Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. It is interesting to note that thanksgiving is celebrated in many cultures and religions throughout the world. Many thanksgiving feasts are linked with the harvest celebration, giving thanks to God for blessings received. Thanksgiving Day falls very close to the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of Advent, preparing us for Christmas. In Catholic liturgy, thanksgiving is more intense than we begin to realise. Every Eucharist is a thanksgiving to God. It happens every day, every moment, all over the world when the Eucharist is celebrated.

God has been good to us, and He is worthy of all praise and thanksgiving. St Paul encourages us to give thanks always. All that we are, all that we have, everything good around us is from God, who alone is the giver of all good things, therefore it is right to give Him thanks. Giving thanks is an act of justice, to show gratitude for favours received. Not giving thanks to God would then be an act of injustice.

Thanksgiving is vital for our salvation, and to illustrate this message, in Luke chapter 17, Jesus tells us the story of the ten lepers. On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

Praise and thanks are used interchangeably in scripture, and the story of the ten lepers shows the supernatural connection one can have with Jesus when they are grateful. When we say, ‘thank you’ to another human being, it is a way of acknowledging a favour. However, when we say thanks to God, it takes us into a level of deep intimacy with Jesus. Our thanksgiving to God benefits, completes, and blesses us in return, because God is all good and complete. The ten lepers asked Jesus for mercy and Jesus heals them. However, only one leper returns to Jesus to give Him thanks and Jesus says your faith has made you well, which means complete. One showed faith, not only to receive mercy and healing, but had faith to give thanks, and Jesus, in return, rewards him for his faith by giving him salvation, which is eternal life. Our thanksgiving for the natural everyday blessings, such as a good harvest, connects us to God who also wants to bless us in return for the gratitude we show Him.

When we celebrate thanksgiving as a nation, as a culture, as a community, especially showing reverence to God for His many blessings, we show an act of justice, for it is right to give Him thanks. Thanksgiving is also an act of faith which connects us to our salvation. Only a person that is saved and made complete by God knows sincerely how to give thanks to God. It is only in giving that we receive. Therefore, give thanks to God, who gives all good things.

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