Fr. Dale’s Thanksgiving Day Homily

Thursday, November 28, 2024

In 1789 (only 235 years ago); President George Washington, the second greatest president we will ever have, was the first to proclaim this a day for which to be thankful.  President Franklin Roosevelt, the third greatest president we will ever have, gave us the current calculations in 1939, so people bought their turkeys and stuffed them, or else they went to somebody else’ home, where somebody else stuffed the turkeys.  But there is something more important than stuffing turkeys on Thanksgiving Day, if we are going to give thanks by the calendar in November!  Think about that!  Isn’t that calendar date a kind of “Let’s Be Nice Back to God” Day?

Gratitude Attitude by The Ten Lepers

Human need always laid a claim on the sensitive Spirit of Jesus.  The healing of the 10 lepers is clear evidence of this.  The healing also showed the FORGIVENESS of Jesus. 

Gratitude Attitude on the Personal Level

+ Persistent ingratitude can poison human relationships.  We instinctively feel there is something missing (and draining) in the person who finds it impossible ever to say “Thank You”.  It is very easy for ingratitude to become a fixed response. 

Gratitude Attitude on the Social Level

+ Thanksgiving Day on a calendar is a very appropriate time to be grateful for the blessings of being an American citizen.  But we must be careful of the dangers here: (A) hyper-patriotism [that is to say; giving thanks that we are not like others] (B) not always easy to live IN the world of freedom with a clear conscious.  Freedom can easily be abused.

God, the source of all good gifts

+ No “worthy” Thanksgiving can be celebrated which does not finally express Gratitude to God.

A beautiful card was sent to me this holiday.  It reads:

“It has seemed to me, fit and proper, that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”

President Abraham Lincoln, THE greatest president we will ever have, wrote that for the National Day of Thanksgiving Proclamation back in 1863… some 161 years ago. 

Still, genuine gratitude has no date, no month, no year. 

It is an attitude that ought to be expressed 24/7…