“Always giving thanks”
NOVEMBER 24, 2016
THE FEAST OF THANKSGIVING DAY
Inventory
How often do we consciously thank God?
And for what kind of things, most of the time? Do we show our gratitude in
action?
Input
The Entrance
Antiphon says we should thank God for “everything” and “always”: “Sing and play music in your hearts to the
Lord, always giving thanks for everything to God the Father in the Name of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephe.sians
5:19-20)
In
the Opening Prayer we accept our
responsibility as stewards to do what
needs to be done. We say formally to God, “On Thanksgiving Day we come before
you with gratitude for your kindness.” And we ask him to “open our hearts to
concern for our fellow men and women, so that we may share your gifts in loving
service.” Both of these are things that need to be said. And more than once a
year.
We
make this statement on Thanksgiving Day as a church, as members of the human
race, and as citizens of a country that has recognized from its very beginnings
the importance of giving thanks to God. The Great Seal of the United States,
printed on every dollar bill, shows the eye of an all-seeing Providence (which
for believers means God) surmounted by the words Annuit coeptis, “He has smiled on these beginnings.” These words
are inspired by the prayer of Aeneas’ son in Virgil’s Aeneid, book IX, which reads, Iuppiter omnipotens,
audacibus adnue cœptis: “Almighty Jupiter, favor [my] daring
undertakings."
The Great Seal proclaims the nation’s belief that God approved its foundation.
In the Prayer over the Gifts we
acknowledge, “God our Father, from your hand we have received generous gifts,”
and we go on to add, “so that we might learn to share your blessings in gratitude.”
All
three Mass prayers remind us that gratitude calls us to share with others. In
the Prayer After Communion we say
that God’s love “for every man and woman” reminds us of our own “negligence
toward others.” We ask God to help us “reach out in love to all your people, so
that we may share with them the goods of time and eternity.”
This is the spirit of stewardship. We are aware
that all we have is gift, and that God wants us to use his gifts for the good
of others. They are his free act of love to us, but they are also his
investment. God gives to those who have, expecting them to use what they have
to help those who have not.
“Having” and “having not” do not just refer to
money, but to the “everything” we thank God for. Those who have possessions,
skills, health, disposable time, or just cheerfulness and a smile to express
it, are expected to use these for the good of others. Our baptismal
consecration as stewards who share in
the responsibilities of Christ’s kingship commits us to it.
Thanksgiving and praise
Sirach
50:22-24
alerts us that thanksgiving and praise go together. We “bless God” because he
has “done wondrous things on earth.” Sirach focuses on the most basic, the
source of all: God “fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb.” Our very
existence is an ongoing activity of God choosing to make us be. If he paused
for even an eyeblink, we would instantly cease to exist. God’s continuing
choice that we should esse et bene esse
— “be and be all we can be” (St. Augustine’s definition of love) — is all that
stands between us and absolute nothingness.
God’s “steadfast love” is our only
ultimate guarantee that we will continue to have existence itself, not to
mention anything else that gives us the “joy of heart” Sirach wishes us. If we
keep ourselves aware of this fundamental truth, both as individuals and as a
nation, by praising God privately and publicly for his “goodness toward us,” we
will be freed from false and destructive dependence on affluence or power. Only
then will “peace abide among us.” The Responsorial
(Psalm 145) suggests we respond: “I will praise your name forever, Lord.”
For God
and country
Paul
underscores the essential connection between peace and the favor (grace) of God
by beginning all thirteen of the letters attributed to him with the words
“grace and peace,” as he does in 1Corinthians
1:3-9. And like Sirach, he
builds peace on praise and gratitude:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always for you because of
the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you
have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind... so that you
are not lacking in any spiritual gift.
Paul
roots our peace in confidence based on God’s steadfast love: “He will keep you
firm to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful.” Our peace grows out of thanksgiving nourished by
praise. Response: “I will praise your
name forever, Lord.”
A sobering
thought
In
Luke 17:11-19 Jesus tells a story
with a hook. Ten lepers are cured. Only one returns to say “Thank you.” Jesus
says to this one, “Go on your way; your faith has saved you.”
It
makes us wonder about the other nine. They were cured of leprosy, but how much
good did it do them? And we, if we receive the gifts of God without
acknowledging them in conscious praise and thanksgiving, what do we miss out
on?
Getting
down to particulars, how consciously — and how enthusiastically — do we praise
God at Mass? Especially during the Introductory
Rites which are especially designed to supply us with matter for praise.
Do
we listen to the words of the Greeting,
to the phrases of the Gloria? Do we
say them trying to mean them and to grow into meaning them more and more?
It
is a basic principle of life, celebrated on this day and affirmed in all three
readings, that praise and thanksgiving foster appreciation. And appreciation
fosters love. Bottom line: “I will praise
your name forever, Lord.”
Insight
Do I see the connection between praise, thanksgiving, appreciation and
love?
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Initiative:
Make the connection
in family, social life, work and church.
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