"In Sheol Who Can Praise?"

-Fr. John Dresko

The Psalmist tells us in the Sixth Psalm that "...in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in Sheol who can give Thee praise?" (Ps. 6:5)

From the very dawn of time, the experience of mankind in their relationship with God has been one of thanksgiving. The creation of the world and mankind was an act of love and self-giving from God which was conditional on one thing alone - that man thankfully return that love. God gave us life and love and in return, we chose death and thanklessness. He, however, refused to give up. Despite our selfish desire to live as if God did not exist, He kept returning to us again and again, as a jilted lover to His beloved. One only has to look at the Old Testament to see the narrative of this salvation history - this history of love and return. Time and time again, the chosen people of God received Him, only to turn again to a different love. But finally, God sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Christ died for us, rose for us, ascended to the right hand of the Father for us, and sent His Holy Spirit to breathe life into His Body, the Church. The Church becomes the source of our life and the place where life is defined. Life becomes the act of praising and thanking God. Death is the absence of that praise and thankfulness. Those who are alive have a constant sense of thankfulness. Those who are dead do not. This life and death has nothing to do with our physical life. We are either spiritually alive eternally in Christ or spiritually dead because we try to refuse His presence. It has become, with the coming of Christ, natural for mankind to give thanks to God.

As we gather in church and with our families on Thanksgiving Day this month, we will "give thanks." But, as with all these special celebrations, there is the temptation to somehow limit our thanksgiving to this single celebration - the temptation to set aside a short time of thanks and forget about it for another year. But this, in fact, a temptation.

The fundamental act of the Christian community since that fateful Thursday before the death of Christ is the celebration of the Eucharist - the sharing of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ among the members of the faith community. Eucharist is a Greek word (efcarhsto) which literally means "thanksgiving." So Jesus took His twelve apostles and taught them that the fundamental and simple act of remembering His death and resurrection was an act of thanksgiving. This is an act in which the Church still participates regularly.

If we reduce our thanksgiving "rite" to a gathering once a year, we run the risk of being like the lepers that Jesus cleansed: "Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, 'Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?'" (Luke 17:15-18) If we feel "adequate" as Christians by piously gathering on Thanksgiving Day and giving thanks and praise to God, but live the rest of our lives in thankless, Christ-less ways, we are worse than the ones in this story who failed to return because we become the deepest of hypocrites. The "foreigner" in this story recognizes Christ and falls down before Him. Do we, who live and reside as citizens of Christ, do the same?

The point is, of course, that for a Christian, there can never be a single time of thanks. We are not justified in thinking that mere moments of piety make us Christians. A Christian is a member of the community who lives by the words of the Apostle Paul: "...always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." (Ephesians 5:20) We are called to give thanks not when the calendar says it is "Thanksgiving Day," but always.

The Apostle also says: "Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Besides giving thanks constantly, we as Christians are also called to give thanks for everything. It is very easy for us to sit in our beautiful church building, most of us not wanting for anything we really need; not hungry, not cold, not naked, and thank God profusely for our blessings. But how many of us would offer such profuse thanks if the circumstances of our life were different? How many of us would heed the words of the Apostle to "give thanks in all circumstances"? Even when the circumstances are what would be considered in this world and time to be "difficult?"

If we look closely at Christian history, we see many examples of saints taking these words of St. Paul seriously - martyrs singing hymns and praising God while being tortured and killed; confessors of the faith giving thanks that they were found worthy to suffer for His Name and the Faith; Christians gathering in upper rooms sharing His Word through tradition and word of mouth since soldiers had seized any written word they might have - and giving thanks for the Word. And what about today? People under totalitarian regimes giving thanks just to have a priest to serve services for them, or baptize their children, or receive some word of teaching or encouragement. Simple people of simple faith keeping and nurturing the Faith, giving thanks just to have the Faith. How do we compare with these people?

Jesus said to His disciples: "If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than the master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also." (John 15:18-20) Jesus equates us (His disciples) with Himself. We should not be lulled into thinking that if we are believers, our life becomes automatic bliss. We will be persecuted, hated, and even, in some cases, killed - again, if not physically, then spiritually. How many of us can and want to give thanks for that? Yet, it is very clear in the Scriptures that we must do exactly that.

The bottom line of all this is that a Christian cannot be a part of this world and still survive as a Christian. We are set apart as "aliens" according to St. Paul. And as those aliens in a strange land, we endure many things that others would never dream of giving thanks for: "Through Him (meaning Christ), we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." (Romans 5:2-5) Think about these words of St. Paul to the Romans - he tells us we rejoice in everything because we hope to share in the glory of God, becoming exactly like Christ in everything but sin by grace, sharing in the beauty and majesty of His Kingdom. We rejoice and give thanks in our sufferings - not because we have some kind of morbid or sick sense of harming ourselves, but because Jesus has already suffered for us, and therefore we can turn our earthly and current sufferings over to Him for Him to carry.

There are many things for which we should give thanks. We live in a great land, we have the freedom to say what we wish and to gather for worship and to praise God in thanks for all His blessings. We have a standard of living that is the highest in the world. We have many THINGS indeed. But the first and foremost thing for which we give thanks is simply the fact that Jesus Christ came, died and rose for us, and restored us to the paradise which God intended for us. The bliss of this is not experienced in all the "things" which we have - it is experienced in its fulness when Jesus will come again to complete His mission (and of which we now have a foretaste in the Church). That's what we are thankful about, and we can experience it and give thanks for it no matter what the external circumstances of our lives. Let's celebrate Thanksgiving Day giving thanks for what is proper and remember that it does not end there, but continues forever. Those who are alive in Christ are the ones praising and thanking Him. Those who are dead are not interested in praise and thanks. The strange thing about all of this is that we are walking, talking, breathing, and existing, and yet, some of us are already dead. On this Thanksgiving Day, when our country pauses in a special moment of thanks, we must ask ourselves, "Which one am I?"