Giving Thanks During A Pandemic
By DONALD DeMARCO
During the Last Supper, knowing that His death was imminent, Christ, nonetheless, gave thanks. In Luke 22:14-20, we read Christ’s words: “After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me’.”
Why did He give thanks? Theologians says that since this was a Passover meal, He was thanking God for the deliverance of the Jewish people. He was also thanking God for the bread and wine, which would become His Body and Blood that would serve countless people in the future. He was praying that we should receive all His blessings in a spirit of thanksgiving. The Eucharist, then, was a feast of Thanksgiving.
This spirit of thanksgiving is echoed by St. Paul in his First Letter to the Thessalonians when he writes, “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Giving thanks during a pandemic is not easy for many, if not most people. During extremely difficult times it is more likely that people will complain rather than to give thanks. Nonetheless, the Christian spirit urges is to think positively and hopefully in all circumstances.
The Great Civil War (1861-1865) was certainly a time of extreme turmoil and sadness. In the year 1863, while the war was raging, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national holiday of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.
An estimated 621,000 lives were lost during the Civil War. A pandemic of bullets rained over Gettysburg, Antietam, Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, and Shiloh. Today a different pandemic sweeps over America. Its death toll has already eclipsed that of the Civil War by more than 100,000 lives. An additional point of comparison between these two pandemics is the fact that two of every three deaths during the Civil War were the result of infectious diseases.
To give thanks in difficult times is to maintain trust in God. As we celebrate Thanksgiving in the year 2021, we can remember the occasion that moved Abraham Lincoln to inaugurate Thanksgiving as a national holiday. We thank God for His many blessings without complaining about the enveloping crisis. This is a most pure form of Thanksgiving since it does not proceed from a bounty of gifts, but from a grateful heart that is redolent with hope.
St. Paul advises us to be thankful in all circumstances. Therefore, we should not pick and choose when we should be thankful. The unfortunate fact is that some of us fail to express thanks even when things are going well. Luke (17:12-19) recounts the story of the ten lepers whom Jesus cured. What remains disturbing about this episode is the fact that only one of the ten, a man from Samaria, returned to offer thanks. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they?”
We are puzzled by the reluctance of the nine to offer a simple thank you. It would seem that a person who is suddenly and completely cured of such a dreadful disease as leprosy would be only too eager to express thanks. We suspect that giving thanks under these circumstances would be joyful. The story suggests to us that gratitude, seemingly the easiest of all virtues, is one that can be easily neglected. “Thou hast given so much to me,” wrote the poet George Herbert, “Give one thing more, a grateful heart.”
The law can oblige us to pay our taxes, which we may comply with anything but a grateful heart. But it cannot oblige is to be grateful. Gratitude must spring from a source in freedom. And this is why it is all the more heartfelt and beautiful. And the simplest expression of gratitude is a courteous “thank you.”
There is a critical difference between thanks and applause. Applause is directed to those who execute a fine performance. God’s creation is certainly a fine performance, to say the least, but applause is directed to the performer and God does not need our applause. Thanks, on the other hand, comes from and stays with the recipient. God wants us to be thankful because he wants us to establish a relationship with Him.
Applause is momentary. Thanks is continuing. And that is one reason why Thanksgiving is repeated every year. It would be absurd to have a National Applause Day.
Cicero, who probably never celebrated Thanksgiving, held that gratitude is the mother of all virtues and is man’s capital duty. This notion of gratitude characterizes our relationship with God. According to an ancient Jewish legend, when God finished creation, He asked the angels what they thought of it. One of them replied by saying that there was nothing wanting except a voice to offer God that which is owed Him, an expression of gratitude. Gratitude completes the circle from God to man and back to God.
“I would maintain,” wrote G.K. Chesterton, “that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” Thanks incorporates wonder, but goes beyond it and acknowledges the benefits that flow upon the recipient.
In the spirit of Jesus Christ, St. Paul, and Abraham Lincoln, we give thanks in a special way this Thanksgiving Day for all that we have received without grumbling or complaining, but with humility and hope.
- + + (Dr. Donald DeMarco is professor emeritus, St. Jerome’s University, and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College. He is a regular columnist for St. Austin Review and is the author of 38 books. Some of his latest books, The 12 Supporting Pillars of the Culture of Life and Why They Are Crumbling and Glimmers of Hope in a Darkening World, are posted on amazon.com. He and his wife, Mary, have five children and thirteen grandchildren.)