GRATITUDE + GENEROSITY = HAPPINESS

 

GRATITUDE + GENEROSITY = HAPPINESS

What kind of world would we live in if gratitude was absent from it?  Just think, if we never said thank you to the store clerk, if we never said thank you to the waiter, if we never said thank you to someone who went out of their way to give us a lift.  What if we never expressed gratitude to war veterans, firefighters, teachers, and doctors?  A world without thanks would be bleak indeed.  I imagine we would become like Ebenezer Scrooge, the famous protagonist in A Christmas Carol.  Never smiling, always frowning, he is described by Charles Dickens in his 1843 novella “as hard as flint…secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”   

After the forced visit with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, Scrooge changed his attitude and became a generous and warm person.  He forgot the things that he had allowed to make him mean; as a boy, the neglect of his father, the absence of his mother (probably by death), and his rejection by classmates in a boarding school.  As a young man his fiancée called off their engagement because his love of money had replaced his love for her.  Heartbroken, he nevertheless continued a relentless pursuit of money to alleviate a fear of falling into the poverty he knew as a child.  He chose money over love. 

Through the mediation of the Christmas ghosts he saw the negative effects of his way of being on others and the bleak future which awaited him.  He begged for a second chance, and when he woke up in bed on Christmas morning he was a changed man.  He sought forgiveness from those he offended, and gratefully accepted his nephew’s invitation to Christmas dinner, which he had rudely rejected.  He made a donation to support the homeless which he had previously refused.  He visited the home of his overworked employee, Bob Krachit, and promised him a higher salary and time off.  He promised to pay for the care of his son, who without the medical intervention which the family could not afford would soon die.  Tiny Tim came to know Ebenezer as a second father. 

Ebenezer’s fixation on the sins committed against him and his fear of poverty made him an ungrateful and unhappy man.  When he recognized the good he could do for others he was set free.  By making others happy, he became happy himself.  “Blessed is the one who considers the poor, in the day of trouble the Lord delivers him” (Psalm 41:12).  Gratitude and generosity go together, and they make a person good.  St. Paul speaks of this in an appeal to the Christians of Corinth to support a collection for the poor in Jerusalem: “Consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.  As it is written: ‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’  The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.  You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God” (2 Corinthians 9:6-11).

On Thanksgiving Day we thanked God for His many blessings.  May our thankfulness lead to cheerful giving.  One of the ways we can do this is by contributing to the Avon Grove Christmas Basket Program, which benefits needy families in our area.  I have heard so many say that they experience joy themselves when they see the joy it produces in the families.  Ebenezer Scrooge learned this lesson, and Charles Dickens’ story has become a Christmas classic.  The Scriptures teach us that the fruit of generosity is righteousness.  Motivated by love, it blesses others and it blesses ourselves.  Thank you for all you do to make the Christmas celebration for families in need a little better!