“Charis always demands the answer of eucharistia. Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning. Not by virtue of any necessity of the concepts as such. But we are speaking of the grace of the God who is God for man, and of the gratitude of man as his response to this grace…
Radically and basically all sin is simply ingratitude—man’s refusal of the one but necessary thing which is proper to and is required of him with whom God has graciously entered into covenant. As far as man is concerned, there can be no question of anything but gratitude; but gratitude is the complement which man must necessarily fulfill.”
Karl Barth (1886-1968) in Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of Reconciliation (London: T&T Clark, 2004) 41-42.
I posted this before my backpacking trip about 8 miles into the Gila National Forest in New Mexico where Sammy and I are camping near Mogollon Creek and it will likely rain on us. When I hear thunder and lightning, this is what I am going to think about: “Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning.”
When you see lightning this summer, and then hear the thunder clap, join me in remembering this: “Grace (charis) always demands the answer of gratitude (eucharistia)!”