Daily Reflection Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

We share such wonderful traditions; we gather with family, some of us share "Friendsgivings," others have quieter meals which mark the day in small but nonetheless special ways, many share the bounteous gifts of their wallets and tables with those less fortunate than them by way of parish and community programs, and the most festive of foods are enjoyed and more often than not shared. Parades, tree lightings, turkey trots, turkey bowls, and backyard sports abound. In many places, civic traditions play out year after year: Presidential proclamations are read, Pilgrim narratives are retold, and at many Thanksgiving dinners we share our family stories. Thanksgiving Day is intended for all these things. Because we have our families and festivities, our health and hearth on Thanksgiving each year, do we take for granted these extraordinary gifts?

On any occasion when we attend Mass, we kneel and reverence our God as he comes bodily among us in the Holy Eucharist. Like the ten lepers in the Gospel, we all have afflictions, brokenness, and pain which we bring before him, and we may even cry: "Have pity on us!" We dutifully approach our priests during the service of Communion, following our family and neighbors up the aisle, and we return having taken into our bodies his healing and True Presence. Are we like the nine, returning to our seat and, as the Mass concludes, moving on to what comes next. Are we like that one—the foreigner—falling down before our God in adoration and thanking him?

Do we authentically receive the gifts of Thanksgiving Day lavished upon us amid routine and the rush of people? As with approaching the sacrament, it can be difficult to get out of our own way, to put aside what's next, and to be humble and receive the full healing and grace of serving and loving family, friends, traditions, and the human yet extraordinary bounty around us at Thanksgiving—to fall down before our God in adoration of the gifts poured out upon us. We can go through this holiday, receive Thanksgiving, and then return to the everyday as though by the side aisle. Or we can experience this holiday—this holy day—like the foreigner in the Gospel, recognizing Thanksgiving's wondrous abundance and taking it with us, returning the next day and the day after that, to our thankfulness to God and reverence for all our extraordinary gifts.