There was once a very rich man who was always complaining and never content. He even went so far as to say that God was not good to him.

Finally, a Franciscan friar decided to show this unhappy man how wrong it is to speak like that. So he went to the rich man one day, and told him the following story:

“I once saw a blind man walking on the edge of a high cliff. He did not know the danger he was in, so he fell down into the depths below. He was not killed, but his arms and legs were broken. I was very much grieved at the accident; so I ran to the place where the poor man was lying, and said to him:

“ ‘Tell me, my good man, what you would give to someone who would not only heal your legs and arms, but even restore to you your sight?’

“ ‘Oh,’ he answered, ‘if anyone could do that for me, I would be happy to be his slave all the days of my life, to show him how grateful I was.’

“And you, O rich man, you have received from God the use of your eyes, and hands, and feet, and all your other senses. Besides this, He has given you many temporal goods. And yet you say that God has not been kind to you.”

At these words, grace touched the rich man. He saw how wrong it was for him to complain, since God had not only spared him from those misfortunes, but He also gave him so many other blessings.

Gratitude is a precious grace. A person who is ungrateful can never be happy, no matter how many pleasures they are surrounded with.

On the other hand, someone who is grateful for God’s generous Love for them, will truly appreciate life’s joys, bravely endure its hardships, and be all the happier forever in the life to come.