An act of giving thanks

No matter what age we are, we have all received gifts from God, but are we always aware of these blessings, and do we always give thanks for them?  Here is the reflection I shared this weekend with those who came to give thanks.

Time to give thanks

The summer of 2016 was one of the hottest on record.  The warm weather we witnessed in July and August hasn’t been seen in this part of the world for about four decades.  Even these months of autumn have been uncharacteristically warm, almost as though the growing season has been extended.  The longer we experience such warmth, the more we will be tempted to think that the extreme cold of winter may not happen this year, but lets not tempt fate.  Instead, let’s look back with gratitude for all that has been.

Across the country, this weekend is known as Thanksgiving.  When the children from our schools were here this week, I told them that it’s very important for us to develop a habit of being thankful for all that we have received.  Gratitude can be nourished if we get into the habit of giving thanks for the little things that we receive; eventually, we recognize more and more of the gifts that have been offered and our entire lives become an act of giving thanks.

Naaman was a man of great importance: the commander of an army.  He had been very successful in leading his troops.  Having discovered that he had developed leprosy, he would have been worried about having to relinquish his command.  This disease would be his downfall, a weakness in the armor that he had used to portray his strength and importance.  He had been used to conquering, not to being conquered.  When Elisha asked him to bathe in the Jordan, he was skeptical, but what other choice did he have?  Imagine his surprise when he discovered that the simple act of immersing himself in the river was enough to cure him.  The proof that he was indeed a changed man is seen in what he did next: He returned to Elisha and said, ‘… please accept a present from your servant’ (2 Kings 5:15).

There is a part of each one of us that is just like Naaman: we spend our lives trying to convince ourselves and others that we are important, that we are invincible, but no one is eternal except for God; all earthly treasures can be swept away in a moment, and it is at such moments that we realize how fragile we truly are.  If we have the eyes to see it, we might actually recognize that God is close to us, especially when we are weak, and if our hearts have been opened, we too will come back to give thanks.

This is not always the case: nine out of the ten lepers who were cleansed went on their way, but one of them had his eyes opened and recognized the grace that had been granted (Lk 17:11-19).  One of them came back to give thanks because not only his eyes, but also his heart had been opened.

God is always at work, looking for opportunities to teach us his wisdom; seeking occasions to train us so that we will be able to see the world as he does and to understand that everything we have is a gift that has been offered to us.  When we discover this truth, God asks us to share it with others too.  This is what Saint Paul did with his disciple Timothy and it is what we must do.  Even after our eyes and hearts have been opened, even after we have witnessed God’s goodness, our response is always a choice: we can still choose to deny him and continue along our way, like the nine lepers in the gospel, but if we do, Christ may deny us too.  We can even choose to be faithless; this is an even more serious situation than merely denying the fact that God has been good to us.  However, even if we should have no faith, God will always have faith in us (cf 2 Tim 2:13) because he has created us, he knows us, he knows what we are capable of and he will never give up on us.

At the end of the homilies I did with children this week, I asked them to be quiet for a moment, to close their eyes and to think about one or two reasons that each of them has for being grateful.  Let’s take a moment now to give thanks for all that we have received, and to ask our heavenly Father to help us to use these gifts wisely.