Entitlement and gratitude are two feelings we have within ourselves that at times are at odds with one another.  When we feel we are entitled to something, the reason could be that we worked for it.  We sacrificed, put in time and effort and feel we deserve what we worked for.  Hard work and dedication are very necessary parts of our lives.  God has given us all talents, abilities and good people in our lives.  It is because of these gifts that we can achieve what we have and are.  But before we feel entitled to something, the first thing to recognize is that all is a gift, beginning with life itself.  We have just begun a new year, 2008.  How fortunate and blessed we are to be alive at this time in human history and to be living in America.  The more we realize that all we have and are becoming are blessings, the more grateful we become.  It is that deep rooted gratitude that fosters a healthy sense of humility.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.  The main point we focus on here is that God came into the world in Jesus as a Jew, but he came to save all people.  The Magi were not from Israel, but from a foreign land.  They followed the divine guidance of the star and found the child Jesus.  It would seem that these were men of means and probably power (we do refer to them as the three kings).  The gospel today tells us that when they found the child Jesus they prostrated themselves and offered him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  If they were kings, prostration would have been something people did in their presence.  But here we see how grateful they are to have found the child Jesus as they bow down in wonder, awe and gratitude.  Throughout the gospels we see Jesus challenging his fellow country men and women to see that he has come to love and save all people.  That includes foreigners, or non Jews, as well as those judged by so many of his time as sinful or unworthy of love or concern from themselves or God.  There is his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, the forgiving of the "good thief" on the cross, his dining with tax collectors and sinners, his feet being anointed by a woman with a "bad reputation." These and many other incidents in the gospels are meant to open our minds in wonder and expand our acceptance of one another and all people.

We do have a difficult time with those who have hurt and angered us.  We get angry, think vengeful thoughts and offer our opinion of them verbally freely and vehemently. Jesus was hurt, betrayed, denied and unjustly put to death. Yet through all of these and the other experiences of opposition he faced, he remained loving and merciful.  He did not come to divide us, but to unite us.  Looking at what he experienced from a human point of view we could easily sympathize with him if he decided to be vengeful and spiteful to those who treated him so unjustly and with malice in their hearts.  Jesus was not acceptable to everyone.  Herod tried to kill him as an infant.  Religious leaders were scandalized by him for the way he taught and the way he was opening peoples’ understanding to who God really is. Yet the fact is, all people, thank God for you and I, are acceptable and desired to be saved by Jesus.

One of the dividing issues in our country is immigration, those who are here legally and illegally.  So often we hear people condemning them for coming here to America.  It is sad to hear so much anger at these poor simple people.  People comment on their inability to speak English and their presence in our nation.  Yet we so often look the other way when they are the ones behind the scenes in the jobs none of us or our children no longer want.  They are the ones washing the dishes in restaurants, cutting our lawns, and running the convenience stores where we can satisfy our desire for food and drink twenty-four hours a day.  We need to respect the laws of our nation, but first as followers of Jesus, we have the responsibility to share the blessings of our goodness, abundance and love. This issue makes me grateful first of all that I have been blessed with the gift of life and the gift of being born in America.  Rather than focus on the "threat" these people so often seem to stir up in our minds, our first thought should be gratitude for all we have and are.  How fortunate for us that Jesus, who did not speak English (it wasn’t even language at his time), listens to our prayers and showers us with his love and mercy.

Father Walden