A Catholic is sacrificial, custodial … and ever thankful

On November 24, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. This holiday is an opportunity for us to gather with family and friends, reflect on God’s blessings, recall the sacrifices of those who came to America to start a new life, and consider our roles as stewards of our material and spiritual inheritance. It is worth considering that while roots of our secular Thanksgiving celebration can be traced to the Pilgrims, giving thanks has always been central to our Catholic identity.

Every Mass is both a sacrifice and a thanksgiving. At Mass, we are present for Christ’s eucharistic sacrifice, just as if we witnessed His Crucifixion. But the word Eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharistia, which means “thanksgiving.” Taking a day annually as a country to thank God for our blessings is a proper way to acknowledge His role in the history of the United States and petition Him to continue to bless us. Attending Mass is how we as Catholics enter into real communion with Christ, worship Him duly, and show the Almighty our gratitude for His benevolence.
  
Part of our thanksgiving entails being grateful for our daily sustenance, just as the Pilgrims expressed gratitude for their harvest. When Jesus taught us to pray, He instructed us to ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” That bread is far more than physical sustenance. In its discussion of the Our Father, the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St. Augustine:

The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive.... This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage. (no. 2837)

The Pilgrims understood the need to give thanks, and they acted on it. That pious celebration has that in common with the Catholic celebration of the Mass. It is from God that we receive our daily bread, and it is to Him that we are called to direct our appreciation. It is God who grants us our patrimony as Catholics, and it is this inheritance that we must guard and cherish. In a word, we are called to exercise stewardship.
 
Part of demonstrating our gratitude is through stewardship of that which brings glory to God. Our families, apostolates, and institutions are all gifts from God. As Catholics, we are bound to preserve and enhance them, then pass them on to future generations in better condition than that in which we found them. It is in part through our stewardship that we engage in a tangible act of thanksgiving. Legatus members take seriously their responsibility of stewarding the Catholic faith − by learning and living Catholicism daily and by exemplifying it in all spheres of their lives.

STEPHEN M. HENLEY is Legatus’ president.