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.
So powerful is this concept in its Christian use and understanding that it actually contributes and shapes some of the forms of early modernity that are still with us at least to some extent. Voltaire, the great figure of enlightenment Europe, “the wittiest man” perhaps of all times, as Sir Kenneth Clark suggests, was no friend of religion and church, particularly the Roman Catholic Church and, even more particularly, the Jesuits. He holds, however, to a form of ‘rational’ religion known as Deism which is unthinkable apart from its Christian foundations however much it denies the supernatural, particularly the idea of miracles.
Yet in his classic novel about the enlightenment, Candide, he describes a utopia – El Dorado – as having a pure and simple religion of thanksgiving to God for all that we are privileged to enjoy. That will result in the further development of thanksgiving to extend beyond “harvest thanksgiving”, a thanksgiving for the good fruits of nature, to include “national thanksgiving”, a thanksgiving for the rational freedoms that belong to our social, political and secular lives.
It suggests something of the power and freedom inherent in the concept of thanksgiving. But perhaps nowhere do we have a more powerful and moving picture of thanksgiving than in the classic story of thanksgiving which Luke tells and which was read in Chapel on Monday and Tuesday in anticipation of the Headmaster’s Thanksgiving Dinner on Wednesday and the upcoming Thanksgiving Weekend break.
Ten men who were lepers are cleansed – healed – by Jesus but only “one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.” Luke adds, importantly, “and he was a Samaritan.”
One returned and gave thanks. It is extraordinary. The word is about a grace moving in him that returns him to God. It is a kind of redire ad principia, a return to a principle. Jesus especially calls attention to the fact that ten were cleansed and asks “where are the nine?”, highlighting that only “this stranger” – the Samaritan – turned back, giving thanks.
The Samaritans were a despised sect in the ancient Jewish world over controversies about where the Law was said to have been delivered and about what books constituted the Scriptures; in short, a religious controversy resulting in divisions and animosities; ‘them versus us.’ Jesus often uses the Samaritans, albeit without agreeing with them theologically, as examples of our duties and obligations towards one another. Here, we might say, is another “good Samaritan” who serves as strong example to us about the power and the truth of thanksgiving. Ten were healed but only about this one is it said that he was “made whole”. In turning back and giving thanks we are made whole, complete. Thanksgiving belongs to the true worth and dignity of our humanity precisely because it can’t be forced and can’t be denied or held back.
It speaks to an attitude of mind that looks on reality in entirely different ways than simply how to manipulate and use nature and one another. It is about recognizing the other as a gift and the world, too, as a gift. It is about giving thanks to God. It is the profoundest of spiritual and intellectual activities. Thanksgiving raises our duties and obligations towards one another to an entirely different level. It is really all about grace, a grace which moves in us and makes us whole.
(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain, English & ToK teacher
Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy