What is Thanks Giving Day And What Does It Mean To Give Thanks
What is Thanksgiving day all about? What does it mean to give thanks? Who should we give thanks to? Is thanksgiving all about the turkey and the great food and about travelling from one end of the US to the other to be with family and friends? Today, Thursday 25th November, 2010 is Thanksgiving day in the United States, and to help us fully understand what thanks giving really is, the Catholic Church in her wisdom has chosen very special reading for this “very special day.” To help paint the picture for us all, these are the readings that were read at mass today:
The first reading was from Sirach 50: 22-24
And now, bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth; who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb, and fashions them according to his will! May he grant you joy of heart and may peace abide among you; may his goodness toward us endure in Israel to deliver us in our days.
The Gospel reading was the story of the ten lepers:
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten persons with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” Luke 17: 11-19
In both readings mentioned above, as well as the others for the day, the Word of God speaks of giving thanks first and foremost to God “who has done wondrous things on earth; who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb, and fashions them according to his will!” I’d like to take a closer look at the Gospel reading for today. In this story, ten lepers came to Jesus seeking healing from their disease. When Jesus saw them, He told them to go and show themselves to the priests; and on their way, they were cleansed. However, only one of them realized that he had been healed. I think I need to say that again – ten lepers went to Jesus asking for healing; all ten were cleansed of their leprosy. However, only one noticed. Isn’t that incredible?! Isn’t that what we do to God so very often in our lives? We go crying to Him for help and when our prayers are answered, how many of us recognized that God has answered our prayers and give Him thanks?
I have read this story of the ten lepers and have heard it read countless times, but I must admit; this is the first time I have every really seen the line that says, “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice.” I have never noticed the word realizing. It seems to suggest that gratitude is linked to realization. When you think about it, it does make a lot of sense. I cannot be grateful for that which I am not aware of. So to the question of what is thanks giving day all about – it is about realizing; realizing all the blessings that God has showered on each of us. On the other hand, ingratitude is a kind of blindness that can be worse than physically blindness since it causes us to take for granted the blessings we have received.
I am visiting my sister in New Jersey and we just got back from a thanks giving dinner at my family in Brooklyn and my sister was just telling me that there was someone there last year who died before the end of 2009. If you are reading this, then you have been given the gift of life to see another day, and we should give thanks to God for that. At this time of the year, it is pretty cold, especially for someone who is accustomed to the wonderful warm weather of the Caribbean. I could not help but notice and lift up a prayer for the homeless. It is one thing to be homeless in warm weather. I think it is a different story to be homeless in winter, and yet the grace of God sees so many of the homeless through some really very cold temperatures. How many of us take our homes for granted? How many of us are so focused on what we do not have – which in so many instances are not needed – that we fail to recognize what we have – a roof over our heads; and we fail to be thankful for this.
One of the biggest obstacles to gratitude is our selves. We think that we are able to hold down that really great job because we have worked hard and studied hard. We forget or we fail to recognize that there are many who have worked and studied much harder than we have and they are out of jobs. We think that we are healthy because we work out in the gym or because we diet or because we eat healthy, we avoid foods that are supposedly harmful to us, and we do not recognize our life and our health as a gift from God and as such we do not give Him thanks. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you should not exercise and eat healthy. I love to exercise and to eat healthy. But at the end of the day, we must recognize that it is God who gives us the grace and the strength in the first place to exercise. It is He who provides us with the wisdom to know what food and how much we should consume. It is God who blesses us with the finance to buy the healthy food we need, and we should give thanks to Him for that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE-4DsUf_Uo
The story of the ten lepers tells us that there is a difference between being cleansed and being saved. The passage tells us that the ten lepers were cleansed. However, to the one who returned to give thanks, Jesus said, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” So if we want to be saved, if we want to live lives of fulfillment, then we must be people of gratitude who constantly recognize God at work in and around us; even in the circumstances that may seem to be adverse to us, and recognizing that God is love, that He is light and in Him there is no darkness; in recognizing that God not only knows what is best for us, but He desires what is best for us. God loves us all so very much that all that He does, all that He allows to happen to us in meant to bring us closer to Him, and set us on the course towards the ultimate goal – eternal life.
The responsorial psalm used for Thanks Giving Mass was taken from Psalm 145, and it says,
I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
When we really understand what is Thanksgiving day all about and what it mean to give thanks, and who should we give thanks to, we will become people who are constantly giving praise and thanks to our God. We will like the psalmist say, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall always be in my mouth.” Thanks giving then will be every day that we live.
Let us with grateful hearts, give thanks and praise to our God. Let us exalt Him, let us bless His Holy Name, for the Lord is infinitely good, and His goodness towards us endures forever.
