GIVING THANKS
Dear Friends in Christ:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
The month of November is marked by three important occasions for giving thanks. On the first Sunday in November, we will celebrate All Saints Sunday, giving thanks for those who have gone before us in the journey of faith, especially those who have died in the past year. These Saints were channels of God’s grace to us. By their examples and by their love for us, they have helped us to grow as children of God, as members one of another in the Body of Christ. I am reminded of a particular Saint whom only a handful of parishioners knew. Albert was a resident at The Waters and was almost always present at the Eucharist on Monday afternoons. Seated next to him at the service until her death was his beloved wife. Near the end, as she became more and more forgetful, more and more confused, and at times very hostile, I was awed by Albert’s patience and gentleness. He was, to put it simply, one of the sweetest and most gentle people I have ever known. When he was close to death two years after his wife’s death, staff members on his floor would come into his room each night, tuck him in and give him good-night kisses. His sweetness had rubbed off on them.
Near the end of the month, we will celebrate Thanksgiving. This is perhaps the quintessential American holiday, a time when families of all faiths, or no faith, gather. Yes, for some, the notes of thanksgiving are lost in overeating, but I think that for all who celebrate the day it is a reminder to be thankful for what we have received. Even in the midst of difficult times, there is cause for thanksgiving and we are encouraged to give thanks. I believe that when we receive God’s gifts to us with thanksgiving, even when they seem all too small, we find that they are enough, indeed, more than enough. It is, to borrow a phrase from Bishop Jeffrey Rowthorn’s wonderful hymn (528 in The Hymnal 1982), when “we hoard as private treasure all that [God] so freely give[s],” that we think that it isn’t enough.
At the very end of the month, we begin our journey through Advent towards the Feast of the Nativity. Advent is a time of waiting, a time of anticipation. It reminds us that good things are worth waiting for, but not with the anxious and often angry waiting that marks some of my waiting in line at stores. No, we wait thankfully, knowing that our of God’s inexhaustible love for us, we will receive, have received, are receiving the most incredible Gift possible, the Incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh. There is a wonderful prayer that I pray at every celebration of the Eucharist and at other times as well.
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
I am very thankful for the Saints like my friend Albert, and for the daily blessings that God pours out. But I am most thankful that God should choose to share our humanity and invites us to share in the divine life of the Son of God. May we as celebrate these times of thanksgiving open ourselves more and more to the power of that love that came down at Christmas, that suffered upon the Cross and that conquered death on Easter morn. With
Your brother and priest,
Father Dan
