Thanksgiving

Introduction:

Happy Thanksgiving. We gather today, to give thanks to God. So often, when we pray, we ask God for certain things for our lives. For our health, our well being, job promotions, real estate requests, safe travels, God's protection. While those are all good and wonderful requests, but we can sometimes come across as needy people, always approaching God when we are in need. But today, we set aside request prayers, and to offer instead, thanksgiving prayers. We can always find a reason to be thankful. We give thanks to God for all that we are, and all that we have. And we give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the gift of Christ our King, for the gift of the Holy Spirit (the Lord and giver of life), for the gift of faith, hope.

Let us humbly acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries. I confess...

Thanksgiving Homily:

I remember a story told about a woman who had a grandson graduating from high school. And for a gift, she wrote a check to him of $100 for his graduation.  But she never received a note or a phone call, or a word of appreciation.  So one day, she called him up on the telephone, and said: how come you didn’t acknowledge my gift.  And he responded: yes grandma, I did acknowledge your gift.  When I endorsed the back of the check, I wrote: Thanks Grandma.   (that’s the definition of laziness).

We know how important it is to be appreciated. It feels wonderful! Someone acknowledges us for a small act of kindness. It feels good. But when our acts of kindness goes unnoticed, we may be tempted to forego the works of charity. But we must remember that everything we do is for the Lord. As Jesus said: “So that your giving may be seen by the Heavenly Father, and he will reward you.”

Overtime, we can develop a habit of giving, rather than a habit of receiving. As St. Francis once prayed: “It is giving that we receive.” Personally, whenever I feel unhappy or depressed, or moody, I practice giving and sharing. And it changes my attitude almost immediately. There's much joy and peace in giving, sharing and helping others.

Today, we hear about the Lord. He healed 10 lepers. But only one returned to give thanks. And the person who returned was a Samaritan, a foreigner. I can imagine and picture the joy that Jesus had when he was able to help those ten people, and these ten people weren't able to help themselves. (Who are those people in your lives that cannot help themselves) (Can you reach out and help them?)

Only one person returned to give thanks, and the Lord may have felt unappreciated by the other 9. But the joy is in the act of helping others, and giving and sharing. Just picture yourself standing next to Jesus, and seeing the lepers being healed. How wonderful, joyful and awesome it is to witness that miraculous healing and blessing. Try to look at the face of Jesus, and you can see the joy of his facial expression. It's also the same joy that we have, when we imitate Christ, and be Christ for others.

Today, on this Thanksgiving celebration, we gather at Holy Mass  because we are thankful, not because we have to, but because we want to. We may have other things to do, trips to make, turkeys to bake, somewhere, there's a sports game waiting to be watched. In the middle of all that, going to Mass isn’t required. This isn’t a day of obligation.  Rather, it is with an attitude of gratitude, that we offer thanks to God for all that we are, and all that we have.  The blessings and graces that Almighty God gives us.  

It’s an opportunity to think back on what we have been given…and to give something in return: thanksgiving. Very often, in our prayer lives, we spend so much time on our knees, asking for things. Pleading. “God, help me pass this test.” “God, please keep me from strangling my teenager.” “Help me find a job.” “Protect my son or daughter during their deployment.”  Lord, help me to do this, help me to do that.  

Instead, we set aside our prayers of request, and we offer our prayers of thanksgiving.  

I remember CS Lewis once wrote: we will spend all of eternity giving thanks that God didn’t answer some of our prayers.  Because the Heavenly Father knows what we don’t know, and can see what we can’t see.  

In Luke’s gospel today, 10 people are cured by Jesus of leprosy. Only one comes back to say thank you. The person who comes back is a Samaritan. He isn’t Jewish. But neither was St. Luke. Luke is the only one of the evangelists who was not a Jew. And his gospel was written for those, like himself, who were the outsiders, the foreigners. Christ’s message, Luke tells us, is meant for everyone.

But in the gospel story, not everyone comes back.  Only that one, a Samaritan, returns to give glory to God. We don’t know what happened to the other nine. But the one who returned is remembered and recorded in the Gospel. His thanksgiving is duly noted. Giving thanks is a vital and necessary part of our relationship with God.

All the lepers were cured, but only one, the one who gave thanks, was saved.

And that is because thankfulness, we discover, is a measure of faith. A measure of our dependence on God, and of our own humility.

But sometimes thankfulness can be hard to express. Most of us know someone who is having a difficult time this Thanksgiving. The woman who is spending her first holiday as a widow. The father who lost his job and is worried about where he will find Christmas gifts for his children. Those friends and neighbors who are hurting or alone. Where are the blessings for these and others who are feeling, in a particular way, burdened, afflicted, cursed?

Those blessings are closer than we may think. Every breath is a blessing. Every moment. “Bless the God of all,” Sirach exclaims, “who has done wondrous things on earth.” Incredibly, we are part of that wonder, part of God’s continuing creation in the world. And what a blessing to be able to say that!

The German philosopher, Meister Eckhert, once wrote: “If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that will suffice.”

That is why we are here: to pray those words, and to make them matter.

So let’s make this something more than a holiday, more than an excuse to have a second slice of pumpkin pie with whip cream or  take a long nap in front of the television.

Make this very day a kind of prayer of thanksgiving. Beginning here, and now, we can be more thankful to God for all that we are, and all that we have.

Let’s strive to remind ourselves of God’s blessings, wherever we find them, however they come to us. And to give thanks for them, every day, in every moment.

Our first president George Washington had a thanksgiving proclamation written in 1789.  

It includes this beautiful sentence:

“Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”

That author’s magnificent work – truly the greatest story every composed – is continuing. He has made us a part of it. And that is reason enough for us to be here, on this day of opportunity, not obligation, to tell Him how humbled, and happy, and grateful we are.

Happy Thanksgiving.