Thanksgiving is a celebration that truly marks a fundamental attitude upon which our great nation has flourished. It is the attitude of gratitude.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in gratitude for the fruits of the earth, new friendships that were forged, as well as the freedom and opportunity that coming to these shores brought. Despite the hardships, sacrifices and losses, which the Pilgrims faced on their journey here, they were grateful to God for what they had. Since that time through its formal proclamation as a holiday in our nation by Abraham Lincoln, the celebration of Thanksgiving is truly a hallmark of our nation. It is also a hallmark of our nations recognition that all gifts, especially that of life, come from God.
The attitude of gratitude is one that is part of Gods very nature. Gratitude is an expression of love. God is love and for all eternity gives himself away and literally sacrifices himself. It is that love which is his life as a community of persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In their eternal expression of love for each other, the persons of the Trinity also express gratitude to each other. That gratitude was so often reflected in the life of the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, who always prayed to his Father in a stance of thanksgiving.
At this time of Thanksgiving, it is well for us to reflect upon Christs giving thanks to his Father, which reflected both his human and divine attitude of gratitude. When he performed the miracle of multiplying bread for the crowd, we are told that he first gave thanks to his Father. Gratitude for food was an essential part of the Lords life. This is sublimely reflected in his giving thanks to his Father at the Last Supper and then changing bread and wine into his body and blood as the eternal covenant of his sacrifice for us.
At this first Eucharist, Christ showed the fullness of the meaning of thanksgiving, which is precisely what the word Eucharist means. He also showed how intimately love and gratitude are associated as he sacrificed himself for us by giving himself completely to the Father on the cross. As we celebrate Thanksgiving, it is the Eucharist, which reflects to us what the true meaning of Thanksgiving is all about. We give thanks to God for the food he gives us and especially for the bread of life he gives us in the Eucharist.
It is important to realize that giving thanks and praise of God go hand in hand. This is very obvious in the narratives of the words of institution in the Eucharistic Prayers that are said at Mass. As the priest prepares to speak the words of consecration, he first narrates how Jesus gave thanks and praise when he took the bread and wine at the Last Supper. Praise and thanks are part of the same attitude. Interestingly, when Jesus prayed, I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, you have revealed them to the childlike (Lk 10:21), some translations use the word thanks in place of the word praise.
In this context, it is helpful for us to realize that although the Lords Prayer, the Our Father, does not use the word thanks, it is obviously a prayer of thanksgiving. To pray hallowed be thy name is to give praise to God, which is also to give him gratitude. When we ask God for our daily bread, Christs presupposition is that we are also thanking God for the bread already received. Again, Christ always presupposed thanksgiving in terms of sustenance. When we pray the Our Father, we should reflect on how each of the petitions leads us to an attitude of gratitude. That is why it is the prayer Christ gave to his disciples as the formula for all prayer. It is also why we pray it immediately after the Eucharistic Prayer in the Mass.
There are times in the Gospels when Jesus also tells us how not to give thanks. The most obvious is that of the 10 lepers whom Jesus cures of their terrible affliction (cf. Lk 17:11-19). After the cured lepers are sent on their way, only one returns to give thanks, causing Jesus to question what happened to the other nine. Perhaps they were thankful in their hearts, but they would not make the sacrifice to go out of their way to express that gratefulness to Christ for the great gift he had given them. It is important to note that the one cured leper returned, glorifying God in a loud voice (Lk 17:15). Here again is the close association between praise and thanksgiving. Even if the nine other cured lepers were grateful, they did not give praise to God.
Another example of our Lord telling us how not to give thanks is that of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who go to the temple to pray (cf. Lk 18:9-14). The Pharisee, with head unbowed, gives thanks to God but for all the wrong reasons. He thanks God that he is not like the rest of people, including the tax collector humbly standing in the back of the temple with head bowed. The Pharisee thanks God because he thinks he is so virtuous and unlike others. He makes clear to God the unfounded presumption that he is not a sinner. He gives thanks and praise to himself but not to God.
The tax collector, however, prays simply, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner (Lk 18:13). Jesus tells us the tax collector went home justified while the Pharisee did not. In reality, the tax collector did give thanks to God because recognition of sinfulness is also a form of praise of God upon whom we completely depend.
The celebration of Thanksgiving gives us reason to reflect upon the attitude of gratitude and to cultivate it more within our lives. It is a virtue of which St. Paul constantly speaks and asks us to cultivate as exemplified in his words, Dedicate yourself to thankfulness. Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give thanks to God the Father through him (Col 3:14-17). We have much for which we should be thankful and we should give praise to God for it.
May our thankfulness help us to realize more and more our dependency upon God whom we praise for the gift of life. May it also help us to engender a greater respect for this great gift which is given to us at the moment of our conception. True gratitude was present in our nation in its beginning. May we always recognize what true gratitude means and to whom it is properly addressed.
A blessed Thanksgiving to all of you and your families!
"No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things (the nations blessings/bounties). They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union ..."-Abraham Lincoln
Excerpt from Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Oct. 3, 1863 (three months after the Battle of Gettysburg)
Reprinted with permission from the Florida Catholic.
* The Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito is bishop of the diocese of Palm Beach, Florida.
Bishop Barbarito was formally from the Diocese of Brooklyn, my diocese, and gave us deacons a great retreat years ago. He's is a great speaker, who should be in the spotlight more. We're happy that he is with us here in Florida.
Deacon John
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