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Dear Friends in Christ,

Some years ago, I experienced a condition that required a trip to the hospital and an operation.

The outcome of the surgery was satisfactory - but I will not lie - the procedures were embarrassing, uncomfortable, and while I passed the days required for my immediate recovery, time seemed, not to stand still, but to drag interminably - seconds were as minutes, minutes hours, and hours became days of half sleep, broken only by the rude and irregular interruptions for temperature and blood pressure checks. The surgery itself was quickly forgotten - hidden and forgotten under the oblivion of anesthesia. But the recovery - the recovery became, in its own way, a little hint of what hell must be like - unrelieved helplessness, and waiting without end.

I recall this unpleasant memory, not for its own sake, but for what it led me to feel on the day of my discharge - and the day I went home. No prisoner, let out of his cell, could have felt more exaltation. The sun was brighter, the sky was bluer, the trees more majestic, the birds more musical - the air itself refreshing and clean in a way I had never felt before. And from the bottom of my heart, arose another feeling, sweeping over these perceptions, and locking them into a framework that gave meaning to everything I had suffered - and the frame work expressed itself in thoughts of thanksgiving - thanksgiving to God, for having seen me through the peril, yes - but even more, thanksgiving for the blessed existence into which He had released me - and where I returned with a new sense of appreciation for all His blessings.

This is not an unusual experience - an old cliché says that you never appreciate things until you have lost them. But it is also true, that when God restores us, or when He gives us back something we feared lost forever, He also causes in us a kind of joy that cannot be surpassed. Remember the joy of the father, whose son came back, the prodigal Son - remember the times that Christ spoke of the finding of the one lost sheep, and the great joy that is the shepherd's - and remember also His words, that He came on earth to seek and to save what was lost, and that the angels in Heaven will rejoice more over the one sinner who repents and is saved, than over the ninety-nine who did not need repentance.

As we think then, about things lost and then found, broken but then restored, it is natural that we should remember what happened to our country, and to all of us, this past September 11th. The events of that day, were in a way, very similar to the experience of losing one's freedom to sickness, and then, moving slowly through the stages of recovery. For a few days, time seemed to stop, and to be suspended in pain, as we watched again and again, the scenes of destruction and chaos - and then, story by story, the personal details of so many individual tragedies were revealed, and our ordeal was even further prolonged.

But like an recovering patient, days and weeks have now passed, and though it is certain we will never forget the experiences of that terrible time, we have had to move on, we have had to pick up our own lives, to restore the normal routines of our days, and to turn from the past, towards the future. It has been hard work to restore our normal sense of hope, and it is not yet completely done. But we must persevere - not only for ourselves, but for our children - because we look into their eyes, and we see that their lives must be built on hope, and on dreams.

And so, like the sick man or woman, who comes out of the hospital, and once more, is given the gift of the sun and the sky, the trees and flowers, and the breathing of free and fresh air, we too, perhaps now more than before, cling with a little more passion to the lives we have, and to the freedoms we enjoy.

This is what thanksgiving is about - brushing against the disaster of losing everything, and knowing when it is not lost, that we should be deeply grateful for what has remained. And this is what Thanksgiving Day is for - to be renewed, revived, re-excited over what we have been given - our lives, our families, our children, our work, and a country in which freedom is not a dream to pursue, but an existing liberty to protect. For all these things, we should bow our heads, and thank God - because if we are true believers, then we know the truth, that all good things come from God, and without Him, there is nothing good.

An excellent way to express our thanksgiving to God, an excellent way to give this season a richer meaning, is to go often to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, or Confession and Holy Communion.

In a way, the mystery of never knowing how deep our gratitude to God should be, until we have lost something precious and had it restored, is the same mystery we encounter in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

Confession reduces us to the barest outlines of our existence - when we confess, we leave behind all the defenses, all the walls, all the distractions and excuses that normally cloud our lives - in a little way, we anticipate our own deaths, and stand, revealed and stripped bare, before the blinding gaze of God, in all His justice and fairness. We admit to Him, through the priest, our failings against charity, our wasting of the opportunities to show love, and our too?often taking-for-granted, the daily gifts He sets before us - life, beauty, fellowship and love.

And then, for the gift of our honesty, God restores our soul - He makes us worthy to receive and to appreciate His fullness - the fullness that comes to us, when we take into our bodies, the Body of His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are filled with the sprit of Christ, and nothing, at least for a while, can come from us, but thoughts and prayers of thanks and glory, and we feel peace, and courage to face the future.

Another good way, to express our deep gratitude to God on this Thanksgiving Day, is to not permit another hour go by, without letting the people who mean the most to us - wife, children, mother and father, our family members and our closest friend - without letting them know how much we love them, appreciate their presence in our lives, and how we believe and know that God has put them there for a reason. Hard and embarrassing disclosures for many to make, but like Confession, the soul is set free by such loving admissions.

Dear friends - Faith, family and country - a just appreciation of these three is our first step in preparing the true feast of this Thanksgiving. But it takes our willingness, our opening-up to make it happen - and here, at Mass, is the place to start. If we do start here, the rest of the day will unfold with satisfying ease - the pains we have felt will be soothed, the soul and the spirit will be healed, our friends will be happier, our country healthier, and our Church holier and stronger. And what is more, we will have begun in the best way, to prepare for the next great feast of our Faith, the commemoration of our Lord's birth into the world, Christmas Day, and the unfolding of our salvation.

Let us begin our thanksgiving then, by recalling the Psalms, the catalogue of what it is to be grateful, and say in, and with, all our hearts:

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