There’s a wonderful
children’s book called The Giving Tree,
by Shel Silverstein, about a beautiful tree who loves a boy very much. Every day, the boy would come and gather her
leaves, climb her trunk, and swing from her branches, and the tree was very
happy. As the boy grew older, he wanted
more out of life, so the tree gave him her apples to sell and make money. She later gave him her branches, so he could
build a house; and she even gave him her trunk, so he could make a boat and
sail away. Each time she gave something
to the boy, the tree was very happy. On this
special day, The Giving Tree and our
Gospel remind us that Thanksgiving starts with giving.
The Gospel of the ten
lepers is, of course, about gratitude.
Ten lepers are healed, but only one returns to thank Jesus. Through the good example of the one leper, Jesus
teaches us that giving thanks, being grateful for the gifts we receive from
God, makes us very happy. Just think
about it, we can’t be grateful and unhappy at the same time. Being grateful reminds us of the positive
things in our lives; it lets us relive the blessings and graces we receive and
experience them over and over again.[1]
But we can’t forget that gratitude starts
when someone gives us a gift, or affords us some act of kindness. Gratitude begins with giving. In our Gospel, the one leper’s gratitude begins
when Jesus gives the ten lepers the
gift of good health, so our Gospel not only challenges us to be grateful; it
challenges us to give, too.
Christ’s life on earth
was a life of giving. Through healing,
teaching, feeding, forgiving and offering his own life for our salvation, Jesus
showed us that God created us to give of ourselves for the benefit of
others. Just as we love God by loving
our neighbor, we thank God by giving to our neighbor – apples, branches, trunk and
all. That old Thanksgiving hymn says it
well: “Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices.”
Let’s face it, sometimes
we can be a lot like the nine lepers or the boy in The Giving Tree – we don’t feel very grateful, or we don’t take the
time to express our gratitude. Sometimes
when we hurt, or we’re sick or angry, or when life overwhelms us, we have a
hard time seeing all of the wonderful things that we should be grateful
for. It’s in those times especially,
that we should give, because giving will make us very happy.
Today is Thanksgiving –
the day we set aside for gratitude. It’s
also a great day to give. Maybe we’ll lend a hand with the cleaning and
cooking. Maybe we’ll visit someone who’s
lonely, or write a letter, text or email to someone we miss. Maybe we’ll volunteer at a soup kitchen or
shelter. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll like
giving so much, that we’ll make a point of giving a little something of ourselves
to those who need us every day. If our Thanksgiving
starts with giving, I guarantee that we’ll be very happy.
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