KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 1 October
And one turned back … giving thanks
Thanksgiving is more than mere courtesy, important as courtesy and consideration are. An integral feature of all of the world’s religions, the concept and act(s) of thanksgiving are altogether essential and central to the Christian understanding of things and in ways that carry over into certain aspects of the contemporary secular world.
Religion, like education in general, cannot be forced; it has very much to do with our engagement with ideas and concepts which are life-changing and transformative. There are, of course, a host of confusions and uncertainties as well as hostility and animus against ‘religion’, whatever one might mean by the term. But is ‘religion’ simply meant to be a reflection of ourselves and our assumptions and experiences? Or are there ways in which religion, like education, is often as not counter-cultural? Think for a moment about what we ‘do’ in Chapel. ‘Don’t just do something, sit there and think’, and pray. That is profoundly counter-culture in the face of a culture and age hell-bent – I use the term advisedly – on practical and measurable outcomes.
In a way, too, the concept of thanksgiving is profoundly counter-culture and in very important and corrective ways. It counters the assumptions of “the entitlement culture”, the idea that you – we – deserve all and everything that you – we – want. And far more than simple courtesy, thanksgiving is altogether about grace. It is there in the word eucharist – charis is grace. The word as whole has a specific meaning for Christians – ‘the great thanksgiving’ – referring to the central act of Christian worship, the Holy Eucharist.
And it is about an activity in us that belongs to the truth worth and dignity of our humanity and to our essential spiritual freedom. To put in terms of the IB learner profile, thanksgiving is about being reflective. It is about an attitude of mind and soul with respect to the natural world around us as well as to one another and our engagements with that world and with one another. It is profoundly spiritual and intellectual precisely because it does not take anything for granted but recognises everything and everyone as a gift. That changes our outlook and, I think, our behaviour.