As a Catholic, it has always been a little difficult for me to embrace and celebrate the secular Thanksgiving holiday (as it has very anti-Catholic roots). But looking beyond those roots, there is never a bad time to be grateful and reflect on all Our Lord has blessed us with.
Often our American culture views blessings as only those bright shiny moments of life. It’s easy to be grateful for the good things, of course. But as Catholics (and I am a Catholic before I am an American), there is much more to be thankful for than merely those shiny moments.
The saints are our great example of how to live the Christian life. While they had many remarkable attributes, one that perhaps all of them embraced was gratitude—not only in those happy moments, but most especially gratitude in the midst of great suffering. You don’t have to be a saint to be thankful for good health, stable work, and a loving family and friends.
It does, however, take a saint to be grateful for sickness, poverty, and enemies. Every saint knows that gratitude is a fundamental virtue of holiness. But just as Job shows us, in both the calm and the storm, in the moments of joy and sadness, we must have gratitude written upon our hearts.
Today, I suggest that we baptize this secular holiday and flip it upside down by expressing gratitude for our greatest sufferings.
It is becoming more prevalent in this modern age for people to play the victim. They wallow in all that has gone wrong, all the bad and suffering, and tiptoe into despair believing that there is nothing to be grateful for, nothing to be joyful about. But it is in such moments that saints are made. When we are greeted with suffering, we must pray for the grace to be thankful even then.
As Saint Augustine tells us, “All that happens to us in this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God… Show Him respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it to us without cause.”
To be grateful for all of life requires great spiritual mettle and prayer. Scripture shows us countless moments when, out of sorrow, God creates something good, though we can’t see it at first. Just as the prophet Isaiah wrote, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord” (Is 55:8), we must root our faith in God alone.
As Catholics, we are called to be an Easter people, a people of rejoicing and praise for the Lord. We are a verbal Church, singing lauds of honor and thanksgiving to Our Lord Jesus, who is the Word incarnate.
Yet the noise of our modern world is a constant din, making it difficult to sing such praise. It is much easier to bury ourselves in cell phone screens and forget about prayer. It is easier to wallow in our sufferings than to offer praise to Our Lord for it. But why are we afraid to look at our sufferings? Today, let us not be afraid. Instead let us rejoice and give thanks for it.
A great way to incorporate gratitude in your daily life is by using the ACTS method of prayer and contemplation. This stands for: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. When we can first give all glory and praise to God, everything else falls in place. We can truly recognize ourselves as sinners and give thanksgiving to Our Lord for His grace.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux reminds us, “Prayer is an aspiration of the heart. It is a simple glance directed to heaven. It is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy.”
Perhaps the greatest aspect of gratitude is that it requires humility. It requires us to set aside our pride and self-interest and open our hearts in a different way. Not only must we approach God with such humility, but our neighbor as well. For how can we give praise and honor to God, thanking Him for all He has given us, if we are still resentful of others? No, gratitude requires humility, and God requires us to learn of Him and be humble of heart.
This Thanksgiving, meditate on the words of Saint Ambrose: “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” So let us embrace our vocal faith, let us praise our Heavenly Father for all of our sufferings along with our blessings. With God’s grace, let us transform our hearts to become meek and humble, and live our days in gratitude.
May God continue to bless you and your families.
Conor Gallagher
CEO of TAN Books
