Thanks be to God!

By Barb Arland-Fye
Editorial

Luke tells us in the Gospel reading for Thanksgiving Day that just one of the 10 lepers Jesus cleansed returned to thank him. The other nine, we are led to believe, took their cleansing for granted. To the one who returned to thank Jesus — one of those despised Samaritans of all people! – Jesus says, “your faith has saved you” (Lk 17:11-19). As many of us sit down at a table laden with tantalizing Thanksgiving fare, should we give serious thought to which Samaritan we are most like? The one who takes time to give God thanks or one of the nine who takes for granted God’s gifts to us (all that we are and all that we have)?

A post titled “Celebrate Thanksgiving like a Catholic” on the Capuchin Franciscans Western Province website observes, “While not a universal liturgical feast, Thanksgiving aligns harmoniously with the core of Catholic worship — the celebration of the Eucharist” (https://tinyurl.com/23bk6fxs).

The Eucharist, the post continues, “mirrors the Pilgrims’ act of giving thanks at their harvest. The biblical account of the Last Supper, as narrated by St. Paul, emphasizes Jesus’ act of thanksgiving before sharing his body with the disciples. Despite Thanksgiving not being a holy day of obligation, attending Mass on this day becomes a profound expression of gratitude through Christ’s offering to the Father.”

In a Nov. 17, 2022 blog on the National Eucharistic Revival website, Zachary Keith, PhD, notes that the author of one of the earliest Catholic texts on the sacraments, the Didache, “exhorts us, after having been filled with the Eucharist, to give thanks to the Father for his bountiful love (cf. Didache 10)” (https://tinyurl.com/mtv3rnuv).

The Eucharist, rooted in the Greek word “eucharistia,” which means thanksgiving, sets the table for our secular celebration of Thanksgiving (Nov. 28 this year) but that is just the beginning for Catholics. In response to our “thanksgiving,” we are “sent forth to bring the fruits of the Eucharist to the world” (https://tinyurl.com/mryhw4py).

Our world cries out for the fruits of the Eucharist. Our response should flow from our participation in prayer (individually and in community) and the sacraments. These actions inspire us to share whatever gifts, talents, skills and resources we possess, which are gifts from God, after all. We bring forth the fruits of the Eucharist in a myriad of ways:

Volunteer at a food pantry or meal site for the hungry in your community.
Provide assistance, in person or financial, to pregnancy resource centers in your area.
Prepare and/or deliver a meal to a neighbor in need, a family overwhelmed with challenges or someone living alone and unable to get out easily.
Provide a couple of hours of respite for a spouse caring for his or her loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or other health-related challenges.
Provide a couple of hours of child care to parents who need a date night or who work late-hour shifts and struggle to find child care providers.
Provide a ride, periodically or regularly for someone needing help getting to a medical appointment, the grocery store or work.
Invite someone to Mass whom you haven’t seen at church in a while or someone who is unaffiliated.
Volunteer at a Catholic or public school.
Advocate. Contact your legislators — local, state and federal — about issues such as affordable housing, fair and just immigration laws, protection of all life — from unborn children to the elderly to prisoners — and good stewardship of our natural environment. Advocate for peaceful resolutions to the wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
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(iowacatholicconference.org).