God keeps on feeding us –Deut 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Jn 6:51-58

Corpus Christi; St. Joe parish (South Bend).

I’ve spoken to a number of people recently who have articulated to me in different ways the same conviction: that they wish they’d been more grateful for certain things before the pandemic. That there were things they’d taken for granted that they promised themselves they would never take for granted again. And my reaction to all of that is… complicated. In some ways it isn’t. I think gratitude is a wonderful thing, of course. It’s an act of justice towards God, the giver of all good things, and towards people of good will who when they cooperate with God’s generosity. Being grateful for what we have can keep us from being proud over what we have, or jealous of what others have, and can make it easier to be generous with what we have.  The reason that my reaction to this impulse is complicated isn’t that I think gratitude is unimportant, and more that I know how hard it is.