A HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Why should we be thankful? God doesn't need our gratitude. The answer is found in St. Thomas' third proof for the existence of God - the argument from contingency: (dependency).

Nothing we know exists in its own right. An animal, for instance, is born and dies and is contingent to its environment. Contingency, as St. Thomas Aquinas shows, implies the necessity for something that exists in its own right. Change belongs to the world of our experience, and change implies that a thing is not yet what it can be. Such a condition implies contingence, because to be able to lose what one has and to acquire what one has not denotes incompleteness in oneself, or in other words the absence of full being. We have, then, existent beings that are contingent and as such do not contain sufficient reason and explanation in themselves for what they are. There must, therefore, be existent a being which explains them, and at the same time is its own sufficient reason and explanation; that is to say, a being who, as being, is not contingent or dependent or in any way lacking in completeness of being. This being we call God.

Every time you come to Mass you express your gratitude for God's favors: In the Preface: "It is right and just that we always and everywhere give thanks to You, God." In the Canon: "We come to You, God the Father, in a spirit of thanksgiving." Thankfulness or gratitude is a part of the virtue of justice. We owe it to God to be grateful.

In the past 50 years mankind has made such tremendous advances that scientists who seemingly do not believe in God give their fellow men the impression that science will be able to solve all problems. "WE HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET," they tell us. But they forget that the marvelous inventions we are witnessing are still gifts from God because they are the fruit of the intelligence God has given to us.

As St. John of the Cross has so aptly stated, "The things of this world are always lovely; but they are the crumbs that fall from God's table." By faith we know that grace and the smallest spiritual favor from God is worth more than the entire material universe.

In an ancient fable, the dove complained to the Creator:

"Why don't I have beautiful feathers like the peacock?

"I will grant your desire on one condition," replied the

Maker of all things.

"And what is that condition?" eagerly asked the dove.

"The condition," God declared, "is that you give up your gentleness and lovable qualities, which you have always represented to the world."

After debating the matter for some time, the dove declined very definitely: "No, I would rather have my gentle graces than all the rainbow colors of the peacock's plumage."

Remember that gratitude for the gifts of God will make us contented and will keep us from coveting the blessings of others. That is divine wisdom.

I wish you all a BLESSED AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!