Gratitude is the Foundation for Authentic Christian Living

From Dan Conway’s The Good Steward, October 2007

Just three months after agreeing to a crippling settlement of more than $660 million, the largest sex abuse settlement in Church history, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has issued a pastoral letter on gratitude. The letter, For This You Were Called: Be Thankful, was presented by the Cardinal at a stewardship convocation for more than 125 parish leaders and ministers representing 17 parishes that are part of the initial pilot wave for Growing Stewards, a mission enhancement initiative designed to develop a spirituality of stewardship at the parish level.

Calling it “exciting” and “providential,” the Cardinal said that the new stewardship initiative “really is basic renewal of the Church.”

The effort comes at a historically important moment, added the Cardinal, following more than five difficult years of confronting the scandal of sex abuse within the Church. “Your faith over these years has been so inspiring to me,” Cardinal Mahony told parishioners gathered at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in Los Angeles. “This is a very special moment for us, and I think that the whole stewardship concept is one of the main pillars of rebuilding who we are here in the archdiocese of Los Angeles.”

Calling attention to some basic themes in the brief pastoral letter, the Cardinal began by emphasizing that “Gratitude is the foundation for authentic Christian living.” Disciples of Jesus are called to carry the cross with their Lord, but this does not mean that we are to be bitter or resentful. “When we are grateful, we don’t lose sight of the pain and suffering in human life,” Cardinal Mahony writes. “But being grateful does allow us to see the challenges of life from the perspective of God’s gift constantly being offered, even and especially amidst pain and suffering, grief and anxiety.” …

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