God is perfectly good, true, beautiful.
I pause at that truth and shiver. What Plato glimpsed dimly, Jesus revealed perfectly.
Oh! God!
Every so often a crabbed soul asks why God wishes us to be thankful. Is God selfish? Is God narcissistic?
Stop.
Think.
God is perfectly good, true, and beautiful,
To even conceive that this might be true, sends shivers through me.
God.
How could I now be thankful? I know I cannot handle a full view, a complete understanding ever, of such a great God, but jut a the glimpse and bit I can grasp is awesome.
Sometime an atheist or critic will thank me for being honest when I talk about my pains and my failures, yet here is another truth. I receive the Mystery of the Wine and Bread and tremble before staggering beauty, truth, and goodness. This does not depend of the beauty of the particular church or the sanctity of the priest, but on the God-man born of the Theotokos.
Christmas! Pascha!
An eternal holiday is coming . . . And I am thankful. My mother and father showed me first and then I met their mothers and fathers and they showed me what it was to live a full life with the glimpse of God.
I have failed so often, I am thankful for mercy. I was born an American, a mighty privilege. I am thankful.
And yes, yes, yes: thankfulness means service.
We must strive to end the injustice of racism, abortion, slavery, totalitarianism, and moral decadence. We will stand against all evils, but mostly, every day, always, we shall try to be decent, just, kind, and normal. We will do the best we can to make the “should” what is.
This is not easy and so when we celebrate the good things our nation has done (and these are many), we will be mocked, rebuked, shown how many evils we have done.
Just so. We have done all those evils and more that no one suspects including the evils of this age. The sycophant of this age will see only the bad of the Republic and the false dissident will see only good. The true citizen the Christian woman and man, will see the bad, but thank God for the good.
Good is so rare. Good is rare in every nation, people, tribe, and continent. Good is rare in this God breathed Republic, but good there is. So?
Allow us one day to celebrate and be thankful. Normal humans can all stand against the hypes, the judgmental, censorious, whether they are religious or secular. We can insist on one day of thankfulness for the good, the truth, and beauty. We are not sorry to be happy, if only for a moment.
We turn from the muck to look up to the crown. We could rake back and forth and find the trash hidden in the soil of history or we could acknowledge that the muck is there, work to purge it, but keep our main focus on the glories of God.
We are thankful, not for our perfection, but that despite our vice so much good has been done.
A prayer of thanksgiving:
O Existing One, Master Lord, God, almighty and adorable Father: It is truly meet and right and befitting the majesty of Thy holiness that we should praise Thee, hymn Thee, bless Thee, worship Thee, give thanks unto Thee and glorify Thee, the only truly existing God, and offer unto Thee with contrite heart and spirit of humility this our rational worship; for Thou art He that hath graciously bestowed upon us the knowledge of Thy truth.
And who is sufficient to speak of Thy mighty acts, to make all Thy praises to be heard, or to tell of all Thy wonders at every season?
O Master of all, Lord of heaven and earth, and of all creation both visible and invisible, Who sittest upon the throne of glory and beholdest the depths, Who art unoriginate, invisible, immutable, the Father of our Lord: the great God and Savior Jesus Christ, our Hope, Who is the Image of Thy goodness, the Seal of equal type, in Himself showing forth Thee, the Father, the living Word, the true God, the Wisdom before all ages, the Life, Sanctification, Power, the true Light, through Whom the Holy Spirit was manifested: the Spirit of truth, the Gift of adoption, the Pledge of the inheritance to come, the First-fruits of eternal good things, the life-giving Power, the Fountain of sanctification, by Whom enabled every rational and intelligent creature doth serve Thee and ascribe to Thee perpetual praise, for all things are Thy servants.
Filled thus with great awe at Thine immeasurable mercies and love, do Thou receive the unfeigned praise and thanksgiving of our unworthy hearts for all that Thou hast provided for us in this world and the next, and enable us to walk before Thee in holiness and purity all the days of our life in fitting gratitude for Thy loving-kindness to us;
For blessed art Thou O Holy Father together with Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory and worship, now and every and unto ages of ages.
Amen.
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