Experiencing God 245 - Thanksgiving

Welcome to our Thanksgiving mass.  Thanksgiving day provides for us, not only an opportunity to gather around a dinner table and share time with family and friends, but also a chance to thank the one who makes it all possible. We gather here this morning to give thanks to God, because everything that we have has been ultimately gifted to us in and through Him.

Meister Eckhert, a German mystic once wrote:  “If the only prayer you ever say in our whole life is ‘thank-you’, then that will suffice’.  You see, we cannot be thankful if nothing has been given to us.  Therefore to be a thankful, we must first understand and know that there is a source behind all good things that come our way.  Good things just do not happen by coincidence.  Good things are given to us by someone, and as Catholic Christians, we know who that someone is.  A thankful person recognizes this, and with this recognition comes that great attribute of gratitude.  Have you ever been with someone who is filled with gratitude, a gratitude for life?  We all have, and we know they are a joy to be with.  You are that joy when you share the virtue of gratitude with others.
When I was looking through the different options for Gospel readings for Thanksgiving, I discovered that the most popular one is the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers.   
In this story, as you know, only one comes back to express his gratitude directly to Jesus for being cleansed.  This Gospel is perfect lead-in to speak about the power and the joy of heart-felt gratitude.  But I ended up opting for the Gospel from Matthew; the one you have just heard.  I did this after asking myself a question.  And I throw out this question to you. “What is the greatest gift that you are thankful for this thanksgiving in 2019?  What fills your heart with the greatest sense of gratitude?  The answer that came immediately to my mind as I asked this question was the gift of faith.  Today, we hear Jesus saying in the Gospel:  “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent, and have revealed them to infants.  What has the Father hidden from the so called wise and the intelligent of the world?  What has the Father revealed to mere infants?  It is this mysterious ability to be able to see through the eyes of faith, to see God’s presence and at work in all things. I believe Jesus’ reference to the so called wise and learned is probably directed to the Scribes and Pharisees who got so caught up in the thousands of rules and regulations that though they had to follow, along with everyone else, that they lost sight of God’s presence in the world and the people all around them.    
All things have been handed to me by my Father, Jesus says; and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom I choose to reveal Him. 
We are so blessed to have our gift of faith in the Father who Jesus chooses to reveal to us on a daily basis.  We are fortunate to be able to receive Jesus so personally in the Eucharist, to be forgiven through the sacrament of reconciliation, to be blessed in the sacraments of marriage and orders.  Everything that gives witness to our lives as being special springs from this gift of faith freely given to us by Jesus. In fact, for me, it is only by looking at life through this lens of faith that everything else in this somewhat crazy world begins to make sense.  And in spite of the fact that there is much darkness in the world around us, we can live with thankfulness. We can live in gratitude.
To be a thankful person means firstly that we understand and know, in a heart-felt way, that it is through faith that we discover the source behind the good things that come our way.  The blessings of our family, the blessings of our faith community, our good fortune as Haligonians and Canadians, the joy of the friendships we share with one another. It is through these blessing from God that we can live in gratitude and live out that commission with one another that St. Paul explains in his letter to the Colossians. 
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  Bear with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, then forgive that person just as the Lord has forgiven you.  Teach and admonish one another in wisdom and with gratitude in your hearts.”   
During this Eucharistic celebration where we are able once again to invite Jesus into our hearts, let us also remember those who perhaps are not doing as we as we are ourselves. 
We remember those who may not have enough food, those who have lost so much in natural disasters, and those who have lost loved ones who will be missed at their Thanksgiving table.  Through their own gift of faith, let us pray that they may, with open hearts, accept Jesus’ invitation as we have heard in today’s Gospel.  “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens.  And I will give you rest.”