Before a spent out candle, an eaten loaf of bread and an empty glass of water, what is the right attitude: bemoan their loss or rejoice in the light and life received through them? Their disappearance is their very fulfillment because self-giving is their very nature.
We have a choice: we can either live life in constant fear of losing it or rejoice in gratefully sharing it. We can spend our time on earth protecting and defending life as a coveted possession, seeking survival. Ultimately our frantic efforts to protect and conserve life succeed only in preventing us from living it. The fear of loss takes over.
It is this fear that pushes us to see life in terms of rights. Life becomes a series of rights to be grabbed, defended and fought over. The more life is threatened, the greater is the fear of losing it.
Our strident calls for rights of all sorts are driven by the tremendous fear we human beings have of one another. Fear is the daughter of mistrust, which is in turn begotten by betrayal and selfishness. We need to insist on rights because wrong exists and we humans choose it very often.
But are we condemned to spend our life in a war trench? Do we need to spend our lives behind protective walls defending ourselves from the fear of fear? No wonder we hesitate to light the candle, eat the loaf of bread or drink the glass of water out of fear of losing them. We condemn ourselves to live a hungry, thirsty life in pitch darkness, even while the candle, bread and water sit there in front of us, unconsumed.
Life is joyful if it is a gift gratefully received and lovingly given to others, not just a right I grab and hang on to
We have been created for a much brighter and meaningful life than this. Yes we have a choice. We have a meaningful and life-giving alternative. The alternative is challenging yet simple indeed. Its name is gratitude.
Gratitude is celebrating the fact that life is first and foremost a gift of love, not a survival from the fear of death. Life is not a struggle to preserve what we possess, but a joy to receive what is offered to us freely and lovingly by someone else. Life is the freedom to give freely what we have freely received. We are indeed free to live if we are free to die…
Life is joyful if it is a gift gratefully received and lovingly given to others, not just a right that I grab and hang on to in spite of others. How could I live in fear of someone taking from me what I already want to give him or her? How could I be jealous of someone I am thankful for? How could I see someone as my enemy if my sole wish is to be a gift to him?
Yes, gratitude is acknowledging life as a loving gift.
This is the fundamental assertion of our faith. And it takes us much further: this loving gift is a person, and that person’s name is Jesus Christ.
Yes, the alternative is indeed Jesus – the light of the world, the bread of life and the source of living waters. He came to reveal to us that we too could be gifts of love, because life itself is a gift of love. The life he offers us is the freedom to receive it as a gift received to be given.
Our humble and joyful response is our faithful gratitude to those who, in their very human fragility, have shown us that this is indeed possible and worthwhile.
May this Christmas be a time to exchange gifts – not those that money can buy, but gifts that have a face and a name – yours and mine.
The joy of a life given and received starts with our ability to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ for the preciousness of ‘the gift’ within each one of us. The name of that gift is Jesus. Sharing him is lighting up a world in darkness, feeding a hungry humanity and quenching its thirst for justice.
Happy Christmas.
pchetcuti@gmail.com
Fr Paul Chetcuti is a member of the Society of Jesus.