Thanksgiving is more than a holiday, it is an eternal disposition.
This time of year in New England, the air is getting crisper, leaves are in full color, and the feeling of fall will ease gently into the feel of the “holiday season”.
This year, the feeling of Thanksgiving came early.
Why I am So Thankful So Soon?
The healthy birth of our daughter is enough to keep me thankful for a lifetime, but even more, I have been inspired by acts of kindness all around us.
Katie and I are fairly new to our town, but we have had several friends make us full meals delivered to our door, family and coworkers have mailed us gifts, and even the woman who only knows me as the guy who goes to the chapel wrote me a card and gave a beautiful blanket that she knitted!
Total strangers have given so generously to us, which led me to reflect, “God, I do not deserve all of this!”, “What friends of even acquaintances have I not given to when I had the opportunity?”, “Am I not generous?”
Either way, now is not a time to reflect on what I could have done. In fact it is overwhelming trying to figure out how to feel about all of this giving to our family. Especially when we are in a position where we don’t actually need very much at all.
The only proper response to have is thanksgiving.
Gratitude as a Virtue
After my time as a missionary, I attended a final “Going Forth” retreat in order to reflect on my two years and plan for the stresses, both good and bad, that comes with big life changes. My takeaway from that weekend can be summarized by having an Attitude of Gratitude.
As roughly 50 missionaries who were about to leave a radical lifestyle sat in a room, Fr. Brendan explained that we could have two extreme attitudes about this change in life.
- That time of life was so difficult, and I didn’t like it that much anyway, so I’m glad to be leaving. Essentially writing off the past few years.
- I am going to miss this so much! I promise I am going to keep in touch with all of these people forever. Basically clinging to the past and not moving on.
But the golden mean between the two extremes is this concept of gratitude.
An Attitude of Gratitude
Being grateful for each individual experience you have had is the proper disposition for looking at the past.
Gratitude sees the greater purpose of each moment, appreciating it enough to keep it with you, thankful for being where you were called to be. Gratitude recalls the good, cherishes those sentiments and uses them to motivate. Gratitude also looks at the negative and draws meaning from it in the form of lessons for the future, confidence in knowing that you made it through, or even greater empathy for all the others who have to experience difficulty.
The Enemy of Thanksgiving
Culture at large does not always share joy, peace, and gratitude for the things we already have. In fact, it is often quite the opposite. I don’t want to rant about advertising and media… but so much is targeted at you to point out what others have and what you don’t.
Comparison is the Thief of Joy
I read this article in a Bible Study in college and I kept it with me over the years in a notebook. It seemed simple, but it touched me. I would bring it out each year around the holiday season as a reminder. Inspired by the recent events, this year it comes early.
The author describes a conversation with her daughter about why her friends have all of the things she doesn’t. This leads to a conversation about comparison, which leads to ingratitude. Ingratitude has been around since the beginning. It is the enemy of thanksgiving, and the sooner we can learn to combat ingratitude, the happier we will live.
But how do we end ingratitude?
You cannot be ungrateful when you have Everything!
True Thanksgiving – Ευχαριστια
Eucharist, translated from Greek, means thanksgiving. But it is so much greater than that! It is the heart and soul, the most profound thanksgiving because it is eternal, and it is everything. Eucharist is the “source and the summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324, LG 11)! This has been affirmed over and over again, and I love this image. I picture a mountain.
Source – the clean water flows from the source and provides life to the villages below
Summit – the goal of the adventure, where the people go to have a clearer perspective, for beauty, for purpose
As Christians, Eucharist is the oxygen we need to breathe in order to live, but it is also the end goal that we are striving for and what we want to lead everyone else to because you cannot have any ingratitude when you have everything. Eucharist, Jesus, is Everything.
Daily Thanksgiving
So no, thanksgiving is not one day. If you want to experience Thanksgiving in a more profound way for the rest of your life, pursue the Eucharist.
Communion, (com- union, or “with” union), is when you receive Jesus, physically and intimately, into yourself. This is the source. Everyday, all around the world, most Catholic churches will have the Eucharist available every day at mass and adoration.
For those who already go to the Eucharist, Thanksgiving should be a reminder that it is not just the source, but also the summit. Go there and bring others with you!
P.S. The Turkey was probably crossing to go to Thanksgiving/Eucharist.
