Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J., on the meaning of Thanksgiving

From the November 2011 editorial for Homiletic & Pastoral Review:

Thanksgiving Day, on the last Thursday in November, is a major event in American culture and life.  On this day, most Americans want to be, and try to be, home with their family.  The feast is 400 years old, and was made a national holiday by President Lincoln in 1863.

In its origins, going back to the pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621, the celebration was primarily religious.  After bringing in the harvest, and having profited from the abundance of nature, the pilgrims, trying to survive in a huge, untamed and dangerous new country, set aside a day to give thanks to Almighty God for his many benefits.  It was fitting and proper that they should do so.  We can thank Mr. Lincoln for setting aside one day in the year to give thanks to God for his goodness to us, personally, and for the abundance of nature that sustains us in life.

Most Americans still believe in God, and many go to church on Sunday, but secularism and materialism have taken their toll, so that the country, as such, is not as religious as it was in the beginning, or even as it was in the time of Lincoln.  Since about the 1960s, there has been a concerted effort, on the part of many leaders in education, politics and the media, to ignore God, and to remove him from the public square.  In a certain sense, belief in God is on the defensive, and secularism is constantly on the attack.  Human freedom has been made into an absolute, and so God, with his Ten Commandments, is portrayed as an enemy of human freedom.  That is just the opposite of the truth, since obedience to God, and love of him, is what makes a person truly free— that is, free to be what he should be, not free to do whatever he feels like doing.  Consequently, for many Americans, Thanksgiving Day no longer has a religious meaning; rather, it is a day off from work, time for a turkey dinner and four-day weekend.  For these folks, one wonders to whom their thanksgiving is directed.  Is it to Uncle Sam?

Read the entire editorial on HPRweb.com.