To be a saint is to be motivated by gratitude, nothing more and nothing less. Scripture, everywhere and always, makes this point. Fr. Ron Rolheiser points us toward the example of Adam and Eve’s sin. It was, first and foremost, a failure in receptivity and gratitude. God gives them life, each other, and the garden and asks them only to receive it properly, in gratitude and thanks. Only after doing this do we go on to “break and share.” Before all else, we first give thanks. To receive something in gratitude and be suitably grateful is the primary foundation of all religious attitudes. Proper gratitude is the ultimate virtue. It defines sanctity. Saints, holy persons, are thankful people who see and receive everything as a gift. The converse is also true. Anyone who takes life and love for granted should never be confused with a saint. Fr. Rolheiser speaks of a patient brought into the hospital ward he was in for a knee injury from the emergency room. His pain was so severe that his groans kept us awake. The doctors had just worked on him, and it was then left to a single nurse to attend to him. Several times that night, she entered the room to minister to him: changing bandages, giving medication, and so on. Each time, as she walked away from his bed, he would, despite his extreme pain, thank her. Finally, after this had happened several times, she said to him: “Sir, you don’t need to thank me. That is my job!” “Ma’am!” he replied, “It’s nobody’s job to take care of me! Nobody owes me that. I want to thank you! He genuinely appreciated what this nurse was doing for him, and he was right; it isn’t anybody’s job to take care of us! Our propensity to forget this gets us into trouble. The failure to be appropriately grateful, to take as owed what’s offered as a gift, lies at the root of many of our deepest resentments towards others and their resentments towards us. Invariably, when we are angry at someone, especially at those closest to us, it is precisely because we are not being appreciated (that is, thanked) properly. Conversely, I suspect more than a few people harbor resentment towards us because we consciously or unconsciously think it is their job to care for us. Like Adam and Eve, we take what can only be received gratefully as a gift as if it is ours by right. That goes against the very contours of love. It is the original sin.