THANKSGIVING-2022

 Bishop Gerland Kennedy of California tells the true story of a shipwreck off the coast of Evanston, Ill, many years ago. The students of Northwestern University came to the rescue. One student, Edward Spenser, personally saved the lives of 17 persons that day. Years later a reporter was writing a follow up story on the event, and went to interview the now elderly Spenser. When asked what was the one thing that stood out about the incident in his mind; Spenser replied: “I remember that of the seventeen people I saved that day, not one of them ever thanked me.

Jesus asks today where are the other nine? Why don’t they come back to thank for the healing? Thanksgiving is very much fitting for a true human being.

Thanksgiving Day also has a profound religious meaning, because giving thanks is the very heart of our natural and spiritual life.  For us as Catholics, the central act of worship is called the Eucharist, a Greek word for Thanksgiving. In the Mass, we give thanks to God through Jesus, and share a sacred meal in which we acknowledge the fact that everything we have comes from God.  

Thanksgiving is the most uniquely American of all our holidays.  President Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, established Thanksgiving Day as a formal holiday in which we express our thanks to God for the many blessings He has provided.  

There are basically two types of people in our world: the grateful and the ungrateful.  Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns, but we should be thankful that thorns have roses.

Today’s Gospel tells the story of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed.  Only one of them, a Samaritan – a Jew despised and held unclean for being in schism – returned to give Him thanks.  The other nine (who were “real” Jews), apparently considered their healing as something they had a right to, whereas the Samaritan took it as an undeserved gift from God.  This Gospel reminds us that even God desires our gratitude.  “Where are the other nine?” Jesus asked with pain. Reading from the gospel we can see that there are more ungrateful people than grateful ones in this society.

There was once a lady who complained about everything and everybody. Finally, her pastor found something that she couldn’t complain about. The lady’s crop of potatoes was the finest for miles around. He said to her, “For once you must be pleased. Everyone is saying how splendid your potatoes are this year.” The lady glared at him and said, “They are not so bad, but where are the rotten ones for the pigs?”

We can always find something to be thankful for, no matter how band our situation in life may be. St. Paul admonishes us today, “Always be thankful” (Col 3:17).  It is a Christian’s duty as well as a privilege to be grateful for the blessings of God (Dt 8:10; Ps 107:19, 21; Col 1:12-14; Phil 1:3).  “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.  His love endures forever” (1 Chr 16:34). 

 

There is a beautiful Thanksgiving Day Prayer which we can pray on this occasion:

Oh, Heavenly Father,

We thank Thee for food and remember the hungry.

We thank Thee for health and remember the sick.

We thank Thee for friends and remember the friendless.

We thank Thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.

May these remembrances stir us to service,

That Thy gifts to us may be used for others.
Amen