Jesus is the great teacher of gratitude...May our lives be marked by a radical gratitude to our loving God.

THANKSGIVING DAY  2017

If you had to describe yourself with just one word, what would that be?  The one word, the one quality that names who you are.

I’m using this introduction on Thanksgiving Day because for me the one word that I think best describes who I am is gratitude.  I know my spiritual life stems from my gratitude for God’s unconditional love for me being exactly who I am, no better, no worse, and no strings attached.  In the experience of gratitude, I come to know the origin and purpose of my life.

The source of my priestly ministry is my desire to express my gratitude for the love of Jesus and for the love that I have experienced from the many, many people who have touched my life.

Gratitude is a prominent and essential part of our parish mission.

As we gather Thanksgiving Day, it is, of course, a national holiday that expresses very well the spiritual roots of our nation.  I am always touched at a military funeral committal service when a member of our American military presents the American flag to a grieving family member and expresses thanks on behalf of a grateful nation.  We are at our best as Americans when we are grateful to God, grateful to one another, and grateful for the blessings we enjoy as a nation.  We are at our best as a nation not by the force of our military might, but when we in humility give thanks for the incredible blessings that we enjoy.

On the fourth Thursday of November, we remember our foundational value of gratitude that was expressed back in 1621 by the pilgrims at that Plymouth Plantation.

Personally in the life of the Schwartz family, thanksgiving is a wonderful family day in which my siblings and nephews and nieces and grandnephews and grandnieces gather to be a family, to play a little football, enjoy a bit of food and drink, but most of all to give thanks for the love that is shared in our family life.  We are not perfect.  Our family has its share of messiness.  We argue.  But, most of all, we love one another and are grateful for each and every member of our family.

In today’s Gospel of the healing of the ten lepers with only the Samaritan returning to give thanks, it is important to note it is not a matter of the divine love of Jesus going out to only one of the lepers.  The healing is given to all as a sign of God’s design to offer salvation to everyone without exception.  While only the Samaritan expresses gratitude, the evangelist Luke in this account is portraying God as relentlessly pursuing us who are relentlessly running away.

We are the gracious recipients of the unconditional and unending love of God.  We are all God’s beloved sons and daughters.  What we seek to focus on in this Gospel message is the second half of the conversion process – our response to God’s loving initiative of healing.

As we reflect on the reaction of the lepers to God’s healing love, do we run away from God’s invitation to love?  Is there a spiritual awareness to the way we live our lives?  Is there a deep gratitude to all the people of our lives?  Do we trust in God’s presence in the joys and the fears of our life?  Do we run away from God in the midst of life’s struggles?

May our response be always be one of gratitude.  This is the deepest meaning of the holiday we celebrate.  May this Thanksgiving be expressive of our daily desire to live with an attitude of gratitude.

It is significant to note in the Gospel passage while all ten were given physical healing from their leprosy, it was only the Samaritan who completed the conversion process and was made whole in his attitude of gratitude. 

I think it can be said with considerable truth that our lives are directed by the stories we choose to dwell on.  On this Thanksgiving Day as you share family stories, what are your personal memories of your family history?  Are your memories characterized by gratitude or ingratitude?  Can you find gratitude even in the midst of the pain and struggle of your story?

Just this past Sunday while at my niece Emily and Josh’s home for dinner, my grandniece Keara was showing her new bedroom.  She was holding me a small statue of Mary.  I asked her who Mary was.  She thought for a moment and said she was a friend of my mom’s.  I thought to myself:  Wow! I am grateful that Mary and Keara’s mom are good friends.

I can remember as a fifth grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel School, as I was training to be an altar boy, my dad taught me the Latin responses for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar:  Introibo ad altare Dei.  Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.  My dad was really proud to see me as an altar boy, and I have a grateful heart to my dad for teaching me in Latin:  “I will go to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.”  Those words still have meaning as I go to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.  My memory of my dad’s faith and his desire for me to be an altar boy laid a most beautiful foundation for me in my journey to the priesthood.

May we remember our family stories and our personal faith stories.  They are our truth that helps fashion who we are today.  May we also remember and celebrate stories of God’s love for us that is revealed in the Scriptures.  As St. Paul writes in the second Scripture reading, “I give thanks to God always for you and for how you have touched my life.”  The Scriptures reveal the story of God’s unending love for us.

On this Thanksgiving morning, may we as a faith community ask for the grace that our community life will always be marked by a radical gratitude to our loving God.   May we be mindful that Jesus is the great teacher of gratitude – grateful for the love of His heavenly father, and he showed that gratitude in his living and dying witnessing to the Father’s love.

Have a blessed day.