that it belongs to the same Ground to which we belong, and by which we have been accepted. We experience the grace which is able to overcome the tragic separation of the sexes, of the generations, of the nations, of the races, and even the utter strangeness between man and nature. Sometimes grace appears in all these separations to reunite us with those to whom we belong. For life belongs to life.

And in the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to ourselves. We experience moments in which we accept ourselves, because we feel that we have been accepted by that which is greater than we. If only more such moments were given to us! For it is such moments that make us love our life, that make us accept ourselves, not in our goodness and self- complacency, but in our certainty of the eternal meaning of our life. We cannot force ourselves to accept ourselves. We cannot compel anyone to accept himself. But sometimes it happens that we receive the power to say "yes" to ourselves, that peace enters into us and makes us whole, that self-hate and self-contempt disappear, and that our self is reunited with itself. Then w can say that grace has come upon us.

I want to say that we can only express gratitude when we have experienced what he is talking about in these last two paragraphs. Gratitude flows from our experience of Grace and is an expression of the wonder and joy of that experience. The affirmation of life that expressing gratitude is, is only possible in and through our experience of Grace. Gratitude is about being thankful for what is, for the reality that we are living. Gratitude is about saying “yes” to this life at this moment. The emotion of gratitude is the opposite of the emotion of greed. Greed, the longing for what we do not have, is an expression of profound separation from life and the negation of the reality of our lives.
In expressing gratitude we are looking life in the eye and daring to embrace it and rejoice in it. Profound gratitude is not just about being thankful for the parts of our life that we find pleasurable it is about embracing it all. I struggle constantly with my feelings about the ultra right political forces in the US. I find it very easy to sink into hating their hate and negativity; into wishing that they were not part of my reality; into to dismissing them as only impediments to a more human future. But there is no escaping that they are part of my reality and I cannot pick and chose what I will affirm and be grateful for in my life. As Tillich writes, “We experience the grace of being able to accept the life of another, even if it be hostile and harmful to us, for, through grace, we know that it belongs to the same Ground to which we belong, and by which we have been accepted.” Here we are talking about universal gratitude. This is the affirmation of the hymn:

This is my Father’s world and to my listening ears

all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.

Hating flows from greed—our longing that our world be different and is an expression of profound separation from others, ourselves and the Ground of being. Hating never changed anything. Hate only breeds more hate. It is only in affirming our world and acknowledging our responsibility in its creation that we have any hope of bringing about change. Living in gratitude for this world and our place in it is the first step in creating a new day.

Finally I want to share a poem of gratitude. It was written by a 19^th Century poet who at the age of twelve developed tuberculosis of the bone which resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee. He later developed tuberculosis in his right leg and spent years in hospitals.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

We only know ourselves as masters of our fate and captains of our soul when we live in profound gratitude for our existence.