While Thanksgiving Day is a national, we could even say, secular, holiday, filled with parades and fancy meals, it is also a day for us Christians and Catholics to stop, look and listen with the ear of the heart to what our God is saying to us.
First, we can say that God’s will is that we should give thanks at all times, as Saint Paul reminds us: “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Every day we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, whose very name means, “giving thanks.”
Every Sunday at Lauds we monks chant Psalm 117, which boldly proclaims, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.” That’s just example of the many places in the psalms where we hear the exhortation to thank God.
Gratitude, the act of giving thanks out loud or in the heart, is the appropriate response to God, our Creator, Lord and Savior, who in his goodness redeems and sustains us. Ingratitude, on the other hand, is missing the mark, and to be avoided at all costs.
When we set our minds and hearts on practicing an attitude of thanksgiving in our lives, we follow the example given us by Jesus himself, who expressed gratitude to the Father throughout his life and ministry.
Everything we have and everything we are is a gift of God, and we need to cultivate an appropriate response toward the one who has given us so much. Sure, we all have our aches and pains, setbacks and sorrows, troubles of body, mind and spirit. But that should never stop us from carrying on, even joyfully, and never to despair of God’s mercy, as Saint Benedict reminds his followers.
Pope Francis has said this about the virtue of gratitude:
“Gratitude is always a powerful weapon. Only if we are able to contemplate and feel genuine gratitude for all those ways we have experienced God’s love, generosity, solidarity and trust, as well as God’s forgiveness, patience, forbearance and compassion, will we allow the Spirit to grant us the freshness that can renew our life and mission. Like Peter on the morning of the miraculous catch of fish, may we let the recognition of all the blessings we have received, awaken in us the amazement and gratitude that can enable to say with Saint Peter: ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man’ (Luke 5:8). Only then to hear the Lord repeat his summons: ‘Do not be afraid, from now on you will be fishers of men” (Luke 5:10), ‘For his mercy endures forever.’”
May the Word of God and the Bread of Life which we celebrate at every Eucharist, the Conventual Mass, as we call it in the monastery, strengthen our devotion as individuals and as a community and inspire us to practice without ceasing gratitude in our lives. Give thanks to the Lord for all good and perfect gifts, as we worship our True and Living God.
Happy Thanksgiving Day to all!