I am writing this letter during the week of Mothers’ Day … and the week of my dad’s 90th birthday. Since the last Episcopalian, we’ve celebrated my mom’s birthday, as well as that of one son and both daughters-in-law. Also during this time, we have officiated at the first Eucharist of one Episcopal community in the diocese and at the centennial Eucharist of another one.
Such landmarks on life’s journey need to be acknowledged, recognized and celebrated. With so many events — and the numbers, thank God, do keep rising — it may be difficult to give due recognition to each one. However, it is important to do so. These landmarks — these moments — deserve special attention, for they tell much of our life stories.
We may celebrate those events in a variety of ways. Individual, family and community traditions surely are different in their means of recognizing and remembering special landmark moments. The important thing is not how such celebrations are accomplished, but that they are.
At the root of all life’s celebrations should be a profound sense of gratitude and thanksgiving. Indeed, without such gratitude, our celebrations become simply exercises in regular repetition. Absent a spirit of thanksgiving, life’s landmark moments may attempt to testify only to personal accomplishment — and such testimony eventually becomes individualistic and hollow.
However, an atmosphere of gratitude and thanksgiving to God provides the environment for appropriate celebration. The biblical witness certainly confirms this emphasis in our lives. For instance, the Psalmist writes, “All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord” (145:10). Also, in the New Testament epistles, we read, “Give thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20); and, then, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (I Thessalonians 5:18).
From our faith tradition and from personal experience, we know that passing life’s landmarks with a spirit of thanksgiving and in appreciation for blessings received from God will make our celebrations complete. Our faith proclaims that we live our lives in companionship with God. Therefore, may we consciously include the awareness of this reality in our times of joy as well as sorrow, of celebration as well as grief, and of accomplishment as well as need.
Faithfully,
Charlie
