We gather and celebrate Thanksgiving just as those early Christians did in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles and just as the first Pilgrims did so many years ago in our own land. As for ourselves, just as those people, our gathering and our thanksgiving is colored by our experience. The early Christians, in the Acts of the Apostles, their gathering and their thanksgiving was colored by the experience of the death of Jesus, the suffering and the loss of Jesus. But it was also colored by the experience of hope and of His Resurrection.

The early Pilgrims gathered and gave thanks. Their gathering was colored by the loss of their comrades, (Fifty-one of them had died) by the hard winter that they had gone through and barely survived, by the fact that they were in a very strange land, surrounded by very strange people with very different ways. And it was also colored by the fact that they had survived and they had found new friends and new ways to live.

We gather and celebrate Thanksgiving. It is colored by our experience. We are still in the shadow of 9/11 and the post 9/11 fears that afflict our country. We are in the shadow of a struggling economy. In the last year there has been war and occupation in Iraq. There is a fear that, as we struggle to oppose terrorism, we might become terrorists ourselves. There is the sexual abuse and scandal in the Church. In our personal lives, so many parishoners are dealing with cancer and illness, and many of our loved ones have died in the last year. But our thanksgiving and celebration is also colored by the fact that we have had great moments of faith and great moments of celebration during the last year. And we have been able to reach out to others, as we did to the children of Iraq with school supplies, or to the soldiers there with Operation Shoebox, or today and on the following weekends, with the Holiday Food Drive for the needy. We are colored also by resurrection and by hope. But it is important that we gather and celebrate and give thanks.

Thanksgiving is of great importance and great value and great inspiration and great joy because it underlines some things for us that we easily forget and turn away from. The first one is simply to focus on what blessings we do have despite our worries, and to focus on what we do believe, despite our doubts, and to focus on what we can do in our world, despite the difficulty. So the first thing this celebration does is help us focus.

The second thing is it helps us notice, to notice the beauty around us. And when I say “the beauty around us,” I mean both those things that are visible to the eye that we can see and those things, perhaps more precious, that we cannot see. We often miss and do not notice what can be seen. I’ll share with you a passage from The Little Prince. We will probably smile at the wisdom of the Little Prince and also the real estate values because The Little Prince was written in 1943.

“Grown ups love figures,” remarked the Little Prince. “When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you questions about what really matters, essential matters. They never say to you, ‘What does his voice sound like? What games does she love best? Does she collect butterflies?’ Instead, they demand, ‘How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?’ If you say to grownups, ‘I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick with geraniums in the window and doves on the roof,’ they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to tell them, ‘I saw a house that cost twenty thousand dollars.’ Then they would exclaim, ‘What a beautiful house that is!’ ”

Well, some things have changed and some haven’t. Thanksgiving helps us to notice the last thing, and beautiful and important things around us that really matter.

There is something else that we need to notice, and the Little Prince says it later to the fox. He talks about not only what we can see but what we can’t see. He says, “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ....“What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Now, what does that mean? Well, trust is not visible to the eye. Hope is not visible to the eye. Love is not visible to the eye, and the abiding presence of our God is not visible to the eye. But it is what is important and it’s essential and it is there. And we have to notice.

And the last thing that Thanksgiving helps us to do is simply to give thanks. Here is a reminder of giving thanks for the simple everyday things that we don’t notice:

So, we take a few moments to remember what it is that we are thankful for. I am going to ask you to think about what you are especially thankful for. And let’s put it into three categories and give ourselves a few moments. Think, in quiet, what you are thankful for about our nation, despite disagreements and despite the fact we are divided at times. What about our nation are you thankful for? Just think about that for a moment...........

And secondly, about our Church, despite the fact that, at times, it is embarassing to us and upsets us. But, about our Church, what am I thankful for? Take a few moments to think of that. What am I thankful for about our Church?.......

And the final area is our personal life, our family and friends. And sometimes they can be difficult. Sometimes they are distant. But take a few moments and think about, in your personal life and family and friends, what are you most thankful for?.......

And now would you take a moment and share one or two things you are thankful for with the people around you, maybe especially people you don’t know but might be thankful for.....

About another thirty seconds and then we will be thankful for some quiet.... Would you stand with me? For all these concerns and items and blessings which we have shared for which we are thankful, in thanks, let us pray to the Lord.

(Response) Lord, hear our prayer.