God’s Gift of Eternal Gratitude

In his work, On Christian Doctrine, St. Augustine says that although God could sanctify each individual directly without any intermediate causes, he prefers to use human instruments to work out our salvation. If we end up in heaven, our priests, friends, and families are real causes of our being there. 

Fr. Sebastian Walshe gave a beautiful explanation of this in one of his homilies. If God were the sole cause of our salvation in heaven, we would be eternally grateful to Him. But God is so good, and He so much wants to share His goodness, that he chose to work through us so that in heaven we would be grateful to Him and to one another. We will be able to look our priests, friends, and family members in the eye and say, “Thank you. I am here because of you.”

This week, I invite you to view your work and your relationships as opportunities to create the treasure of eternal gratitude. 

To whom might you already have reasons to be eternally grateful? That is, who has been a cause of your sanctification so far? In whose salvation do you want to play a part? How would you need to show up in their lives so that someday they might be eternally grateful that you were there for them? 

God bless,
Dan