Articles

This week we close our liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King. We honor Jesus not only in his earthly kingship but as the ruler of all that we know—the universe. This recognition is as grand as it sounds. This feast of gratitude also precedes our American holiday of Thanksgiving. These last weeks of the liturgical year, the scriptures invited us to examine our relationship with Jesus and asked us to look deeply into who we are. If you did that, you quickly found the source of life, you saw the fingerprints of God on your soul. It is that foundation of the divine that allows us to offer our gratitude to those around us.

Start by thinking about those who perform tasks daily or weekly, doing things we just “expect”: delivering the mail, picking up the garbage, restocking shelves at grocery stores, repairing electric lines damaged by weather. Every day, we benefit from the work of people we don’t even recognize. Begin with being grateful for those “forgotten.” Then, expand your thanks to the people who support you. The ones who care about you, ask you how you are doing, and miss you when they don’t see you at your regular Mass. Then spend some time thanking those whom you love, be it relatives, family, or friends.

There is one final group whom we also need to thank, those who have hurt us, those who have “done us wrong,” spoken poorly about us, betrayed us. It is to that group of people we can display our Christian faith, realizing that every person is created with the spark of God in their souls. They are just like us, but maybe have been hurt themselves, bitter over some life event, and don’t know to trust God.

As you praise Jesus today, King of the Universe, who is it you need to tell how grateful you are for them being in your life?

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.