Gratitude and Gift

The Gift is a concrete expression by the giver of his delight in the person of the receiver. Its intention or purpose is to awaken the delight, surprise, appreciation and praise of the recipient. It fructifies in this response spontaneously, serendipitously, and almost efficaciously, if not blocked by some suspicion or resentment.

The intention of the Gift can be frustrated by mere passivity as it is intended to awaken delight and pleasure. Equally, the goal of Gift can be aborted if it triggers a sense of debt in that an exact reciprocation is necessitated. So, there is an asymmetry rather than equality between giver and recipient: the one expresses delight in order to awaken a distinct type of delight in the other. There is mutuality as each takes delight in the other and in the other’s delight; but there is a distinction as they relate differently to the gift, one as giver and the other as receiver.

Within the Trinity, the Father is primarily Giver; the Son is essentially Recipient; and the Holy Spirit is the Given. All of creation images, by analogy, this inexhaustible flow of generosity and gratitude that is absolutely mutual and infinitely asymmetrical.

Creation is itself gratuitous, neither necessary nor random. As such, it moves inexorably towards delight, appreciation, ecstasy, gratitude and praise. The locus of this event is the human person and community. So, the entire universe is yearning to enter Eucharist, the feast of thanksgiving and praise.

All of created life images this generous and grateful dynamic except where it has been negated and diminished by demonic activisms of distrust, suspicion, anxiety, ambition, control and despair.

The entire Christian life, its moral code and belief system, moves us into the delight of the Gift-recipient. In the spirit of the Psalms, we sing our delight in the gifts and the Giver; and we ourselves delight the heart of our Father.

Our purpose: to live in delight, appreciation, gratitude and praise! All is Gift!