November 23, 2016
Thanksgiving Day
(Sirach 50:22-24; Psalm 145; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Luke 17:11-19)
23 November 2016 – St. Austin Parish, Austin, TX
Tomorrow is our national holy day. It’s really quite remarkable that we, as a nation, stop what we’re doing each year to celebrate what God has given us. As Catholics, we’re experts at thanksgiving. Every time we gather for Mass, we celebrate the Eucharist. When we bring forward the bread and the wine, we are offering the whole of ourselves to God – our joys and sorrows, our gifts and weaknesses, our blessings and brokenness. God takes who we are and transforms it into the divine.
Before we move on, I’m going to ask you to do one of those things that most people don’t like to do at Mass. I’d like you to pair off in twos – preferrably with people you don’t know – for a bit of faith sharing. OK, go ahead and pair up.
Before you speak, take a moment to think to yourself: for what are you thankful this year? [Pause.] Now, look at your watches. You have three minutes. For the first full minute, one person talks about what they’re grateful for. In the second minute, the other person does the same. And then, in the third minute, discuss how it felt to share with one another in this way. [Engage with one of the altar servers for the exercise. Then, after three minutes:]
Before we turn our attention to the Word of God, let us celebrate the mercy and the graces that we have received from God.
It was still dark on my first Thanksgiving Day as a priest when my cell phone rang. The student chaplain at UT Medical Center on the other end of the phone sensed that she had woken me up. Could I please come within the hour? The patient in room 1206 was dying and wanted to receive anointing and viaticum.
I was annoyed. I had just been to room 1206 twelve hours before. We had received a voicemail yesterday asking for a chaplain to come, but the voicemail gave no information on the urgency of the situation and it provided no callback number. When I had arrived at the hospital the night before, the patient was sleeping and there was no nurse or chaplain available to tell me how sick the patient was or what the patient desired.
So, this poor chaplain on the phone in that pre-dawn hour of Thanksgiving morning received an earful from me. Could she please instruct her fellow student chaplains that when they left voicemails for us priests, could they provide detailed information, including a callback number? When we get these requests without sufficient information, it is difficult to adequately minister to the patients. I had Thanksgiving Mass later in the morning… and I still needed to prepare my homily.
One reason that I needed more time for that homily was that the engineer and rule-follower in me had always struggled with this gospel passage. I’d heard it many times, but I’d never had to preach on it before. The nine Jewish men with leprosy didn’t do anything wrong, did they? They followed the directions of Jesus and the Torah: go show yourself to the priest to be declared clean.
But as I turned on the coffee maker that Thanksgiving morning, I got a grip of myself. This woman was dying, and it was not her fault that I had received lousy information the night before. I’d go to the hospital first, and the people of Blessed John XXIII Parish could suffer through a less-than-ideal homily.
When I arrived at the hospital 30 minutes later, caffeinated, showered, shaved, and having enjoyed a beautiful sunrise as I bolted down I-275, it was clear that I could not have provided the necessary ministry at the hospital the night before. Now, her family was gathered around her, keeping vigil. I asked the five adult children to share memories of their mother. Through watery eyes, they told of a woman who had given tirelessly to each of them and to the extended community in New Orleans. As we joined hands and prayed, the dying woman awoke. I anointed her and coaxed a sliver of the Eucharist into her mouth.
It was a moment of Thanksgiving. The word “Eucharist” comes from a Greek word for “thanksgiving.” In this terrible moment of death, the tears began to flow. The family was filled with gratitude for all that had been, all they had shared, and how this woman had brought them so close to God.
I grabbed a quick breakfast in the hospital cafeteria, and I reflected on how my morning had paralleled our gospel passage. As scripture scholar R. Alan Culpepper points out, this passage shows that gratitude can only happen when we place something besides ourselves at the center of our concern.
There was nothing in the Torah, or in what Jesus said, that demanded that these men with leprosy were to do nothing else before they went to the priest. The Torah only required them to be declared clean before they entered back into community life. But Jesus was passing by the town. If they didn’t stop what they were doing right then and return, they would never have a chance to express their gratitude to him.
Similarly, when I had gotten over how I had been inconvenienced by the lack of information in last night’s voicemail, I was able to focus instead on the needs of the dying woman.
The ability to be grateful is a sign of having faith. Faith and gratitude are inseparable. Both require us to have humility, to realize that our concerns are secondary to the acts of God. Faith requires us to pause from our worldly concerns to make time for God. Gratitude is the act of pausing from our concerns to make time to thank God and the people around us.
Often, when I visit hospitals and nursing homes, I pray Philippians 4:4-9 with the patients. It seems appropriate tonight, as well:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers [and sisters], whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen [through the gospel]. Then the God of peace will be with you. [Amen.]
Tomorrow: national holy day. Remarkable – as nation – stop to celebrate what God has given. Catholics: experts at thanksgiving. Every Mass: celebrate Eucharist. When bring forward bread & wine, offer whole selves to God – joys & sorrows, gifts & weaknesses, blessings & brokenness. God takes, transforms into divine.
Pair off in 2s – w/ people you don’t know – for faith sharing. Go ahead.
Before speaking, take moment: what thankful for this year? [Pause.] 3 minutes:
- 1st minute: 1 person talks about what they’re grateful for.
- 2nd minute: other person does same.
- 3rd minute: discuss how felt to share in this way.
[Engage with an altar server, watching time.]
Before we turn attention to Word of God, let us celebrate mercy/graces we have received from God.