Texts: Job 1:1, 2:1-10; Mark 10: 2-16

We hear a lot of people saying how good manners seem to be disappearing from our society. Somehow, "please" and "thank you" aren’t quite the magic little words I was taught as a child. It’s more "hey, gimme that…" and the like.

"Thank you" is a wonderful little expression, two little words that acknowledge both gift and giver. Receiving thanks tells the giver that both they and their gift are of value. And what happens when common courtesies aren’t observed? People feel devalued, and relationships suffer.

Why don’t people say "thank you" in ordinary life? It might be because what was received was not seen to be of value. It might be that the recipient felt it was their right, rendering thanks unnecessary. It might also be because the giver was not well regarded, not seen as having any real dignity. There are all sorts of possible reasons, but only one real result: whether intimate or casual, relationships are harmed.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, when our nation is called collectively to express its gratitude for all our blessings. It’s a secular holiday with religious roots. After all, if you’re going to give thanks, to whom are the thanks being given but God?

We celebrated Harvest Thanksgiving three weeks ago. In my homily that day, I said this:

We often fail to give appropriate thanks to God for the same kinds of reasons that pertain to human relationships. The gift is not valued or we don’t see it as gift but ours by right. And sometimes the giver is not valued, because we have a distorted image of God.

Gerard Hughes, an English Jesuit priest, wrote a wonderful little book about 20 years ago, in which he talked about some of the negative images people acquire for God. For him the worst was "Good Old Uncle George".

[Read from God of Surprises, p. 34, para 2]. (1)

Gerard Hughes proposes a way in which we can dig into our own spiritual selves, and find hidden there a positive and true image of God

Our Hebrew Bible lessons for today and the next three Sundays are from one of the most difficult books in the Bible, Job. The story can be read on many levels, including that of one man’s journey of discovery of a more positive image of God.

The first two chapters present Job as a man of the utmost integrity, who is able to bless God’s name even in the direst of human conditions—conditions which Job ascribes to God. The other three lessons we will hear show Job coming to a new and deeper realization of who God is and what God has done. But today, we leave Job in the ashes, saying,

This is an attitude that makes many people uneasy. God is good, isn’t he? Doesn’t the bad stuff all come from Satan? Job has no such ideas, but images God as the all-powerful source of everything, good and bad. God is in control, dispensing good and evil, asking only that we conform to his righteousness. He is not quite Uncle George, but still somehow he is distant, unloving and unlovable.

It’s hard to give thanks to such a God.

We will hear more of Job and his journey, but let us turn now to Jesus, as he welcomes little children into his presence, saying,

Here surely is an image of God to whom we can give thanks. Here is the God who reaches out and touches the least of his people. Here is the God who gave us life, who saves us from all evil, and who holds all people in his embrace.

Here is the God who is love, and who loves us all, great and small, rich and poor, weak and strong, young and old.

Here is the God to whom we render our humble thanks on this day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(1) God of Surprises, Gerard W. Hughes, S.J., Paulist Press 1985