Man…my friend Andy Searles was right. Thomas Merton is deep in his writing. I know for a blog I am supposed to not just quote others, but this is too good to let pass. I wrote on Tuesday about my continued concern for our national issue with gluttony, with our pursuit of things and our addiction to ease. Merton writes about this from the issue of what happens to a person who becomes ungrateful. Without gratitude, we either assume we are due or we miss how much is given to us beyond ourselves…thus when things are challenging, instead of moaning or whining, we can remind ourselves how grateful we must be. Kind of a “even though this situation is bad or frustrating….look at all that I have been given or allowed to achieve….I can’t complain but rather should be humbled by my life.”
There is no neutrality between gratitude and ingratitude. Those who are not grateful soon begin to complain of everything. Those who do not love, hate. In the spiritual life there is no such thing as an indifference to love and hate. That is why tepidity (which seems to be indifferent) is so detestable. It is hate disguised as love.
Tepidity, in which the soul is neither “hot or cold”–neither frankly loves nor frankly hates–is a state in which one rejects God and rejects the will of God while maintaining an exterior pretense of loving Him in order to keep out of trouble and save one’s supposed self-respect. It is the condition that is soon arrived at by those who are habitually ungrateful for the graces of God. A man who truly responds to the goodness of God, and acknowledges all that he has received, cannot possibly be a half-hearted Christian. True gratitude and hypocrisy cannot exist together. They are totally incompatible. Gratitude of itself makes us sincere–or if it does not, then it is not true gratitude.
To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us–and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful man knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.