Thanksgiving

ACCW November 2024 Spirituality Report

Well, it’s November, and you probably think I’m going to talk about Thanksgiving. You’re right – but you also know I hate being predictable, so you are probably also wondering what the twist is going to be.

I want to talk about the New World, and how that New World gave hope; hope to people who had none, people who were willing to risk everything they did have for something strange and new.

But the New World I’m talking about is not the new world of puritans, and native American tribes, and what’s called the “first thanksgiving.”

Because how self-centered is it, to think the first thanksgiving happened to our rather recent ancestors, here in North America, in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621: an event which only became a national holiday some centuries afterwards?

Thanksgiving itself goes back much, much further than four hundred years. Logic alone tells us this, but we have ancient texts that tell us this, too.

Read the Old Testament: how many times do the Israelites give thanks to God?

What is the Passover meal (celebrated since about 1451 B.C.) but a thanksgiving for being delivered from Egypt?

But I don’t consider even that as the first true thanksgiving meal. I place the true first thanksgiving as a different Passover meal, one that took place not quite 1,500 years after that first one, one that happened about 2,000 years ago.

It was a Passover meal that took place in an upper room of a building on Mount Zion, just outside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem. Jesus was there to “eat the Passover” with his apostles. But at the end of the meal, he broke from the traditional prayers and blessings of the ritual meal, and

“he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.” (Luke 22:19-20)

Our word Eucharist comes from the Greek euchristio, which means thanksgiving. Behind me on that screen is the word Eucharist in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Persian. I placed it in a heart, for what is Eucharist but love? We’re told explicitly in 1 John 4:16 that “God is love.” John 3:16 tells us that " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".

Before Christ went to his Passion and death, in his last hours with his Apostles, just before Judas betrayed Him, He gave us the gift of Himself, of His presence, hidden in the form of two simple foods, bread and wine. He gave us a never-ending memorial of Himself.

God gave the Israelites manna in the desert to sustain their bodies on their journey.

Christ gives us Himself, a food far surpassing manna, the bread of Angels, food for our souls on our journey throughout this, our earthly exile from our one true home of heaven.

At your own  thanksgiving celebration this year, celebrate all your family’s traditions, especially those of giving thanks for all the blessings you have received throughout the year. And recall that for which we should have the greatest thanks: the Eucharist itself, our receiving in Communion the whole Christ, truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine, the glorified Christ who arose from the dead and who is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Happy Thanksgiving – and may God bless us,  everyone.