SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2007

LUKE 17: 18

"Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"

More than thirty years ago when I was first a priest, the husband of my mother’s cousin died. I had met him only rarely. But I knew his brother, a Jesuit priest like me, ordained about fifteen years ahead of me. I heard from my mother about Edward’s death but then was surprised to get a call from Edward's Jesuit priest brother asking me if I would celebrate the funeral Mass. I thought it odd but this Jesuit simply knew that he could not make it through his brother’s funeral without breaking emotionally.

I honestly felt the request to be an imposition. Even today I don't quite understand his unwillingness to undertake this pious task for a family member. But I must admit, too, that I still have my siblings. In any case I carried out his request as best I could. When the service was over, he and other family members expressed their gratitude to me.

Just two weeks ago today I met this priest in passing, now 85 years old and still healthy. (His hobby is taking care of hundreds of trees on the Jesuit property at Wernersville; some you see pictured above). I see him only occasionally and we had not referred to Edward for the last thirty years. But this time he said to me, “I am working on thanksgiving these days and I want to thank you again for saying Edward’s funeral Mass.” It was as if I had done him this favor some time in that past week.

We talk about love as the glue that holds social structures together and allows cultures and institutions to flourish. I submit that gratitude is an essential expression of the love that is such a glue. Back at the time of the funeral, I needed to hear the thanks that my Jesuit friend extended to me. I did not need to hear it recently.

Nevertheless there was something more genuine about the thanks thirty years later. It was a reminder that deeds create life-long relationships. It was a reminder that the stuff of life is the deeds that we do for one another whether we know why we must do them or not. Expressions of thanksgiving are the reminder that keeps the spirit of our good works enkindled and alert. They encourage us to good works even for those who won’t or can’t give thanks, the poor, the sick, the dying whom we do not know but for whom our deeds are matters of justice.

And we give thanks to our God in imitation of the prayers of Jesus.
He speaks words of thanksgiving to his Father. In giving thanks he reminds the Father of the relationship that they share, a relationship that generates the Spirit. In giving thanks he reminds the Father that their life is the deeds that they are doing and will do for one another and for this world.