“Eucharist is Thanksgiving”

Thanksgiving Day

          This is one of those days where Church and Country meet in our Liturgy.  Even though this day is a civic holiday it has a proper Mass in our Roman Missal.   We have a natural sense that on a day when we celebrate the abundances of our country and its blessings we naturally want to turn to God. 

This holiday takes many of us back to our immigrant roots and the Native Americans who helped our ancestors survive the difficult times of adjusting to this new land.  Their grateful response to graciousness and hospitality came out of the religious ground that brought them to this new land in the first place. 

We have a natural sense that generosity can be properly repaid only by turning to the One who is all and gives all, just as the leper in the gospel returns to Jesus to give thanks.  Our national holiday is, at root, our national holyday.

For the new Liturgical Year that begins this Sunday with the First Sunday of Advent, gives us an opportunity to start fresh with our concentration on attending Mass and focusing our attention on the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus, that gives us tremendous grace in our lives.

Eucharist, translated from Greek, actually means thanksgiving.  This is an appropriate time of the year to give thanks for the fruit of the earth and all God’s blessings: care, joy, peace; knowledge of Christ, God’s keeping us firm, God’s faithfulness, God’s calling us to fellowship with Christ; healing, faith and hope.

But what is more important, the Eucharist, which we receive every time we gather together in the House of Prayer, is the source and sustenance of our lives as Christian Catholic people.  It is the Eucharist that gives us the grace to walk away from sin.  It is the Eucharist that gives us the grace to perfect ourselves in holiness.  It is the Eucharist that gives us the grace to be the people of God we are called to be.  It is the Eucharist that compels us to do as the leper did in our gospel reading – to return to the Lord and give thanks for all the blessings we have been given.

I could name several reasons why we gather to give thanks this morning, and you have your own reasons.  These are but a few of the reasons we gather this morning to give thanks.  But the pre-eminent reason we gather is to express our deepest expression of our gratitude and to worship our loving, generous God through our most sublime act of worship, and that is, to celebrate the Eucharist.

As we leave this House of Prayer this morning, let us give thanks and praise to our God who has called us to be one in Him through the Eucharist!

          Happy Thanksgiving!