We all need Thanksgiving  

Perhaps the first thing most parents teach their children is the importance of saying please and thank you. By the time we reach the two-year old stage of life most of us become quite comfortable with having life revolve around ourselves. We want what we want, when we want it, the way we want it, and until we don’t want it. But we soon learn that we have to be polite and “ask nicely” for what we would otherwise demand. Likewise, when we receive something, there is the lesson of saying “thank you” to the one from whom we receive. A world without “please” and “thank you” would be harsh and unbearable. Without these two very simple acknowledgments of others, we would likely become severe in most of our social interactions. Saying “please” and “thank you” sends out a ripple of kindness and dials back a bit the harshness of our world.  

To enrich the experience of Thanksgiving Day this year, I would encourage you to make some internal preparations for the day. While we look forward to spending time with relatives and friends, with great food as a big part of our coming together, we might also find some time to take stock of all our blessings. Think of the basics in life that we all take for granted….like the fact that we expect the lights to come on when we flip the switch, or that good, clean water will pour out of the faucet as soon as we turn it on. We expect the car to start as soon as we engage the ignition, and we expect to find the exact item we need from the store whenever we buy groceries. But are we grateful? 

In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4: 7) he writes, “What do you have that you have not received?” Then he says, “And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not?”  Clearly, gratitude should be the constant disposition of our lives as we recognize that everything we have comes from the Lord. Everything is a gift and so we ought to humbly receive everything as a blessing. Yes, with the money we earn we provide ourselves with the food we eat and the clothes we wear, but are we grateful for the jobs that enable us to have these things? Again, name something you have that you have not received. 

And all that we have received should point us back to the Lord as the source of every gift and blessing. It is good that we have a national holiday to praise and thank God for all our blessings, yet thanksgiving should characterize our life before the Lord each and every day.  In doing so, we appreciate more the loving providence of God.  And if “at the heart of the gift is the love of the giver,” then continual praise and thanksgiving keep us from falling into an attitude of entitlement, with the expectation that God owes us anything. Gratitude is the single most effective way to reset our attitude about life. 

Now let’s say there have been a number of occasions in our lives this past year that have not gone our way, or as we had hoped. Perhaps our health has declined in some way. Or financially, there are things that cause us serious concern. Maybe someone dear to us has gone to the Lord and how we wish they were still alive. In any number of ways, we might be experiencing a certain distance from the Lord as we struggle to understand and accept these situations.  It is precisely here in each of these contexts that we can find new vitality in the pain and sorrow, if we choose to do so.  And that new vitality comes with a grateful heart. 

Let us be grateful for the good health we have known. Let us give thanks for the financial blessings we have enjoyed. Let us praise God for the incredible persons in our lives, who though no longer here, were such tremendous gifts to us. Let us raise up praise and thanksgiving for all the good we have enjoyed. Psalm 34:2-3 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be always in my mouth. My soul will glory in the Lord, let the poor hear and be glad.” This disposition of gratitude enables us to also persevere through the challenges because we know they are not the whole story. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his spiritual exercises, instructs us in this regard. He says, in desolation remember that consolation will return, and in consolation, remember times of desolation are inevitable. In this way, the “highs” don’t become too elating, and the “lows” don’t become too devastating. Rather, in all things, we can remain at peace knowing that the Lord is with us. Gratitude teaches us to let God take charge of our lives with trust that his grace will come to us in everything, including the challenges that come our way. My spiritual director, who died last Spring, used to ask me, “Have you thanked God for the adversity?” If we entrust our lives to the Lord, we can grow in the grace to see God at work in everything. 

The word, Eucharist, in Greek means “thanksgiving,” and every celebration of the Mass is an act of thanksgiving for the saving love God has for us in Christ Jesus. For ultimately, the gift for which we must all give thanks is the Paschal Mystery – the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus. With some time of reflection before Thanksgiving Day, the best way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to go to Mass that morning. So, whether this past year has been filled with tremendous blessings or serious hardships and difficulties (or both), it will do our hearts good to bring it all to the Lord and offer it to him on the altar at Mass. As we place before him all that we have and all that we are, he gives us his very self and sustains us in faith, hope and charity. 

We all need Thanksgiving Day as a time to gain renewed perspective on life and that perspective comes to us through the sincere thanks we give to God for the entirety of our lives.  In the full reality of who we are – saints one day and sinners the next; generous one day and selfish the next; joyful one day and discouraged the next – let us “praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Let Thanksgiving Day begin a new ripple effect of vitality in our culture, starting with sincere gratitude welling up in our hearts! 

Let me leave you with this...

Psalm 145: 1-20 

I will extol you, my God and king; 

I will bless your name forever and ever. 

Every day I will bless you; 

I will praise your name forever and ever.  

Great is the LORD and worthy of much praise,  

whose grandeur is beyond understanding. 

One generation praises your deeds to the next 

and proclaims your mighty works.  

They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, 

tell of your wonderful deeds.  

They speak of the power of your awesome acts 

and recount your great deeds.  

They celebrate your abounding goodness 

and joyfully sing of your justice. 

The LORD is gracious and merciful, 

slow to anger and abounding in mercy. 

The LORD is good to all, 

compassionate toward all your works.  

All your works give you thanks, LORD 

and your faithful bless you.  

They speak of the glory of your reign 

and tell of your mighty works, 

Making known to the sons of men your mighty acts, 

the majestic glory of your rule. 

Your reign is a reign for all ages, 

your dominion for all generations.  

The LORD is trustworthy in all his words, 

and loving in all his works. 

The LORD supports all who are falling 

and raises up all who are bowed down.  

The eyes of all look hopefully to you; 

you give them their food in due season.  

You open wide your hand 

and satisfy the desire of every living thing. 

The LORD is just in all his ways, 

merciful in all his works.  

The LORD is near to all who call upon him, 

to all who call upon him in truth.  

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; 

he hears their cry and saves them.  

The LORD watches over all who love him, 

but all the wicked he destroys.  

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