We are a Nation of Thanksgiving
As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, it is well to reflect how this holiday is so uniquely associated with our great nation of the United States. Its basis is gratitude for that upon which our nation was founded, to provide a place where one could worship God in freedom and where opportunity would be provided equally for all. From even before its formal foundation, those who came to this great land thanked God for all it provided in regard to its natural resources and freedom. We have much to be thankful for, and we shall continue to implore God’s providence as we celebrate the American spirit of gratitude and hope.
The intricate history of Thanksgiving in our nation has always recognized times of adversity and often was in response to them. The first Thanksgiving Proclamation of June 20, 1676, by the Charlestown governing council of Massachusetts set aside a day of Thanksgiving in our land so that “we should not be found an insensitive people, as not standing before Him [God] with thanksgiving, as well as lading Him with our complaints in the time of pressing afflictions.” When President Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving in his proclamation of Oct. 3, 1863, he called the nation “to fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine Purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
Our nation’s history experienced the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Thursday, Nov. 22, 1963. A week after that bleak day, in a Thanksgiving message, the newly sworn in President Lyndon B. Johnson exhorted the nation to pray that there would emerge from the tragedy, “a new American greatness, a new day, when peace is more secure, when justice is more universal, when freedom is more strong, in every home of all mankind.” Indeed, the history of Thanksgiving in our nation celebrates the strength of our nation to join together as one founded on faith in a loving God and the hope of a better future. It is one filled with the promise of faith, peace and justice. It is one that reminds us to stand firm in times of adversity.
On Thanksgiving Day, when we celebrate Mass, the preface of the Eucharistic Prayer refers to our ancestors’ coming to “this land as if out of the desert into a place of promise and hope.” We celebrate Thanksgiving in this nation because we are one which was founded on faith in God, love for all people and hope in times of adversity. We have faced adversity many times in our nation’s history as well as in our personal lives, and faith, hope and love have always prevailed. For this we are thankful. As we join our hearts in thanksgiving, we pray for our nation and for the blessed vision of peace. There can be no greater prayer or act of Thanksgiving for us than the Eucharist.
At the present time, our nation is experiencing a great deal of division in regard to the matter of immigration. While we must secure our borders, and justified progress has been made in this regard, we cannot lose our identity as a land of immigrants open to all for the freedom and bounty it provides. We are all here because of our immigrant backgrounds. Without its immigrants’ foundation, we have no nation of the United States. Thanksgiving is a good time to remember our obligation to treat all men and women as made in the image and likeness of God and to be just, fair and generous in our laws which govern immigrants for the good of all. As the bishops of the United States stated in their recent Special Message on immigration, “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for the past and present opportunities to dialogue with public elected officials. In this dialogue, we will continue to advocate for meaningful immigration reform.”
This year, the celebration of Thanksgiving is also unique in so far as the first pope from the United States will be united with us in a particular manner as a fellow citizen. It is known that Pope Leo XIV has a great love for the celebration of Thanksgiving, as articulated by one of his brothers. When he was in Rome, he would go to the celebration of Thanksgiving at the North American College with the American seminarians who would celebrate the day each year. He was also known to take home with him a few pieces of pumpkin pie. His love for Thanksgiving is certainly something that reminds us of his identity as a citizen of the United States, born and raised here. He has also spoken about the need that we have to respect and protect our immigrant brothers and sisters in a truly human fashion. This respect is part of our identity as the United States.
The words of our first president, George Washington, in his Oct. 3, 1789, Thanksgiving Proclamation are good ones for us to keep always before us as our reason for celebrating Thanksgiving: “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and to humbly implore His protection in favor; and whereas both houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me ‘to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and single favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.’ Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country.”
May the celebration of Thanksgiving, during this Jubilee Year of Hope, be filled with God’s blessings and peace for you, your families, our Church and our nation.
Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito
