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Each year on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, students, faculty, and staff gather to give thanks at a formal dinner. This year Dean Michael McLean addressed the College community. Dr. Dillon regrets not being with us this evening. He is attending an important conference of Church leaders in Italy on the subject of “The University and the Social Doctrine of the Church.” He has asked me to stand in for him and to make a few remarks appropriate to Thanksgiving. When looking for something to say at Thomas Aquinas College, it is not a bad idea to look to St. Thomas himself for inspiration and guidance. I did that, and it came as no surprise that, reflecting on the words of 1 Thessalonians, “in all things give thanks,” St. Thomas had some interesting things to say about the virtue of thankfulness, aided in no small part by the pagan philosophers Cicero and Seneca. I thought I would share a few of his observations with you on this occasion in the hope that you will find them as edifying and instructive as I did. To Whom Gratitude is Owed St. Thomas begins his discussion of gratitude by noting that our greatest thanks are due to God, for He is the first principle of all our goods; secondly, thanks are due to our parents, for they are the proximate principles of our begetting and upbringing; thirdly, to our country, from which general favors proceed; and finally, to our benefactors, from whom we have received particular and private favors. The gratitude due God (which St. Thomas calls excelling gratitude) is an act of the virtue of religion; the gratitude due our parents is an act of the virtue of piety; the gratitude due our country is an act of the virtue of observance; but the gratitude due our benefactors is a special virtue, distinct from the other virtues. My comments this evening are drawn from St. Thomas’ discussion of this latter virtue, but they apply, I think, to all acts of gratitude, even when those acts of gratitude are acts of the other virtues I have mentioned. The Degree of our Gratitude The degree of thankfulness in the recipient should correspond to the degree of favor in the giver—when there is greater favor on the part of the giver, greater thanks are due on the part of the recipient. On the part of the giver, St. Thomas says the favor may be greater on two counts: first, owing to the quantity of the thing given, and second, owing to its being given more gratuitously—i.e., without claim or merit on the part of the recipient. By way of illustration, St. Thomas says an innocent man owes greater thanks to God due to the quantity of the grace he has received, while the penitent owes greater thanks because he is deserving of punishment but has instead received forgiveness and grace. The gift bestowed on the innocent is, absolutely speaking, greater; yet the gift bestowed on the penitent is greater in relation to him, just as a small gift bestowed on a poor man is greater to him than a great gift is to a rich man. We should proportion our gratitude, then, not only to the magnitude, absolutely speaking, of the gift we have received but to the magnitude of the gift relative to our own condition of neediness and incapacity. St. Thomas says we ought to consider the gift in relation to the giver as well. He quotes Seneca who says, “We are sometimes under a greater obligation to one who has given little with a large heart, and has bestowed a small favor, yet willingly.” This is clear from the Gospels as well: “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” Repayment of Generosity Just as in judging the magnitude of a favor two things are to be considered, namely, the affection of the heart and the gift itself, so also must these things be considered in repaying the favor. As regards the affection of the heart, repayment should be made at once: “Do you wish to repay a favor?” asks Seneca. “Then receive it graciously…he who receives a favor gratefully, has already begun to pay it back.” St. Thomas does not say much about the gift which should be given, except that one ought to wait for a time that will be convenient to the benefactor. Again quoting Seneca, “He that wishes to repay too soon is an unwilling debtor, and an unwilling debtor is ungrateful.” Favors should be conferred at a time convenient to the one in need and should not be delayed if the need arises; the same is true when it comes to the repayment of the favor bestowed. “A kindly action consists not in deed or gift, but in the disposition of the giver or doer,” says Seneca, and so our gratitude is measured more by our disposition than by the magnitude of the gift we make in return. “Every moral act depends on the will,” says St. Thomas, “and so a kindly action consists materially in the thing done, but formally and chiefly in the will” of the one performing the kindly action. Gratitude always inclines, as far as possible, to pay back something more than has been received—so long as one repays less or an equivalent, he would seem to do nothing gratuitous, but only to return what he has received. The debt of gratitude flows from charity, which the more it is paid the more it is due, says St. Thomas, citing Romans 13, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” Every one of us can make heroic contributions to the kingdom of God. Whether we are rich or poor, powerful or powerless, healthy or sick, we can give what we have in thanksgiving and service to God and to others. “It is not the size of the check,” one writer has said, “but the size of the heart” that matters and makes it possible to return something more than has been given. “Among all our many and great vices,” says Seneca, “none is as common as ingratitude…and the most ungrateful of all is the man who has forgotten a benefit.” Thanksgiving is a good time to recall our many blessings and to express our gratitude for them with a full heart, not only with our words but with our deeds as well, especially now as the semester draws to a close. Expressing Gratitude to our Benefactors For all of us this means praying for the welfare and salvation of our benefactors. For some of us this means resolving to make better use of the gifts we have been given and of the opportunities the College and its benefactors provide. It may mean studying harder and doing more to contribute to the success of your classes. For others of us it may mean resolving to make continued good use of those same gifts and opportunities. I encourage all of you to do your very best from now until the end of the semester and to recall and to rededicate yourselves to what you came here in search of in the first place—not high grades or A’s on examinations, not the triumph of your own opinions or the esteem of tutors and students, but rather something of far greater worth and lasting value: the beginnings of Catholic wisdom and virtue. If we do these things, all of which are spiritual works and involve great spiritual goods, we will, I think, be paying back more than we have received to those who have made our lives at the College possible.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 2007 |
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