Let Us Give Thanks! (2001/11/22)

Why must we give thanks?

If we want to live in the real world and not in illusions, if we wish to be realistic people who would not deceive themselves, we have to admit that everything and everybody in our lives are a gift and there is absolutely nothing that we’ve earned with our sole effort without anybody’s help. From the simplest elements like the air we breathe or the water we drink through the services we receive from people like the mailman who delivers our letters, or the pilot of the airplane who flies us to our destination, to the persons who are the dearest to us, our children, our parents, our friends, everything and everybody is an undeserved gift for which we must be thankful. Therefore whatever we have, whoever is helping us, whoever shares our lives in love and friendship, our first reaction should be gratitude. The act of thanksgiving is nothing else than the acceptance of our limitedness, of our human-ness, the acceptance of the fact that we are not all-powerful, that we are not gods. While taking everything and everybody for granted is the worst form of arrogance, the spirit of thanksgiving is the first step of coming down from the mound of imagined self-sufficiency, of self-centeredness and self-adulation, the first step toward humility and humanity.

To whom should we give thanks?

Of course, the ultimate source of every gift we receive is God Himself, and so, first of all, we owe our thanks to him. The first Americans, the Pilgrims acknowledged this truth when they established the annual celebration of Thanksgiving. They wanted to give thanks to the Lord of creation for all the blessings they received throughout the year, be that abundant harvest, good health, birth of a new child, material prosperity, or spiritual growth, - or even tests, and crosses, and trials which, as we usually realize later, are blessings in disguise. But we have to give thanks also to people, to everyone who made our lives possible or better or richer or more beautiful: our parents, our loved ones, our friends, everyone who helped us in any way. By saying a heartfelt “Thank you!” we have to acknowledge the intricate web of relationships by which we’re bound to a large number people without whom our lives would be impossible or very much impoverished. Let’s notice the unspoken countless services we receive from family members, from neighbors, colleagues, classmates, teachers, - or from people like a cab driver, a store clerk, a gas station attendant, or a telephone operator.

How should we give thanks?

In three ways: by saying “thank you”, by using the gift and profiting from it, and by passing on the gift. To find the appropriate way how to say “thank you” is a real art, and we have to acquire this skill. Yes, some people are true artists of thanksgiving, but up to a certain degree we all have to learn the art of showing gratitude. This is a constant dialogue between people: showing kindness and giving thanks, and this dialogue should never be interrupted: this is the very life of every relationship between people who care for each other. To really show appreciation for a gift or for an act of kindness, the best way to say “thank you” is to use what we received to the full extent so that it shows we enjoy using it. We have an obligation to develop our talents received from God as much as we are able to, to use these talents to the best of our ability to serve our fellow human beings, to make other people’s lives better and happier. We should put to use the gifts we received from others in the best way possible, we should make available the benefits they can give us for others, we should share the enjoyment or profit these presents can offer.

Talking about the best way to use the gifts received, we already had to mention the third way of saying “thank you”: to pass on their advantages to others. We should not consider any such gifts as intended just for our own personal enjoyment.

We should never be the end station of any gift whether received from God directly or from somebody else: their real destination should be, one way or another, other people, - so that they again can pass them on in some form yet to other persons. Favors and thanks, favors and thanks: this should be the dynamics binding people to God and to each other, keeping them in constant communication. Generous giving and grateful acceptance: this is what keeps alive love relationships between family members and friends. And while the giving and receiving is more or less proportionate between person and person among us people, we should never forget that no one can surpass God in generosity, - be thanks to Him for ever.
Amen.

Rev. Julius Leloczky, O.Cist