by: F.R. Duplantier

Making a list of the gifts we have received can be a good way to develop our sense of gratitude and to sharpen our ability to recognize the hidden benefits in things that have not come gift-wrapped. We might begin our survey of possessions, aptitudes, and opportunities by listing those things that we recognize immediately as gifts: the presents we receive for birthdays and at Christmastime, the year-end bonuses, the door prize at the church social. . . . Then we might list those things we take for granted that reflection will reveal as gifts: our health; our knack for music, games, or gardening; the perfect weather for last weekend's picnic. . . . Next, a list of rights, which, if we're honest, we will concede are not rights at all but privileges or gifts: life, liberty, good fortune. . . .

Nonbelievers may shower their appreciation on evolutionists, humanists, and technocrats. The rest of us readily acknowledge that God is the source, direct or indirect, of all gifts. But do we thank Him properly, by making the most of the gifts He has given us? The familiar parable of the talents suggests that it is not enough to reach the judgment day merely with the gifts God has given us intact. If they were aptitudes, we ought to have developed them. If they were graces, we ought to have invested them wisely. If they were opportunities, we ought to have made the most of them. If they were obstacles, we ought to have overcome them.

Salvation is a gift that everyone should want to receive. The promise of salvation was, and is, the first Christmas gift. It is a gift beside which all others pale. And yet, it is a gift that most people reject. Today, as more and more parents seem to be neglecting their primary responsibility of teaching their children the importance of this gift, the numbers of the ignorant are on the rise. The numbers of the forgetful seem to be increasing too, as technological advances allow ever more manmade marvels to compete for our attention with the made-man marvel of Christ.

The missionary zeal of atheists ensures that thousands upon thousands will remain ignorant, or forgetful, of the true identity of their Benefactor. Taught to sneer at every sign of the supernatural, they will believe in the divinity of nature, the divinity of man, the divinity of science, the divinity of every abstraction that comes down the pike, before they will believe in the divinity of God. They will take salvation for granted, they will proclaim it as a right, or they will reject it as an insufferable burden.

What will we do? Will we show gratitude for the promise of salvation? Or will we fancy ourselves grateful and stand idly by while millions of others reject the gift that we have accepted for ourselves? Will we allow our parents, our spouses, our children, our friends, our enemies -- knowingly or unknowingly -- to reject the gift of God to man? What kind of gratitude would that be?