Homily for Thanksgiving Day
Nov. 28, 2024
1 Kings 8: 55-61
1 Chron 29: 10-12
1 Cor 1: 3-9
Mark 5: 18-20
Christian Brothers, St.
Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
Setting aside days to give thanks to God for his
blessings is an ancient practice. Our
colonial forebears did so, most famously at Plymouth in 1621, altho Virginia
claims to have observed a day of thanks in 1619 at Berkeley Plantation—which
Fr. Dave reminded us of yesterday.
by Gilbert Stuart
Washington’s proclamation didn’t generate a
regular practice. Nor did Abraham
Lincoln’s, who amid the devastation of civil war—the latest research estimates
that 698,000 Americans died in those 4 years[1]—yet
Lincoln in November 1863, days after his dedication of a cemetery at Gettysburg,
found reason to be grateful to God and called for a national observance of
thanks for “fruitful fields and healthful skies,” the maintenance of peace with
other nations, the increase in the country’s population, and “a large increase
in freedom.” He stated: “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any
mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High
God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless
remembered mercy.”
And it was while the world was engulfed in a war far
worse that Franklin Roosevelt firmly established Thanksgiving Day as American
tradition for the 4th Thursday of November.
In her latest column, Mary DeTurris Poust speaks
of a world “full of suffering and uncertainty and downright madness.”[2] Despite all that, which bursts out of human
sinfulness, God still blesses us.
Solomon prayed that “the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our
ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us, but incline our hearts to him, to
walk in all his ways” (1 Kgs 8:57-58). The
Lord our God does still watch over us, enriching us in Christ Jesus with
spiritual gifts that will render us “blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ,” because “God is faithful,” and he desires that we come to complete
fellowship with his Son (1 Cor 1:7-9).
Solomon's Plan for the Temple
(Providence Lithograph Co.)
God’s spiritual gifts aren’t for our benefit
alone. They’re also to move us, to “call
forth responsibility and commitment,” the preface says, “to the truth that all
have a fundamental dignity” in God’s eyes; and, as we prayed moments ago, our
hearts must be open “to have concern for every man, woman, and child, so that
we may share [God’s] gifts in loving service” (Collect).
Assuredly, we’re aware of the terrible sufferings
of people in Ukraine, Gaza, and Lebanon.
We may be less aware of or attentive to the terrors in Haiti, Sudan,
Congo, and what drug barons are doing in Latin America, and to the persecution
of Christians in Nigeria, India, and other places. Thousands are also suffering from natural
disasters—in Europe, the Philippines, from hurricanes in our own Southeast and from
Western and Hawaiian wildfires. Awareness
followed by prayer opens our hearts to concern, even if that’s all we can do—concern
for the victims of violence, floods, and fires, and for those trying to
negotiate peace or provide humanitarian relief; and prayer for the conversion warlords
and drug lords.
And we give thanks to God for his immediate
blessings: for the liberty that we
enjoy, for the relative civil peace of our land, for food, shelter, and
clothing, for benefactors of our works, for the brothers who surround us, for
the staff who care for us so generously, for the grace of God, who pardons our
sins and calls us to life with Christ.
At every Eucharist we tell how much the Lord has done for us, what mercy
he has shown us (cf. Mark 5:19).
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