Giving thanks
Recently, I preached about the powerful gratitude of those in poverty. I gave the example of my brief time in 2000 serving the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India, with the Missionaries of Charity. The sisters asked me and the other seminarians to serve at Kaligat (home for the dying) each morning. Kaligat was a tough place to be in the middle of a very tough city. The men and women who stayed there were extremely frail and were often left there by their families to die. The sisters and us volunteers did our best to provide care before they passed. Male volunteers served the men; the sisters and female volunteers served the women. I served two men daily, one who died and to whom I became quite close.
Every morning, we would greet the men, bathe them in the showers, shave them, give them fresh clothes, and feed them breakfast. The man to whom I became close over the two weeks I served him was an Indian man who did not speak English. We communicated through signs. He helped me to understand him by being rather dramatic in his gestures. The non-verbal sign that is firm in my memory is the smile he would often give after a spoonful of food. He would follow it up with a nod to heaven which expressed very clearly that he was grateful to God. While we spoke different languages and came from different religions, we bonded in our gratitude to God.
There were others at Kaligat and in the school I taught that expressed similar thanks to God for even the smallest things they received. When one walks through the streets of Calcutta to see many small children begging for morsels of food, one realizes that they are grateful for things which we take for granted. My big takeaway from the people of Calcutta was their powerful witness of giving thanks to God. As a result, my gratitude has grown since my time there including the food that I’m blessed to eat.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, may our gratitude grow so that we give thanks every day. Give thanks daily for your food, clothing, home, warmth, health, freedom, family, friends, Church, parishioners, and the love of Jesus Christ.
