By Bishop James Conley
Thanksgiving is always a blessed time of the year. It’s a time where families come together and enjoy each other’s company, share a well-prepared meal, and maybe play some card games and a watch a little bit of football. But as we know, due to the surge in cases of COVID-19, Thanksgiving celebrations during this upcoming week will be largely scaled back throughout our nation.
Even if our celebration of Thanksgiving is lessened this year, it is still a good time for us to sit back and reflect on the blessings that God has given us. This has been a difficult and unprecedented year for the entire world because of the pandemic, but in humility we still need to be grateful to all that the Lord has given us.
Gratitude is a necessary part of being human. We receive our lives as pure gift. No one accounts for his or her own existence. And we need one another to live a good, fulfilling life.
Jesus shows us how to be grateful. His entire ministry was an act of thanksgiving to the Heavenly Father. Through the Paschal Mystery, Jesus offered himself in a perfect act of thanksgiving to the Heavenly Father.
In our Christian lives, we imitate Christ through our acts of gratitude. We do this is in our own participation of the sacraments. One of the great acts of thanksgiving that we can offer is our active participation in the celebration of the Mass. The word “Eucharist” means “Thanksgiving.” Every time we celebrate the Eucharist it is an entering into that eternal act of thanksgiving, which sets us free from sin and death.
In the spiritual life, gratitude is often prescribed as a remedy to the sin the pride. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines pride as “an inordinate self-esteem or self-love, which seeks attention and honor and sets oneself in competition with God” (CCC 1866). Pride is essentially judging yourself to be greater than you really are, taking full credit for your achievements.
Gratitude is the antidote to pride because it directs us to the truth, helping us conquer pride by growing in the virtue of humility. Gratitude pleases the Lord and fills us with joy; it sets us free.
As I return to full pastoral care of the Diocese of Lincoln, I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to God for all of the blessings that he has given me throughout this past year. There are also many people who the Lord used to bring me healing.
I am grateful to the Pope Francis for giving me time for physical and psychological healing. I am also grateful to Archbishop George Lucas for serving as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Lincoln during my absence.
I am grateful for the friendship and hospitality of Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, who invited me to stay at the Mount Claret Retreat Center in Phoenix during my medical leave. I am thankful for the wonderful care from my spiritual director, mental health professionals, and medical doctors, along with the loving support of my family, my brother bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful. Thank you to everyone who sent letters, cards, notes of support or offered prayers for me during my time on leave.
The Doctor of the Church St. Thérèse of Lisieux said that “Everything is grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father’s love – difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul’s miseries, her burdens, her needs – everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness.”
We have to live with an awareness that God has a providential plan for us. As St. Thérèse points out, even our sufferings and difficulties are part of that plan. As hard as it may be, we have to thank him for those sufferings because everything is grace. Both the joys and sorrows of life occur in concert with Divine Providence.
Giving thanks reminds us that we operate on God’s time and not our own. Gratitude helps us realize that we are not in control. God is in control, and we only find peace when we surrender to him.
We often hear the line, “God helps those who help themselves.” That’s not true; that’s a Pelagian mentality. God takes the initiative in offering us his grace, and we are free to accept or reject his influence. It is the Lord who helps us grow deeper into relationship with him.
I am excited to be back in the Diocese of Lincoln. I am thankful for the priests, religious and lay faithful of the diocese. We certainly have a number of challenges to face as we bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the world, but we should not let these challenges intimidate us nor deter us in our efforts.
I wish everyone a very blessed Thanksgiving. Even with the pandemic, I hope that it is a time of rest, enjoyment, and leisure. I pray that it may be an occasion for all of us to take some time to truly give thanks.
