Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 8
Thursday, April 20, 2000
From taking God for granted
to taking God as granted
All contents copyright ©2000 by CNS
FOOD FORTHOUGHT
By Father Richard Rice, SJ
Catholic News Service
e had lived together in com-
munity for seven years. I considered
myself fortunate to know him both as
a brother Jesuit and a friend. Yet it
was not until I visited Chuck in the
hospital as he was recovering from a
surprising heart attack that I realized
how deeply blessed I was to have him
in my life.
Since that visit I have prayed daily
to God in gratitude for Chuck and in
petition for his health. I realize now
If e become ‘practical
atheists’ without ever re
jecting God. There is simply
no longer room for God in our
day, in our refrigerators and
freezers, in our SUVs.”
how much I had taken Chuck for
granted.
Why does it take a crisis or a trag
edy to awaken us to the meaning of
life?
When we have things we tend to
take them for granted. That is true
especially of our daily relationships,
whether they be with God, a friend or
family member, or a part of ourselves
such as our eyesight or our memory.
The propensity to take someone or
something for granted was true of our
ancestors, and it remains true of us.
There is a remarkably contemporary
rendition of this fact deep in the Book
of Hosea. God is speaking:
“I am the Lord, your God,
“since the land of Egypt,
“you know no God besides me,
“And there is no savior but me.
“I fed you in the desert,
“In the torrid land.
“They ate their fill,
“When filled, they became proud of
heart
“And forgot me.” (Hosea 13:4-6)
From Hosea’s inspired point of
view, the years in the desert were our
honeymoon with God. We were daily
dependent for food and water and se
curity, and so we were aware continu
ally of God’s activity on our behalf and
grateful for it.
But we creatures have short memo
ries. We stay close to God and to each
other as long as we are in the desert,
but when we come into the promised
lands of our lives we start thinking
that our prosperity is our own accom
plishment. We more and more use the
perpendicular pronoun — I — to pro
claim our accomplishments and to
store up against everyday depen
dency.
As a wise person said, the thing
about life is that it is “so damn daily,”
or, I might add, so blessedly daily — if
we choose to view it as such.
When we have things, we tend to
take them for granted.
How does this happen?
—We find the work and play of our
hands so attractive that we virtually
begin worshiping them and ourselves.
We cease reflecting on who they pro
ceed from and what they are intended
for.
—We become “practical atheists”
without ever rejecting God. There is
—Do I begin my day grateful for
another day of life, for all that I em
body, from breathing to hearing?
—Do I begin my meals grateful to
God for providing for us, to the earth
for nourishing us, to those who pre
pare and serve our food?
—Ala G.K. Chesterton, do I say
grace before my work, aware of how
fortunate I am to contribute to the
human enterprise? Do I say grace be
need to ask myself how much I invite
God into my life.
■ ■ ■
A friend of mine likes to say that
the trick is to quit taking life “for”
granted and to start taking it “as”
granted. The best bridge from the
first stance to the second is grati
tude.
We immerse ourselves in gratitude
every time we begin our Eucharistic
fore attending the symphony or an
opera, grateful to God for music and to
the composer and musicians? Do I say
grace before and after I walk with a
friend, aware of the miracle of inti
macy?
If I can answer yes to those ques
tions, I am living the reflective life
Socrates praised. I am living as if God
does exist.
If I answered no, then perhaps I
Prayer at Mass: “Father, it is right
always and everywhere to give you
thanks.”
The more that is our constant
prayer, the more we are taking God as
granted and the more God is alive to
us and we to God.
(Jesuit Father Rice is a spiritual
director with Loyola, a spiritual re
newal resource in St. Paul, Minn.)
simply no longer room for God in our
day, in our refrigerators and freezers,
in our SUVs.
Pope John Paul II has asked people
during this jubilee year to examine
whether they live as if God does or does
not exist. What is to be examined?
I find that the way I begin and end
my activities reveals whether I truly
believe God exists or not.
There is a tendency today “to forget God or to keep him at a distance,” Pope John Paul II wrote.
My question: Do believers themselves sometimes keep God at a distance? Why?
Here are three possible reasons:
—Anger; a conviction that God lets people down.
—Boredom. One doesn’t grasp why others think God connects with life’s most compelling dimensions.
—Misunderstandings of God as cold, remote.
A November 1999 U.S. bishops’ message comes to mind here. They recalled England’s Cardinal George Basil
Hume once describing a letter from a woman, who said:
“A man who became a prominent Christian said how his idea of God was revolutionized as a little boy when he
was taken to visit an old lady and the old lady pointed out to him a text on her wall: ‘Thou, God, seest me’ (Gn
16:13). She said to him: “You see those words? They do not mean that God is always watching you to see what you
are doing wrong. They mean that he loves you so much that he cannot take his eyes off you.’ That’s the secret to the
whole thing.”
14 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!