As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, it is important to remember that every time we gather for the Divine Liturgy, we are doing so as an act of thanksgiving. Every Divine Liturgy is a Thanksgiving meal, but instead of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, we have (literally) heavenly food—the Body and Blood of Christ!
Holy Communion would come to be referred to as the Eucharist (as we see in the late 1st century document, The Didache and the letters of St. Ignatius about 107AD) which is “taken from a Greek word meaning ‘thanksgiving’”.1 The term Eucharist is used for Communion because when Christ took the bread and wine that He would consecrate to become His Body and Blood, He “gave thanks” (Luke 22:19).2 Additionally, in the Divine Liturgy, the Priest says “Let us give thanks to the Lord”, to which the people respond “It is proper and right”. He then begins the great Eucharistic prayer, which is a reminder of the immeasurable love God has for us and the world.
The Divine Liturgy is an act of gratitude, but why should we be grateful? There are countless reasons, but let’s focus on one overarching one. We have a God who loves us unconditionally even though we are sinners. This never stops, even when we fall short and stumble (i.e. sin). As St. Paul reminds us, God demonstrated “His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). Also, while Christ was on the Cross our Lord said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34).
When it comes to understanding how God feels about us when we stray from Him, we should also remember the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). The father of the Prodigal represents God and the son represents rebellious humanity. Despite the son’s highly disrespectful act towards his father and his subsequent squandering of his inheritance on sinful living, the father never stopped loving him. Instead, when he saw him return, he ran to him, embraced and kissed him, and had a great banquet in his honor! God’s attitude toward us is the same. Even though we stray, God’s love for us abides because we are and always will be His precious children and He awaits our return.
Despite his unworthiness the Prodigal son was given a banquet with a fatted calf, which literally means “formed from wheat”.3 At every Divine Liturgy we are offered a banquet of wheat (bread) and wine, which are consecrated and become the Body and Blood of our Lord. He offers this to us, despite our unworthiness.
To be clear, despite God’s never-ending love for us, our Lord calls us to repent of our sins and to avoid sinning because He knows the consequences of sin–misery, suffering, pain, etc. Having said that, we must never think that when we do sin, God has abandoned us, despises us, or rejects us. Let us always remember that God’s love for mankind, according to the 1st Prayer of the Antiphon in the Divine Liturgy is “ineffable” which means “too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words”.
With this understanding of God, I pray that our gratitude for God will be strengthened and that our thanksgiving to God at every Divine Liturgy will be even more heartfelt, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
- 1 Definition of Eucharist from the Orthodox Study Bible.
- 2 Definition of Eucharist from the Orthodox Study Bible.
- 3 Footnote for Luke 15:23 from the Orthodox Study Bible.