Thanksgiving is a North American holiday. If I remember my school lessons correctly, it derives from the experience of the first European settlers here in North America and their experience of their first few years here on this continent. The way we were taught about this holiday when I was in elementary school recalled how difficult these first Europeans found the bitter winter to survive on their own and how unprepared they were to make it through this difficult climate. They were so unprepared for the conditions they found on this continent that it was only with the help of the Indigenous People, who knew the land and the ways of growing here, that they were able to make it through those initial days. Once they had learned to grow crops in this territory and figure out how to survive the conditions on this continent, they were so grateful that they began to have a special feast called “Thanksgiving” at the end of the growing season to celebrate the goods of this land and the great opportunities that they had discovered here. From my school days, I recall a part of those initial Thanksgiving celebrations involved celebrations with the Indigenous People who had helped these first settlers to make their lives possible here. That is why so many of our celebrations still highlight the many vegetables and local products that were handed over to the Europeans by the Indigenous People to help them survive.
Now, while Thanksgiving is a North American holiday that we celebrate here in Canada this weekend, it is perhaps more importantly a Christian way of life. As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday here this weekend, it is perhaps worth talking time to reflect that Thanksgiving is the way that you and I are called to live everyday as Christians. We are reminded of this every time that we come to Mass to celebrate the Eucharist.
The word “Eucharist” itself has its origins in the Greek word “ευχαριστία,” which means “to give thanks.” When you and I gather to celebrate Mass, we are gathering to give thanks to God for all that He has done for us in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The Eucharist is the memorial sacrifice and meal that Christ has left us to remember His saving work and to encounter His presence in our lives today. This why, when we begin the Eucharistic Prayer, in the introductory dialogue at the beginning of the preface, we are invited to give thanks to the Lord through the invitation of the celebrant who says: “Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.” To which we respond: “It is right and just.” As we recall that Christ, the Son of God died for us, so that we might have eternal life, we are called to gratitude and to respond to what He has done for us through a life of joyful thanksgiving.
At the beginning of this reflection, I spoke about how our civil celebration of thanksgiving was a way of giving thanks for all of the things that we enjoy here in Canada. I would like to reflect upon the similarities between this Thanksgiving and what we do at Mass every Sunday.
An essential part of our celebration of the Mass is to remember what Christ did for us. We remember God’s works of salvation by reading the Scriptures and by remembering the saving works of Christ in the re-enactment of the memorial supper which He left us on Holy Thursday. This remembering of what He has done for us ought to be the reason for our desiring to be at the Eucharist and the source of our gratitude. This aspect of our remembering has the Greek name of “αναμνησία” (“anamnesis”), which means “to remember.”
However, by the miracle of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and by the working of the Holy Spirit, you and I are not just called to remember what Christ did for us: We are actually invited to encounter Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. At the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit is called down upon the bread and the wine so that it might become Christ’s Body and Blood. The words of the Third Eucharistic Prayer state: “By the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts that we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and +Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ.” At the Eucharist, we not only remember what Christ has done for us, we actually receive Him in the sacrifice He has left us and are configured into His Body the Church. The change that the Eucharist is intended to bring about in all of us is also expressed in another calling forth of the Holy Spirit that is found in the Third Eucharistic Prayer, which asks that we “who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.” As Christians, we are called to be grateful, not just for what Christ has done for us in the past, but also because of what He continues to do for us today through His Church, Word and Sacrament. The response of the Christian is to live in gratitude and thanksgiving for all that God has done for us. This calling down of the Holy Spirit, which makes Christ’s Body and Blood present and configures us into members of Christ’s Body the Church is called the “ἐπίκλησις” (“epiclesis”), which means invocation or the calling forth of the Holy Spirit. In the liturgy, this action is symbolized by the priestly extension of hands over the gifts.
Because Christ continues to share His life and saving work with us in the liturgy, you and I are called to live our lives responding to God’s generosity towards us. This means that we are called to praise and glorify him in our actions. This is a call to live our lives in thanksgiving. One of the words that has been used recently in our Archdiocese to reflect the kind of thanksgiving we are called to render to God is “stewardship.” The gratitude called for in stewardship, invites us to recognize that everything that we have is a gift from God. In gratitude for these gifts, we are called to respond by sharing from what we have received of our time, talent and treasure. Many of us are used to giving of our treasure through financial support; but our churches, communities and families also require that people share generously of their time and talent. This is perhaps truer now in this time of pandemic than it ever has been. This aspect of giving praise and glory to God is expressed at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer in the words that are said at what is known as the “great elevation.” As the Body and Blood of Christ are held up for our adoration, these words are
said: “Through Him, with Him, and in Him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.” Known as the “doxology,” from the Greek word “δοξολογία,” it means “to give praise” As a result of our remembering what Christ has done for us, and encountering Him again in the Eucharist, we are called to give glory and praise to Him by living our lives in thanksgiving for all that Christ has done for us.
As we hear the Gospel this Sunday from Matthew 22: 1-14, many of us will not doubt think of the beautiful Thanksgiving meals that are being prepared this weekend. We all try to show our appreciation to those who have worked so hard to prepare these meals. However, this Gospel was not intended for the secular holiday of Thanksgiving; it was intended to call our attention to the most significant meal that has been prepared for us—the Eucharist. Christ has done everything to save us. That we might experience that salvation today, He has left us the Eucharist as a memorial by which we are called to remember Him. The Eucharist is the great banquet that you and I are invited to in order that we might celebrate the Father’s Son, the sacrifice that He made to save us, and be configured into members of His Church. As the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving,” this refers to the attitude of gratitude that we are to bring to the Eucharist. Gratitude is the attitude with which we are to cloth ourselves as we come to the Eucharist. We are not to make excuses for our poor attendance at the Eucharist or our lack of enthusiasm when attending. When we come to the Eucharist grudgingly or reluctantly, we come clothed in a garment other than gratitude. A lack of gratitude can make it difficult for us to truly celebrate the Eucharist as we ought, or to receive the graces which we are intended to receive from the Lord. Like the un-attentive servant who did not bother to prepare to attend the banquet he was invited to, a lack of gratitude on our part can make it difficult for us to be touched at the Eucharist as Christ desires us to be.
By clothing our hearts in gratitude as we come to the Eucharist, we approach the memorial banquet, which Christ has left us to remember His sacrifice, prepared to open our hearts to receive the graces that He wishes us to receive at the Mass. Gratitude opens our hearts to receive Christ and the graces of the Holy Spirit that the Mass makes available to the grateful heart. Gratitude allows our hearts to be transformed into the likeness of Christ so that we might live our lives to the praise and the glory of God the Father. As we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, let us pray that we might learn to cloth our hearts with a spirit of gratitude that will always allow us encounter Christ in our lives, and serve Him as worthy stewards who recognize the blessing of our loving God and Father.
I pray that you and your families have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving.
Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor, St. Peter’s Parish—Toronto
This reflection based on the readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A: Isaiah 25:6-10; Psalm 23; Philippians 4: 12-20; and Matthew 22: 1-14.
