A Story of Thanksgiving

After an oil spill a man found a penguin covered in oil in the murky waters.  The man took the animal home, bathe him and nursed the critter back to health.  Though the man lived in a warm climate location the penguin stayed with him for six months before finally making his way back into the waters and joining the rest of his huddle.  Yet, every year the penguin would return to the man’s home and remain with him for a few days during the winter months.  It’s astonishing how an animal has the ability to express gratitude, this behavior is worth contemplating… 

If we look at the Gospel story of the ten lepers that Jesus heals only one returns to express gratitude.  One out of the ten comes back, does that mean that only ten percent of us are people capable of expressing gratitude?  On Thanksgiving Day, my family and I went to Mass and the church was bursting with people.  It’s the annual trilingual service and the parish was full way over capacity, people were standing on the sides and the back of the room.  However, for a religion that has over 1.2 billion followers is this what ten percent of believers looks like?  

During one of the most beautiful seasons of the year, one in which we can express gratitude for the many blessings we have, we can get lost in the activity.  Between the cooking, baking, decorating, shopping…  It’s easy to put worship at the bottom of the list and never get to it.  On Thanksgiving Day, my nephew whined like crazy about attending Mass, “Why do we have to go if it’s not Sunday?”  I tried my best to explain the beauty of a thankful spirit, how expressing gratitude for what we have is healthy and needed.  Then we got to Mass and Father delivered a great homily about a penguin stuck in the oil and I could see that my nephew understood things more clearly.  As we left the service he seemed relaxed more content I could tell he enjoyed the beauty of the trilingual service.  Then later that night as we gathered around our thanksgiving table he reminded me that it was time to go around the table and share what we are thankful for.  Maybe we're not as natural as animals is expressing gratitude, but we can be taught (smile).