In All Things, Give Thanks?

Story by Joe Pisani

Let me tell you a secret. When my world is falling apart, when nothing seems to be going right, and when there’s no one around to console me and I’m on the verge of complaining more than usual, I look up to Heaven and say, “Lord … thank you for everything.”

Do I sound convincing? I suppose saying that is an exercise to exercise my spiritual muscles or at least an attempt to strengthen them.

To be truthful, I really want to say, “Lord, where the heck are you when I need you?!!?” Or “Lord, it’s a disaster down here. How about a little help?” Or “Lord, I can’t take much more of this. I could use some reinforcements.”

However, contrary to my flawed human nature and my tendency to constantly ask for things, I’ve been trying to rise to the occasion — no matter how low the occasion brings me — and mutter, “Lord, thank you for everything! The good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between.”

Of course, that idea isn’t my own. I borrowed it from a number of saints, most notably St. Paul, who told the Thessalonians: “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” He gave similar exhortations to the Ephesians and the Colossians.

I suppose that means God, who counts every hair on our heads — and some of us have fewer hairs than others — and who knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, as Jesus said, has everything under control. Despite a little adversity or a lot of adversity, he’s in charge, guiding us, keeping us in his care and comforting us. Sometimes that’s hard to believe, and then I look to the example of the saints.

St. Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian pediatrician whose feast day is April 28, once said, “The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for all that he, in his goodness, sends us day after day.”

She certainly knew the ups and downs of life. During her brief life, she served the poor, the elderly, children and mothers. In her fourth pregnancy, she was diagnosed with a uterine tumor and refused treatment that would have led to the death of her unborn child. A week after her daughter was born, and St. Gianna died at 39 on April 28, 1962, from medical complications. Today, she is recognized as the patron saint of mothers, unborn children and doctors.

Also consider the example of St. Bernadette Soubirous, the 14-year-old peasant girl the Blessed Mother appeared to 18 times in Lourdes, France. Bernadette, who entered the religious life, said: “For the poverty in which my mother and father lived, for the failure of the mill, for all the hard times, for the awful sheep, for constant tiredness, thank you, my God! For lips, which I was feeding too much, for the dirty noses of the children, for the guarded sheep, I thank you! … For my spelling, which I never learned, for the memory that I never had, for my ignorance and for my stupidity, thank you… .”

St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun and mystic whose spiritual diary “Divine Mercy in My Soul” taught us about the infinite mercy of God, was so committed to being thankful that she kept a list in her diary of what she was grateful for, including her “daily little crosses.”

“True love is measured by the thermometer of suffering,” she wrote. “Jesus, I thank you for the little daily crosses, for opposition to my endeavors, for the hardships of communal life, for the misinterpretation of my intentions, for humiliations at the hands of others, for the harsh way in which we are treated, for false suspicions, for poor health and loss of strength, for self-denial, for dying to myself, for lack of recognition in everything, and for the upsetting of all my plans… .”

I doubt I’ll ever achieve that degree of thankfulness during adversity and suffering. And when I finally get to see Jesus face to face, I’ll probably ask him, “Lord, where were you when the chips were down? And when —” At that point, Jesus will politely interrupt me and open my eyes to show me that despite my grumbling, he was beside me every step of the way, consoling, comforting and encouraging. I was just too blind to see because if I had better spiritual vision, I would have said, “Thank you, Lord, for everything.”

So I’m taking the advice of St. Paul, with one slight revision. I’ve adopted the slogan: “In all things, TRY to give thanks… .” Hey, it’s a first step.