Thank God for Thanksgiving!
Joyful tidings to all of you on this wonderful November day! Thanksgiving approaches, and many of us will be visiting family and friends over the next few days. We will gather together once again to celebrate life, praising God for his many blessings.
Why can’t every day be the same as these wonderful holidays? Of course, we know that each of us have duties to attend to, but why must we lose the spirit of generosity, joy, and thankfulness? We don’t need to!
Many of us as Catholics may lose sight of the fact that every day is Thanksgiving, and in a more profound way than one may imagine. Tell me, how many of you remember the familiar word that means “thanksgiving?”
Indeed, you are correct… “Eucharist.”
What could we ever be more thankful for? The gift of Jesus Christ in his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity is deeper and more beautiful than any other blessing. If you read the recently-ended blog series on marriage, you are familiar with some parallels between earthly marriage (between a man & woman) and the mystical union of Christ and his bride, the Church. Yet, instead of receiving an imperfect human being in intimate communion (even one who we love more than all other humans), with all of his or her baggage, in the Eucharist we receive the infinite God, who is love (1 Jn. 4:8).
He who took the consequences of all guilt, all of the lies, slander, gossip, hate, murder, fornication, and all other sin… He who took everything upon His own sinless shoulders and went to the cross for us… this same Jesus Christ offers Himself to us in the Eucharist on a daily basis. He offers His once-for-all sacrifice to us, becoming available for us in the Mass every day. He waits for us and calls us to Himself because He knows that we need Him more than we need to breathe.
Let us go to this Jesus and thank Him for His selfless sacrifice, one that He was not obligated to offer, but did anyway so that we could have a chance to be with Him for all eternity.
It is in the Mass and in living a holy life that we can have Thanksgiving every day of the year. Thank God for Thanksgiving!
P.S. For anyone who has trouble believing in the Eucharist as the real body and blood of Jesus Christ (or who knows someone that has trouble), consider this: If someone can believe that an infinite God existed before all time with no beginning and no end, created the world out of literally nothing, that the same infinite God made Himself human in Jesus Christ, and that he could turn water into wine (foreshadowing the Eucharist), why in the world can’t someone believe that the infinitely powerful and merciful God was being serious when he said “This is my body which is given for you” (Lk 22:19) and “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:20)?
Please feel free to comment, whether to ask questions or add thoughts!
Great thoughts on Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving day mass has become one of my favorite masses of the year. It gives us the opportunity to really slow down and clear our minds before we are overwhelmed with materialistic advertisements and all that is not part of the true meaning of Christmas, that being the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.