EVERY GOOD GIFT IS FROM ABOVE

A MESSAGE FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

Today is a day of thanksgiving. We are always so quick to wonder why God permits bad things to happen to us, and yet we drag our feet, and sometimes forget altogether, when he sends good things our way.   Of course, now and again, when something unusual and significant happens, we might utter the occasional “Thank God!” Even then, our gratitude is often tainted with suspicion.  “Will Kim Jong Un really give up his nuclear weapons, or is this just North Korea’s latest trick?”   And of course, we’re right to have a lack of faith in the goodness of man, especially when they have a track record of trickery and deception, or even if we just don’t know them well enough to be sure of their true intentions.  What we must never do, though, of course, is to lack faith in the goodness of God.  

There are two common sayings that seem to contradict each other.  The first is that we should never look a gift horse in the mouth.  The second is that we should beware the Greeks when they bear gifts.  This second axiom seems the more prudent of the two—after all, if the inhabitants of Troy had looked down the mouth of the Trojan horse, they would have seen the huddled soldiers of the Greek army, poised to climb out and attack as soon as the horse was dragged through the city gates.

But if we remember that all good things come from above, from the Father of lights, then we need have no suspicions that such gifts are not for our own good.  Men may disappoint us, but God never will.  Or as the 117^th Psalm says more simply, “It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any confidence in man.”

Of course, we still have to make sure that the gift we receive is truly from God.  The devil has a way of making evil things look really attractive, and we would never be tempted if this were not so.  This is why we must be swift to hear but slow to speak.  Listen, observe, analyze, practice the virtue of prudence.  Don’t act until you’re sure this is truly from God, truly a good gift.  And how can we know for certain?  By the fruits of that gift.  St. James tells us that if it is a help in saving our souls, then it is a good gift, and therefore from God.  

From this we learn the true nature of the “good gift”.  It is not, perhaps, what we have always imagined.  We may want to thank God for winning the lottery, but if we use our winnings to increase our greed and selfishness and avarice, it was not thanks to God that we picked the winning numbers. And conversely, if we are suddenly struck with serious medical problems, we tend to ask God to restore our health, rather than to thank him for the opportunity of making reparation for our own sins, or for the sins of those we love. So be very careful when things happen to you: make sure you discern correctly what is indeed a “good” gift from above. But once you are certain it’s for the good of your soul, fall to your knees and offer thanks to the Father of lights.