It is Right to Give Him Thanks and Praise!

 

Deacon David Previtali · It is Right to Give Him Thanks and Praise!

Homily for Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2021. Gospel of St. Luke 17:11-19. Theme: It is Right to Give Him Thanks and Praise! 

As most everyone knows, the event which we call the first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated by English Pilgrims in October of 1621. The backstory to it was that they had wanted to reach the colony of Virginia, but poor planning and navigation brought them to instead to the uninhabited land of what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was November of 1620 and they were on their own with precious little food and supplies. Nearly half of their number passed away that first frightful winter. When spring arrived, the survivors set to work plowing and planting. Fortunately for them, the native people, and most especially an Indian named Squanto, came to their assistance. The pilgrims were taught how to plant and fish and ended up being blessed with better health and an abundant harvest that autumn. Their leader, William Bradford, announced the convocation of a festival of gratitude to God for the harvest. In other words, a celebration of thanksgiving for preserving and enriching the gift of life. 

Of the original 102 pilgrims, only 50 survived to that first Thanksgiving Day. And of the 18 women who landed at Plymouth Rock, only four were still alive when they gathered to give praise to their Almighty and Provident Father. And yet, they all gave thanks. They all could focus on the blessings and not the troubles. They all had a confident faith and trust in Christ which enabled them to look beyond the uncertainties and suffering and be grateful that they had endured. 

Like those pilgrims we all know that it is right to give God thanks and praise for the many blessings we have received. But if we focus just on the material things we lose sight of what really matters: the life we have received from God, even if it’s not the most ideal kind of life. And Heaven knows that the past year has been one that we would have ever chosen for ourselves. Yet here we are once again, on this last Thursday of November, giving thanks in the American tradition of the pilgrims. I hope this is because like them we realize that whatever we’ve had to experience over the past many months and are still enduring today, is only a small short part of the entire package that is the gift of our life. And for this, I hope and pray, we are all truly grateful from the inside out. 

The deep abiding faith in God that permeates the spirit and the story of the Pilgrims is part of the national heritage of us all, no matter where we were born. This is why “In God We Trust” is on our currency. This firm faith in God, together with gratitude for His gift of life even amidst hardships, struggles and setbacks encouraged the pilgrims in their thirst for religious freedom. A firm faith in God, together with gratitude for His gift of life, are the very bedrock of this country and have contributed to make its character what it is. If we abandon these things we betray who we are and have been and are meant to be as Americans. 

The Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation is beyond any historical doubt. Yet it has become very vogue and “enlightened” in many academic and elite circles to ridicule the pilgrim experience and denigrate the story of the first Thanksgiving. It’s not because Plymouth Rock, Squanto, William Bradford or any aspect of the pilgrim story was a fable. Rather, it’s because the story reminds us that everything we have or are as individuals and as a nation comes to us from God. There is an intentional crusade to erase God from our national heritage and eradicate the vital role that religious freedom and faith played in the building of America. 

It’s so very important that we preserve and protect the true meaning of Thanksgiving which has the distinction of being our only nationally sanctioned religious holiday. Unique to it also is its ecumenical spirit in which all people of every faith offer their gratitude to God as they understand him to be, thus uniting us all as one people under God. And so, rightly should we pray today in the prayer offered at that first Thanksgiving by William Bradford on behalf of all:

“From small beginnings greater things have come, produced by the hand of God, who has made all things from nothing…and, as one small candle first gives light to a thousand, so the light here kindled today among us will shine to many, even to our whole nation. Let the glorious name of the Lord our God be forever praised.”