Thanksgiving Day

Since I came to the United States, I was asked a few times if, in Poland, we celebrate Thanksgiving. I remember that the first time I heard this question, I was surprised and confused at the same time.

Yet, Thanksgiving Day is the national day in the United States. It is a memory of how the pilgrims were saved from starvation by the Native Americans.

After some time, I was thinking that a question that I’m asked is reasonable and important. Do we have a thanksgiving day in Poland? And Yes, we have - it is called Dożynki and is the ancient Slavic harvest festival usually celebrated on one of the Sundays following the end of the harvest season.

So it means that there is a natural need in each person to express thanks for what we have, to avoid the moment when we will start to take things for granted.

So Although the secularism of our present culture turns the focus more to feasting, football, and family gathering - the real root of this Feast is in the Judeo-Christian tradition of this country. And also, because of this, the Church designated liturgical prayers and various readings to highlight the way that the people can celebrate this a national feast but with its true meaning.

On October 3, 1789, George Washington issued his Thanksgiving proclamation, where he wrote: “to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be an observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

George Washington made this proclamation to honor the victory of the American Revolution and the passage of the Constitution.

On this day of Thanksgiving, George Washington asked the nation to pray that God “protect and guide all sovereigns and nations, to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue... and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows best.”

What is quite interesting that He was concern also for other nations, not just our own. Why? It is what gratitude brings.

If we are enjoying peace and prosperity, we wish, more we want that other nations should also be enabled to enjoy the same.

In our first reading, Prophet Isaiah encourages us to recall the favors of the Lord and His glorious deeds because of all He has done for us.

God’s favor is not based on what we have done, how good or perfect we are but on His mercy and great kindness. We discover this in the privilege which we all have - the baptism. In it, we are called God’s chosen ones.

The Gospel reading confirms that - by the story of the grateful leaper, who was healed out of God’s mercy and kindness. But this story is also a reminder that we must keep it before our eyes. It is so easy to take the things as they would belong to us and forget the Author of all things.

The Duke of Wellington was the great British military leader who regretted that he had not learned the secret of praise during his lifetime. He had many great accomplishments and even defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. He was a brilliant and demanding man, and when he was older, he realized that there were areas in his life that needed to change. In his old age, a woman asked him this question, "What would you do differently if you had your life to live over again?" He thought carefully and said, "I would give more praise."

Is it not a lesson for all of us?

My dear Brothers and Sisters, Yes, our Thanksgiving this year is different and not easy. For the first time, many of us will spend it without the families or friends around us; many had to change the plans at the very last moment.

But even with many fearful things we face and experience today - let try to see what God gives us this day and every day: His love, his grace, His generosity.

Cicero said that “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.”

So whatever we do as Saint Paul says, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to Gad the Father through Him.