Thanksgiving is an important national holiday in our country. Today, we pause from our busy daily lives in order to give thanks for our blessings and for the abundance we have as a nation. We give thanks for our family and friends, for our community, for our unity as a nation. We are called to give thanks and gratitude today not out of a sense of obligation or duty, but because we want to do so out of the goodness of our hearts, because we truly want to give thanks. In our faith, giving thanks is a way to experience the world. Giving thanks is a way for us to be able to open up our hearts. But giving thanks does not mean that we ignore the realities of our lives and our world. We acknowledge as well that many people struggle with grief, addictions, loneliness, and despair at Thanksgiving time and around the Christmas holidays. Perhaps we ourselves or members of our family are in the midst of such a reality.
May we be reminded today that although Thanksgiving has its roots in the colonial American colonies even before our nation was formed, Thanksgiving was not declared a national holiday until 1863, being announced a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in the midst of our country’s Civil War. Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday several months after the Battle of Gettysburg, with more than 57,000 casualties by some estimates. Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863, just a few days before our first national celebration of Thanksgiving. Lincoln expressed grief and compassion in his proclamation at Gettysburg, asking his fellow citizens to commend to the tender care of God all who became “widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged.”
In Sacred Scripture, thanksgiving is reflected in an attitude of adoration, sacrifice, praise, and offering. For the Jewish people, Thanksgiving is a grateful language to God as an act of worship. In our reading from Sirach, a blessing is given to God for the great things he has done for us here on earth. The psalmist proclaims that he will praise the name of the Lord forever. Even though St Paul went to prison for the faith, even though he had many trials and tribulations as a result of the Gospel message he proclaimed, he is still able to give thanks to God, especially for the blessings God has given us in our Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the Lord today in the midst of our joys and our sorrows, in the midst of our blessings and challenges, in the midst of chaotic times and peaceful times, in the midst of our contentments and our frustrations. As a country and as individuals, let us give thanks.
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