Thanksgiving Day: Thanks be to God!

    Thanksgiving Day is one of the most anticipated of all holidays in our country, especially among Catholics. This celebration, at the end of November, normally falls around the first days of Advent, and becomes like the doorway for this time of conversion and joy that leads us to Christmas.
    Thanksgiving Day is also an important date on our calendar because it is an occasion when families get together, when friends see each other and when many of our family relations, hurt during the year, reconcile with one another around the festive table.
    But the name of the celebration itself must remind us who is at the center of this wonderful day. In other words, who are we giving thanks to?

     The origin of the celebration is mixed between oral traditions and history: there were the Pilgrims of Plymouth, or the citizens of Charlestown in Mass-achusetts, or even maybe a first celebration in El Paso on April 30, 1598.
    But beyond the tradition or the legend, our history reveals that God, and more specifically Jesus Christ, was, since its very beginning, in the center of this celebration.

    In fact, on June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown wrote the First Thanksgiving Proclamation, which read: “The Council has thought to set apart the 29th day of June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for his Goodness and Favor,” and it concluded inviting people to “offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable service unto God by Jesus Christ.”
    The official declaration establishing the Feast of Thanksgiving for all the United States was written by President George Washington, pointing out clearly that it “is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor”; in this way, according to the request of members of the Congress, it established that “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”

    It is a privilege for us as Catholics to have had the joy to be the first community to celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the North American continent. In fact, on Sept. 8, 1565, Captain General Pedro Menéndez de Aviles, founder of St. Augustine, Fla., asked Father Francisco López de Mendoza — who later became our country’s first pastor — to celebrate a special Mass on the feast of the Nativity of Mary in thanksgiving for the establishment of the first city in what would become the United States. Both the solemn Mass and the celebration that followed were attended by Spaniards and Native Americans newly converted to Catholicism.

    Our days are now filled with emotions and a flurry of holiday activity. However, we cannot let these external things cause us to forget the real reason for the feast and most importantly the author of all the blessings given to us, our families, our community and our nation.
    May our celebration of Thanksgiving be marked by personal prayer, by prayer with our family, especially around the dinner table, and in all the public places where we can proclaim our faith and gratitude to God. We should do it fearlessly, because, it is important to remember that even though Thanksgiving Day arose from hearts that were thankful to God, it was officially established by the government; and thus, it is an acquired right of every citizen to express their gratitude to God in the public square.
    And let us repeat with St. Paul in these beautiful days: Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!