Thanksgiving is a compound word that really needs to be considered carefully, and perhaps re-evaluated, at this time of the year. It's a word with more meaning than the mere conjunction of its parts --"thanks" and "giving"-- might suggest.
Its most obvious sense is simply an offering of gratitude for what we have received. But giving thanks goes much deeper than just feeling satisfied and saying "thanks." It implies a deeper "giving" than that, and a deeper connection between our willingness to give, and the virtue of gratitude. In fact, giving and gratitude reinforce one another.
Consider the Gospel passage:
"When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury, and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.
"He said, 'I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.'" (Lk 21:1-4)
In the passage from Luke’s Gospel, it is not what the woman had received that was noteworthy, but what she gave-- in accordance with the saying of Christ recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Not only does this widow give spiritually, through her worship, but she gives materially from her poverty; she makes a sacrifice. The woman gives thanks to God for what little she has, by offering all of it.
The woman was a willing and cheerful giver, in spite of how little she had to give. Such an action requires a heart that is grateful to God for whatever gifts He may choose to bestow. And yet, this grateful recipient shows herself also more willing to give-away again.
Consider, along similar lines, the Pilgrims who celebrated America's first Thanksgiving in 1621. By all appearances, they had considerably less to thank God for than we do.
They faced difficulties we can barely imagine, in simply procuring enough food. They had experienced the misfortune of being persecuted for their religion-- yet as Protestants, they also experienced the deep misfortune of being separated from most of the Church's sacraments.
Yet they were deeply grateful and devoted to those truths of the faith they had. And they were grateful for the mere ability to survive, with the amount they received from God. Their offering of gratitude, in the first Thanksgiving, is comparable in some ways to the widow and her two coins.
Those Pilgrims seem almost deprived, from our perspective: we can watch the Pope on television simply because we're bored; we can shop at a supermarket when we aren't even hungry. We have more than we need, of almost everything we could ask for.
And yet, given our tendency to take these things for granted or put them to no use, who might we be in Jesus' parable? We may turn out to be the "wealthy people," to the Pilgrims' "poor widow." Sometimes it seems like the more we have, the less we actually appreciate it, or bother to give meaningfully.
Of course, the point isn't to beat ourselves up over whether we're grateful or giving enough, by simply contemplating others' deprivation. Cultivating gratitude rarely works that way.
How does it work? By the peculiar logic of the Gospel, as it turns out.
We become more grateful not by hoarding things and relishing them, but by giving of ourselves in real sacrifice. And a grateful heart, in turn, gives even more away, to others and to God. It's not the ordinary human logic of finitude and self-focus, but God's logic of community and infinity.
It's what some call a "virtuous circle," a self-reinforcing tendency toward goodness. We give out of gratitude, and become grateful as we give. And back around again-- to eternity.
It's the opposite of the "vicious circle" involved in chronic self-seeking. We hoard because we're ungrateful, and become ungrateful as we hoard. This, too, can continue forever.
But a thankful heart gives-- and grows in its gratitude, in order to give more. This Thanksgiving, let's prayerfully consider not only what we have received, but consider how much more blessed it is "to give than to receive."
The logic of the Gospel guarantees that we will become more grateful as we give-- and give more, as we grow in gratitude. Such is God's kingdom on earth, the life of the Trinity at work among us.
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