For what are you most thankful?

Last Thursday, our brothers and sisters in the United States celebrated Thanksgiving. If it is not caught up in sales, travel, and the other usual traps of any holiday, it is a tradition that can teach us much: As the year comes to a close, stop and ask yourself, “What blessings have I received the past 12 months? For what am I grateful?” Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. As 2012 comes to an end, pause and take some time to savor what the Lord has given you this year. For what should you thank him?

My first Mass as a priest was on Palm Sunday in Payatas. I remember waking up a bit late that morning (I guess the ordination the day before left me more exhausted than I could admit). After a quick shower, I ran to our sacristy, grabbed the first chasuble and stole I got my hands on, and sped to Payatas. But in my rush, I had gotten vestments at least two sizes too large for me. And so, during my first Mass, I not only had to worry about saying the right words and making the right gestures at the right time, I had to wrestle with what seemed like an endless yardage of cloth. My hands, which could not even peek through my chasuble, were always trying to lift my garments so that they would not sweep the chapel floor. My feet, busy with trying not to step on my stole’s tassels, were always tripping over each other. Not even halfway through the Mass, I knew I was a big mess.

After Communion, during a short lull mercifully provided by the usual announcements about fundraisers and meetings, I found myself just shaking my head, looking down at my own footprints on my chasuble, and hoping a tassel on my stole would make it to the final song before falling off. I could only sigh, “This is just too big for me.” Then I remember looking up and seeing the people who were so happy to be at my first Mass, people who had let me into their lives and shared the joyous times when they welcomed new life into their families, when they said “Yes” to the person with whom they wanted to spend the rest of their lives, and when they bid goodbye to and buried those whom they loved… this was indeed just too big for me.

In the confessional, strangers tell me their deepest and darkest secrets, things they have not told and probably can never tell their own spouses, parents, and children. This is too big for me. At Mass, I hold in hands that have done innumerable unnamable deeds God himself and feed him to people who many times do not even know for what they are hungering. This is too big for me. I’ve dirtied my vocation with my own footprints and stepped on the tassels of my priesthood many times, yet God continues to cloak me with this awesome responsibility. This is just too big for me!

The Gospel reading for Thanksgiving is the famous story of Jesus and the ten lepers. All ten were healed by Jesus, but only one, a Samaritan, returned to thank the Lord. We praise that Samaritan for going back and expressing his thanks, but was he truly grateful? In my mind, I have many questions: What if the other nine did not return not because they were ingrates, but because they had not realized that they were already cleansed? Many of our Lord’s miracles happen without much fanfare, without lightning flash or thunderclap — what if the nine ex-lepers just did not notice what had been given to them? Now, when the Samaritan saw that he was cured, did he tell the others about the miracle he had received? If he did, perhaps the other nine would have realized that they were blessed in the same way, and they would have run back to Jesus also. In my imagination, when Jesus asks, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” he was actually challenging the Samaritan: “Did you not tell them about what you have received?”

Being thankful is not just going back to the Giver and expressing your gratefulness. In the Old Testament, a proper thanksgiving was done in public — you proclaimed to everyone what you had been blessed with. This is not to draw attention to you. This is to make other people look at what they themselves have received and so be moved to thankfulness. Ultimately, this is to direct people to the Source of all our blessings.

This is why I tell you about what I have received and how it is too big for me — not to make you wish you were a priest, too, but to make you look for and see the blessings which you have received, blessings too big for you also. Yesterday, I officiated at the wedding of a couple whose love story began in 2001. All the years they have been together, whenever they would experience a major bump in the road, the bride would always find herself praying, “This is bigger than us.” Yes, the problems and challenges might have seemed bigger than they could have managed on their own, but surely, too, the blessings and miracles they received were bigger than them. I know that they believe this, or else, they would have not asked for the Sacrament of Matrimony. The Sacrament of Matrimony is not just about telling God, “We need you to help us make a life together.” It is also about telling God, “Thank you. Thank you for giving us something that is bigger than us.”

Being grateful is not just saying “Thank you” to the Giver. Being grateful is also not just proclaiming to the world your thanks. Today, the Solemnity of Christ the King, we remember that all things are under the Lord Jesus. It is also the perfect time to remind ourselves that being grateful is taking our blessings and putting them at Jesus’ feet. Our being grateful is not complete until we put what we have received in the service of Christ the King.

At the end of the story of the ten lepers, Jesus tells the Samaritan, “Get up, your faith has saved you.” If we are truly grateful, we will not just thank the Lord for our blessings, we will tell the world of our good news and multiply our gifts by sharing them with others. Then the Lord will tell us, “Get up, your faith — and gratefulness — has saved not just you. It has helped save others, too.”

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