Giving Thanks

Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

Human beings have two tendencies regarding giving thanks that are flawed.  The first is found in today's Gospel reading wherein most do not give thanks at all for the blessings bestowed upon them.  We tend to think that the universe owes us these things, that we are entitled to them.  Or we think that we somehow have earned or deserved them when in fact we do not.

The second tendency is giving thanks for that which we have taken and does not belong to us in the first place.  We give thanks for a bountiful land we claimed as our own and drove off those who did live on it.  That lend then became bountiful through coerced slave labor we took from other lands.  In all of this, there is not much really to give thanks for, and it only serves as a means of exalting ourselves for character traits that are not worth having.  

In the Catholic tradition thanksgiving is everyday.  It is the daily offering of the Eucharist - thanksgiving - in gratitude for creation, redemption, and sanctification by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is the daily recognition that all we have comes from God and belongs to God, that it is to be shared with all, and that even our meager cooperation with God in this work is due to his grace given to us.