Thanksgiving
The word Eucharist means thanksgiving. We participate every day in a celebration of thanksgiving, the sacrifice of Christ renewed upon our altar in an unbloody manner. However, on this day we gather also to give thanks to God as a nation for the blessings He has given, and to ask for grace as we look to our future.
Our modern observance of Thanksgiving comes from President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of October 3, 1863. He wrote of the blessings God had given even in the midst of war, and said, “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
We are very much a divided nation; however, it should give us cause for hope that President Lincoln could write these words in 1863, a year which saw the draft riots of New York, in which over 100 people were killed; the siege and battle of Vicksburg; the battle of Gettysburg, which saw 51,000 casualties and over 7,000 of those were among the dead; the battle of Chickamauga, with 4,000 men dying on the battlefield amid 34,000 casualties; and the battles for Chattanooga ended just one day before Thanksgiving.
We must maintain our faith and hope in God and give thanks to Him even in the midst of the troubles our nation faces. As Catholics, we are always hopeful, not for a trouble-free life on earth, but for the reward of those who remain faithful to Jesus Christ to the end.
Let us today give thanks to God, especially for our
Catholic faith, Christ’s true presence in the Blessed Sacrament, His boundless
blessings, and for our beloved United States of America.