This week’s Pearls episode will come out tomorrow with a focus on Advent.
But for today, some Thanksgiving reflections…
Gratitude and Humility
Why do we give thanks for something? We give thanks because it is something we need and that we cannot provide for ourselves. Were we completely self-sufficient, we would have no need to give thanks. What a dull world that would be.
Thank the Lord (very punny…) it turns out we are not at all self-sufficient. Let’s say we had all the money in the world – what good would it be without the ability to exchange a bit of it with someone for, say, a ham sandwich? A hundred-dollar bill on Rye does not digest well. Better is to make a tasty exchange, and then we thank them for the sandwich, and they thank us for the fiver (pre-inflation…).
Moving beyond material needs, there are spiritual needs, such as satisfaction and meaning. Everyone wants to be appreciated, but how satisfying is it to pay yourself a compliment? We need someone with whom we can share our time and talent and in exchange, perhaps, they pay us a compliment. And we thank them.
The precious gift tucked away in every gesture of gratitude is the gentle reminder that we need one another.
And that is why gratitude is tied to humility. Gratitude reminds us that we are small. We are needy (in a good way). Gratitude keeps us grounded. Ground, in the Latin, humus. Humility.
St Francis de Sales, in The Devout Life, teaches that “a lively appreciation of the grace given to you should make you humble, for appreciation begets gratitude.”
Gratitude and Relationship
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that gratitude is a virtue that falls under the cardinal virtue of justice – giving what is due to God and neighbor. Since God is the source of everything good, we should be grateful to God for everything. And then, in turn we should be grateful to parents, mentors, friends, benefactors, etc.
The reason we are so reliant on one another is because God set it up that way. Because He is relationship. The Trinity is relationship. And since He created us in His image, we are made for relationship. Human flourishing only occurs in relationship – with God and one another (“it is not good for man to be alone”).
The end goal of gratitude, the purpose of gratitude, is to grow in relationship.
Can We Thank “the Universe”?
Can we be thankful for a beautiful sunset? Certainly. But that gratitude is rightfully given to God who “raises storm clouds from the end of the earth, makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth wind from his storehouse.”
It makes no sense to thank “nature” or “the universe” or “some higher power” – because none of those things care about us. And “thanking the universe” turns gratitude inward – gratitude becomes solely about what gives us pleasure (I’m thankful because I really like this), rather than being about someone doing something for our benefit.
In fact, when people resort to just “thanking the universe,” even the act of giving thanks becomes all about them. The common explanation for “thanking the universe” is something like “because it’s healthy for ME to express gratitude.”
Gratitude for Our Country – One Person at a Time
Gratitude for our country, for the rule of law, and for security and opportunity, is the virtue of patriotism. But, once again, we are giving thanks to God, first and foremost, and then to our fellow citizens.
Here an important dynamic of human relationships comes into play. We can only have relationship with just so many people, because relationship is intimately entwined with spending time together. We can’t spend time with 300 million people. So, yes, we are thankful for our country, but we experience and interiorize that gratitude through our day-to-day interaction with individual people. Hopefully that is what you’re able to do today with loved ones.
All of this is captured powerfully by Presidents Washington and Lincoln in their Thanksgiving proclamations. These are often passed about this time of year – and with good reason – it is hard to get too much of something so good for our national soul – and so we include both in the postscript – a Thanksgiving feast of patriotic gratitude to God Almighty.
Thanksgiving blessings to you –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Presidential Proclamations
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 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. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789
By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
George Washington