For me, Thanksgiving always carries with it joy-filled memories of time with family. We would often gather on my mom’s side of the family with my cousins and share the day together. Thanksgiving was the day when my grandma would prepare the famous “Turkey While You Sleep,” which required someone (usually me when I didn’t sleep through it) to get up in the middle of the night to turn the oven off as the turkey cooked the rest of the night. We would spend the morning talking, eating together, usually sleeping through the football game after lunch, and enjoying each other’s company through the evening.
I have a vivid memory of my first Thanksgiving after I entered the seminary. I had just started regularly praying the Liturgy of the Hours, and I remember sitting outside the house praying morning prayer. The reading for that day, by God’s providence, particularly struck me. It came from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of justice, peace, and the joy that is given by the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way pleases God and wins the esteem of men. Let us, then, make it our aim to work for peace and to strengthen one another” (Romans 14:17-19).
It’s all too easy for real thanksgiving to God to be relegated to a brief prayer before lunch or dinner as we focus on the things he has given us to enjoy rather than focusing on the one who has given them to us. Gratitude is a profound spiritual posture that we cannot afford to leave because it forms the heart of our interior life and our relationship with God. At that moment, the Lord reminded me of the importance of not letting the important virtue of gratitude get lost in the good yet superficial traditions of Thanksgiving Day. I’d like to highlight three important dimensions of the virtue of gratitude as we enter into the holiday season of Thanksgiving.
First, true gratitude acknowledges that we receive something that we needed. And if we needed it, that means that we didn’t have it. If we don’t first stop to recognize our need, our weakness, our dependence on others – and ultimately the Lord – then we will never be able to truly foster the virtue of gratitude. Acknowledging our own poverty is something that goes against the natural human tendency. We feel the expectation to be self-sufficient, to have everything together, to be perfect. We often try to hide our areas of weakness, we don’t bring our areas of struggle to the light, and we feel shame when we come face-to-face with those areas. It is only when we first acknowledge our deep need for God that we can truly appreciate the gift that he freely (from the Latin gratis) gave us in offering us salvation through Jesus Christ.
If I can do it all on my own, then I don’t need anyone else and I have nothing that I really need to be thankful for. But if growth in holiness in the Christian life is truly relying more and more in Jesus Christ and the enduring grace he freely gives, then gratitude is the means by which I can more fully receive that gift. Because of my awareness of my deep need, I can see just how good the gift is and better appreciate it.
Second, real gratitude can never only exist in our minds and hearts. The Latin for “thank you” is often rendered as “gratias tibi ago,” which literally means something like “I do gratitude to you.” Gratitude is something that needs to impact what we do and the way we live. If it only stays inside our minds but doesn’t actually manifest itself in our deeds, then it is empty. Now, this doesn’t mean I have to obsess myself with saying “Thank you” over and over to anyone who does anything to me. Living out of a posture of gratitude, and living out of a posture of our deep poverty and weakness, fundamentally means living as if God is real.
Of course, this includes showing thanks to God and to others he places in our lives, but it doesn’t stop there. It also means acting out of humility because we know we are fallen and imperfect. It also means acting out of trust in God’s providence rather than relying on my own plans and designs. Living the life of the virtues – all of them – increases my gratitude because it increases my awareness of just how much God is acting in my life. And the more I see that, the more fully I can respond in the only way possible – with gratitude.
Finally, gratitude is actually modeled for us every single time we come to Mass. Gratitude is the source and summit of the entirety of the Christian faith – in the Eucharist, which is Greek for “thanksgiving.” In the Eucharist, we experience the full gift of himself that Jesus gives for our sake. Jesus became man, suffered, died, and rose again so that he might offer us the best gift he could give us – eternal life with him. This is the highest reason for us to be grateful to him. Each time we participate in the Mass, we are brought to Calvary to be reminded of what Jesus did, and we receive the gift of himself in his flesh and blood. Wherever we are in life, whatever is on our hearts when we turn to him, he is with us and gives himself to us. In the difficulties of life, as well as in the joys of life, God is there. As he offers that incredible gift to us, so our gratitude moves us to make that same gift to each person we encounter.
(Father Patrick Riviere is the associate pastor at Holy Cross Church parish in Morgan City.)