My friends, being that today we are following our liturgy with a pre-Thanksgiving meal, I thought it might be good to address the virtue of gratitude.  Many times, being “thankful,” saying “thanks” for a good bestowed on us is thought to be the same as gratitude, and we may hear the two words, “thanks” and “gratitude” interchanged.  I would like to suggest that they are different.  Webster’s Dictionary seems to agree.

   “Thanks” the dictionary says, is “an expression of gratitude.”  “Gratitude” is described as “the quality of being thankful,” along with, the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” From those definitions, I would say, being “grateful,” is the “grownup” expression of merely being thankful.  We all were raised to say, “thank you” when someone does something good for us.  Now, while we as children, may have said the words to appease our parents or others who thought we should say those words, it is probably true to say that we weren’t “grateful,” at least at that point. 

   The virtue of gratitude, it seems to me, only comes to us humans with lived experience, and the maturity to realize that so much of what I am as an individual is due to others, and what I have been gifted with in life, in order that I can then go on to become the person that I was called to be.

   Some of you may be familiar with Michael Perry, national author, and speaker.  He began his career as a registered nurse and recently was invited to his alma mater in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to give a key-note address. Part of what he had to say, was sharing a piece on gratitude that he had previously written, and the university requested him to include.

   One of the things that perked up my ears and heart in his address, was the word, “privilege.” Michael is aware that from the “get-go,” he was privileged above many others in this world, due to his “whiteness,” the place he had on the economic ladder—not rich, but certainly not poor, which afforded him, shelter, food and so much more, every day.  Many, if not most of us could say the same for our own lives. 

   The gospel for this liturgy might have given some of us reason to pause and think that the employer was a bit cruel.  Again, as with much of Scripture, we shouldn’t take Jesus’ story literally, but remember that he is always trying to teach us something deeper than the words might at first suggest. 

   The story tells us that the “employer” (think God) “entrusted” individual employees (think us) with a gift. I believe that “to entrust” someone with something is different than “simply giving” someone something.  Again, Webster’s would seem to agree.  The “big book of words,” and now I am dating myself, (smile) tells us that “entrusting” means, “assigning a responsibility.” 

   So, my friends, let’s go back to what we always say within these walls, quoting a wise person, “We are spiritual people here, having a human experience.  Our God, who loves us beyond all imagining, as Jesus shared in his earthly life, through stories like the Prodigal, and the Good Shepherd, and the Woman who turned her house upside down in search of a lost coin, gave each of us the wonderful gift of life— “entrusting us” with the responsibility of living out our potential, not just for ourselves, but for others. 

   We might look at the seeming “cruelness” depicted in the Gospel story as God’s “disappointment” in us for not living up to our potential.  And, even if that is the case, God never stops “chasing after us,” as the Scripture translation, The Message says so beautifully in the 23^rd Psalm, or stops loving us, wanting to be in relationship with us, again depicted so beautifully in the story of the Prodigal.

   So friends, this journey of life as Christian followers of our brother Jesus, is about in part, giving back, “paying it forward,” as it were, a bit of what we have been so “graciously” given.

    A piece on the nightly news this past week caught my attention as a couple were lamenting to the newscaster, about struggling financially, comparing themselves to immigrants coming into this country and wondering why, “these people are given so much, and we get so little.” 

   Now, while I am sure there is more to the story than was presented, I can say from experience in working with immigrants coming into our country, that they are mainly given, “entrance” if that, and then temporary helps until they can make it on their own.  Additionally, unlike the light-skinned woman interviewed, all the immigrants coming across our southern border, live every day with the fact that “they are different,” –no small task, which I think we can’t ourselves truly understand.    

   Looking at the first reading then from Proverbs, we get a good road map on how to show our gratitude in being “entrusted” with the gift of our “one wonderful life” –again as someone else said.  This reading was always entitled, The Virtuous Woman, and the Priests for Equality Group, whose version of the Scriptures that we use, saw fit to make this reading, “gender-less” as the virtues depicted here are ones that we can and should all adhere to. 

   Therefore, we should hear in this reading that we are called to, strive after perfect love, instill confidence equally in each other, bring advantage, not hurt, doing our work for the benefit of each other and holding out our hands to the poor.

   Paul tells his converts in Thessaloniki that they are people “of the light” and hopefully, we hear the same for ourselves.  He is telling them that when our God comes, they will be ready because they are trying to be their best selves, sharing what they have with each other, showing their gratitude for all that they have been “entrusted” with.

   As we come to the end of another Year of Grace, it’s good to look at how each of us faces our world—what have we done well, what could we do better? May God bless us all in our discernment. Amen? Amen!