In thanksgiving

Here is the text of the homily I shared with the community gathered in prayer this weekend: a few thoughts about the often-neglected habit of giving thanks.

Politeness, even in prayer

Happy Thanksgiving!  This is the first weekend in the scholastic year when the students who went away to university last month are home, so welcome home.  This is the weekend when all across Canada, families are gathering around dinner tables to share a meal: at least that’s the way it’s portrayed, but the truth is that there are many in this land who will not sit at any table this weekend either because there is no table to sit at, or perhaps the act of sitting at a table to eat a meal is so removed from the established routine that to do so would be awkward at best or strained with tension at the worst.

Fortunately, around this table, all are welcome.  There are those among us who are quite familiar with the established ritual and quite comfortable with the way things are done, but there may very well be some who even here are unfamiliar with the way the meal we call the Eucharist is shared.  If this is the first time you have sat around this table, if this is the first time you have been present in this church, and even if it is not but you still feel apprehensive about whether or not you belong here, know that Jesus welcomes you, that I welcome you in his name, and that we welcome you to pray with us and to share all that we have.

The scripture passages for this weekend propose two attitudes of prayer: two aspects of the conversation that takes place around this table.  When they heard that Jesus was passing through their region, many people came to meet him.  Some wanted to listen to his words, others perhaps had heard about the fact that he could feed multitudes, and there was also a group of ten lepers – outcasts – who dared to hope that he might listen if they cried out.  Lepers were no longer considered people by the society of the day.  There was so much concern about the contagious nature of the disease that lepers became things, things to be avoided.  Even today there are lepers in our society: those who are no longer looked upon as people, but rather as things.  In a world of such abundance, it can be a matter of convenience to ignore the human needs and wants of lepers who may bear no outward, visible marks, but they still cry out: Jesus, son of God, have mercy on us.  This cry is raised from the lips of those who are weakened by disease, by those who are isolated by age or circumstances, who are preoccupied or worried by uncertainty either for themselves or for those they love, and by so many more.  Jesus hears our cries for help, and he is always ready to respond in the same way: granting our petitions and asking us to do nothing other than to recognize that our prayers have been answered.

The second aspect of the conversation we call prayer is the simple act of giving thanks.  Why is it that surrounded with such abundance, we know very well how to present petitions but we so often forget to give thanks?  Polite manners suggest that every petition should be preceded by the word please, and that every gift received should be answered with thank you.  The same is true for the prayers we offer to God.  Having discovered that they had been cured of their leprosy, Jesus was perhaps expecting that all ten would have returned excitedly to thank him, but there was only one.

As we break bread and share the chalice, our act of thanksgiving is also united with the gestures of thanksgiving offered by others like Naaman, the Syrian mentioned in today’s first reading, and like Paul who wrote from his prison cell to Timothy to encourage him to continue feeding and strengthening his belief that we are all meant to live with Jesus, to truly live in and through him.

Dear friends, there is room at this table for everyone, for saints and sinners alike, for family and friends, but also for strangers and outcasts.  Around this table, we are united in offering our supplications.  Around this table, let us give thanks for the gifts we have received.