Thanksgiving

     I'm the type of person who loves to share good recipes with everyone and anyone.  When I serve a delicious homemade meal, I put my whole self into its creation.  Seeing others enjoy it, brings me much joy.  This is how I first related to God our Father.  It made me realize that when we enjoy His creations, we glorify Him and He is very pleased.  His pleasure was felt within me as I was experiencing genuine gratitude of all that is good and beautiful in my life; all of which comes from Him.

     The discovery that He created the world to share it with us and shower us with blessings, made me see everything as a precious gift.  Instead of feeling sad that I didn't have enough love, appreciation, material wealth, I became overwhelmed with thankfulness of all that I had, including my husband.  The fact that we are gifts to one another to be enjoyed rather than to be criticized or used, was a real eye opener for me.  I realized that I had things really mixed up.

       Just going through the motions of marriage rather than ejoying this union as a great gift from God, made me see that I was also going through the motions of participating in the Catholic faith and not enjoying it as a great gift from God.  Each Sunday, we obediently attended Mass.  Most of the Mass I would be thinking about the dinner I was going to prepare or the groceries I needed, etc. During the homily, I would hear words about love and discipleship, and can remember hoping that my husband was taking these words to heart, never considering my own heart.  Once I began to see all of the blessings that God was bestowing on us throughout the week, there was a huge revelation within my heart.

     Attending Mass each week became an opportunity for me to be like the one leper that returned to give thanks to Jesus for healing my hard heart.  I was no longer attending church on Sunday to fulfill an obligation mindlessly, in the hopes that since we were coming to God, He would give me the grace I needed to get through another week.  Being truly thankful for all of God's gifts, I started to see God in everything and everyone.  Just as I put myself in the things I served, I now knew that God put Himself in all of His creations, and I couldn't wait to get to Mass and share in this powerful Thanksgiving meal with all my pilgrim brothers and sisters to celebrate God's presence in our daily journey.

     My eyes were opened to so many beautiful things.  Even though the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross happened only once, He lives that love for us each and every day until the end of time.  It is what we celebrate at every Eucharist.  His gift of love can be experienced each and every day if we only seek to see it in our daily lives.  And then when we come together at Eucharist, it is a thanksgiving celebration of all the love that He shared with us throughout the week. He is still pouring all of himself out for us, in the form of bread and wine so that we can unite in love.  It is an indescribable mystery, and a true Thanksgiving meal, as the word, 'Eucharist' means 'Thanksgiving.'

     Even though our wedding ceremony took place only once, we are to live that love each and every day until death do us part; pouring ourselves out for the other.  Then when we unite in the marital act, it is in thanksgiving for the love and caring that took place during family life.  Whenever my husband puts me before himself, he is making love to me, and vice versa. For instance, when my husband took over one of my duties so that I could relax, he was making love to me.  Whenever we physically unite as one, it is a thanksgiving celebration of all the times we made love through our caring of each other in family life.   Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Lord, for opening the eyes of my heart!!

    
     "Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.  Now he was a Samaritan.  Then said Jesus, 'Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' And he said to him, 'Rise, and go your way; your faith has made you well." (Luke 17:17-19)