Tag: #alaskapriest

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The Most Holy Trinity – Problem to Be Solved or Mystery to be Lived.

   There is the story of how St. Augustine, perhaps one of the greatest minds in history and who essentially coined the term “Trinity”, was walking along the beach outside of Hippo one day contemplating this mystery.  Presently, he came across a young boy who, like all boys throughout history, had a little shovel and a pail. The boy had dug a hole in the sand. As St. Augustine watched, the boy would run to the ocean, fill up his bucket and dump it in the hole. After watching it for a bit, he would run back to the ocean and repeat the process. Eventually, Augustine said to him, “Little boy, what are you doing?”

   The boy looked up and replied, “It’s quite simple, I am putting the ocean in this little hole.”

   Shaking his head, the saint replied, “My son, the ocean is vast and wide. No one knows its boundary. You cannot hope to put that vastness into that little hole.”

   “Just so,” the boy replied, “you cannot hope to fit the mystery of the Trinity into your little brain.” And with that, he vanished from Augustine’s sight.

   While we cannot hope to understand the vastness of the mystery of God, in his kindness, God has revealed certain things that we can understand.

   If there is one thing that helps us, it is the understanding that this whole God thing is not primarily about knowing all the right answers but rather entering into the right relationships and appreciating them. Indeed, all our theology and catechesis is descriptive of those relationships. This is the difference between approaching the life of grace as a problem to be solved or a mystery to be lived. 

   Approaching life as a problem involves observation and analysis in the hopes of coming up with an answer to the meaning of life. This approach will always come up short because some things don’t lend themselves to analysis. 

   However, when we approach things as mystery to be lived, everything changes. When we talk about “mystery” in this sense of the word, I am referring to a reality that is larger than you of which you are a part and which is a part of you. Your family, such as it is, is the prime example. You don’t solve a family.  You are part of your family, and genetically, psychologically, spiritually your family is  apart of you.  So too with the Church. In a similar way, you are part of the Church and the Church is a part of you. So too with the mystery of the Trinity. By the graciousness of Almighty God, we are invited to share in the same loving relationship between the Father and the Son, also known as the Holy Spirit. Thus, through the indwelling of the Spirit, we are caught up and united with the very mystery of God, and God is united with each of us at the very level of our being.  This union of heart and soul is what we call “full communion.”  It is a great mystery to be lived, now and into eternity.

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The Lord, the Giver of Life

   Today we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Birthdays are fun. but births themselves are simply miraculous. Anyone who has been there can tell you that perhaps the most profound moment of any birth is when the baby takes its first breath. The experience is indescribable. Perhaps it is because at that moment, we realize that where there is breath, there is life. In the same moment we realize that we are not the source of that life; we are merely its beneficiaries. 

       There is a story making the rounds on the nternet about an elderly Italian gentleman who was hospitalized after he had contracted COVID-19. He recovered but had to spend a day on a ventilator. As he left the hospital, he received a bill for €500. The old man began to cry. The embarrassed attendant assured him that financial assistance was available if he could not pay. The old man said, “Oh, I don’t cry because of the money. I can afford it easily. I cry because I have been breathing God’s air for free for the last 93 years.  I have never thanked him once. It takes €500 to use a ventilator in a hospital for one day. Do you know how much I owe God?”

       There are many different things we could meditate on this Pentecost, but given the times in which we live I would like to spend a little time on the Holy Spirit as the breath that gives life to the Church. 

       It helps to remember how we understand the Holy Spirit as the very love between the Father and the Son; the relationship between the lover and the beloved. It is this relationship of co-eternal, mutual love that is the life breath of the Church by inviting all of us into that relationship. It is the love of God that breathes life into the Church and animates its members. 

       We have two wonderful images of this in today’s Scriptures. In the reading from Acts, we see the first manifestation of the Spirit as “noise, like a strong driving wind.”  I’ve mentioned before that in Hebrew, the word for ‘spirit’ is “ru’ach” (רוח). Literally it means wind, breath, or soul. Thus, at the birth of the Church at Pentecost, the noise like a strong driving wind makes sense. It is God breathing life into the Church.

       In a similar, in the passage from John’s gospel, we see the resurrected Christ breathing on the apostles and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It is more personal, but the image is the same. It is the breath of Divine Love, the Holy Spirit, that animates or “ensouls” the life of the Church.

       It is through the Holy Spirit that we receive the gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Courage, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of the Lord.

       It is in our grateful acceptance of these gifts that we become aware of the charisms of the Holy Spirit given to certain individuals within the Church, including prophecy and healing, mercy, teaching, stewardship, perseverance, encouragement, hospitality, leadership, joy.       

Finally, it is in our exercise of these gifts that we each enjoy the fruits of the Holy Spirit: charity, generosity, joy, gentleness, faithfulness, patience, modesty, kindness, self-control, goodness, chastity, peace.

       St. Paul is right. “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” (1Cor 12:4-7)

Perhaps it is a good time to pause, take a deep breath, actually and metaphorically, and thank God for the gifts that we have been given.

       The gift of life,

       The gift of faith

       The gifts, charisms and fruits of the Holy Spirit

              that are given to each of us for the building up of the Church and the world. 

Let us pray.

       Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created; and You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.   

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A Sense of Place.

   Perhaps like no other, Alaska is a place that captivates people in surprising ways. How many people do you know who came up for short-term commitment and have been here ever since?  My own mother used to joke that she came up for two weeks…seventy-four years ago! There is something about this place for certain people that just makes them want to stay. I have quipped that so many who come to Alaska are either running to something or running away from something.  Regardless, they all find something.

   A lot of it, I think, is simply the sense of the place. Oh, it’s not quite what it was.  No place ever is. But the mountains are just as high and the land just as vast. A person can find their place here and call it home.

   Jesus knew the value that comes with a sense of place. One of the most comforting thoughts for me from this week’s gospel is when Jesus tells the disciples (then and now) that he will go ahead to prepare a place for us in his Father’s house. 

   There are two ways we can look at this. The first one that may come to mind is that we have a spot reserved for us in the Kingdom upon our death and at the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age. A place in his Father’s house also means we have a place at the table in the heavenly banquet.

   But even as we are comforted by this eventuality, we must not forget that we each have a place here and now in the Church and in the world. Believe it or not, where you are right now is where God needs you…right now. Your parish, your neighborhood, your school, your place of work, your circle of friends; this is the place the Christ has prepared for you for the foundation of the world. Your personality, your experiences, your skills, even your weaknesses and failings what he needs you to bring to the present moment for his glory and the building of the Church and the world. 

   There is great comfort in this also.  It means that you have everything you need right now to achieve whatever God is asking of you. It is for this moment at this time in this place that you and only you are here. Christ asks nothing more of you than what you bring to this present situation. Pray that we may all act in concert with his will and each do our little part. We may not know the master plan, but it is comforting to know that the Master has planned it…and we are included.

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Good Shepherd Sunday – Hearing his Voice

Hey, Church Fans! We have the vid, but for some reason, it won’t embed. No worries, just click on the link.

https://www.youtube.com/live/9r-af7Qf5Fg

Hey, happy Good Shepherd Sunday! To get you started here are a few clean sheep jokes: 

Information technology is one of the biggest sheep industries.
There’s always a need for more RAM

What’s a sheep’s favorite car?

A Lamborghini

I had a young sheep jump out from behind tree and head butt me.  It was a lamb bush! 

There was quite the incident on a sheep ranch in the Rockies. All the young sheep were on the side of a steep hill. The one on top slipped and felling into one right below it. This started a chain reaction. Pretty soon all 200 of them came tumbling down the mountain…It was a lamb slide!

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There’s not a whole lot of sheep herding going on up here in Alaska.  So, Good Shepherd Sunday can be a bit perplexing for us.  Not so in first century Nazareth.  Folks around there would have been very familiar with it. It’s no surprise then, that Jesus would use the image of himself as the Good Shepherd.

   One thing that might be lost on us, but would have been obvious to his listeners was the image of the sheepfold and the sheep hearing his voice.  Not so obvious to us, so it bears some explanation. 

   One of the most critical moments for a shepherd is the lambing season. I am told that as soon as a lamb is born, the shepherd will take it into his arms and begin to speak and even sing to it. He does this to take advantage of a biological process called imprinting.  He holds the lamb close to him so that it can smell him. He sings to it so that it can hear his voice.  From that moment on, that sheep will recognize his smell and his voice as the one that will protect it and keep it safe. From then on, whenever he calls that sheep, it will ignore all others and come to him.

   In those days, and in many places even today, shepherds will keep their individual flocks in a common corral known as a sheepfold.  At the beginning of the day, each shepherd will go to the gate and call to his sheep. His own sheep will hear his voice and come right out to him. These he leads to the green pastures. The others, not recognizing him simply ignore him.

   A similar thing happens to us spiritually at our baptism. From the moment of our spiritual birth we are imprinted, if you will, and sealed by the Holy Spirit so that we can recognize him from that moment onward.

Christ, the Good Shepherd is calling each of us to follow him so that we may “have life and have it abundantly.” For some of us, that means a call to the holy ministerial priesthood. But how does one hear that voice? From whence does it come?

The simple answer is that vocations to the holy priesthood do not grow on trees or in foreign countries. They come from right here within our parish family.

What are we looking for in a young man who may be called to the ministerial priesthood. Four things:

  1. He needs to be a healthy, mature, balanced human being. It takes a real man to be a real priest.
  2. He should have a capacity for prayer. He needs to be a man of the spirit.
  3. He needs to be of sufficient intelligence to handle academic requirements.
  4. He needs to have a heart for service.

St. Teresa of Avila said so beautifully, ” Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world…”

By the same token, yours if the voice with which Christ calls a young man to consider a vocation to the holy priesthood.

So if you see a young man in our parish who you think would make a great priest, pray for him, and then at some point take him off to the side and say to him, “You know, I see the qualities in you that would make a good priest. I want you to think about it and I’m going to be praying for you.”

I guarantee you, if you see it in him, he has been thinking about it. Yours could be the voice that helps him save a thousand souls.

   There are a lot of other voices out there vying for our attention, but there is only one that will lead us to salvation.  Pray that we may all hear his voice and follow him into eternity.

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The Secret Code of Emmaus…

Maybe I should get a bit more ‘click bait’ into my titles. For example – “Two Christians invite a stranger to dinner. You won’t believe what happened next! Anyhoo, here is the blog for this weekend. As always, video on Tuesday.

       Sometimes, we don’t pick up on the subtle cues and can miss what is going on right in front of us.  Here’s a good example:

     I did a lot of downhill skiing as a kid.  Every Saturday morning, Dad would load all of us eight kids in the in rig and we would head up to Arctic Valley. Mom would always stand on the porch and wave to us as we drove away for a day of fun on the slopes. I always thought it was sad that she never got to come along with us. It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I finally figured out what was really going on. Dad was giving her a break by getting us all out of the house! Who’d have thought?

       I get the impression that a similar thing was going on with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. I’m not saying that they were not bright, just that they were preoccupied. So much so that they didn’t really pick up on what was really going on for some time.

       We can forgive them for this. Their entire world had just been rocked.  All their hopes and dreams had died on the Cross with Jesus. They just wanted to get away. Emmaus was about a two and a half hour walk from Jerusalem.  Can you imagine their conversation along the way?  Then this strange guy shows up and walks with them.  What’s up with that?!

       But as the drama unfolds, we begin to see that the encounter between Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is actually a thinly veiled description of Holy Mass. 

Think about it. What happens here at Mass?

       We gather.

       We share our stories.

       We break the bread.

       And we are sent.

In liturgy speak, these are called the       Gathering/Introductory Rites.

       The Liturgy of the Word

       The Liturgy of the Eucharist, and

       The Dismissal or Sending Forth.

Let’s take a look at each of these:

Step I:  We gather.  The Introductory Rites

       Those who have been to one of my slow Masses can readily answer the question: When does Mass begin?  The answer is simple: When the second person shows up! Why? Because Jesus said: “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.”

       The Second Vatican Council in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Par. 7) is very clear. “When the people gather” Christ is present. 

       Here, on the Road to Emmaus, the two disciples are gathered. Of course, Jesus would be there with them.

Step II:  We share our stories. The Liturgy of the Word.

       I can’t help but think that the conversation with Jesus on the road had to be one of the most intense Liturgies of the Word in the history of Salvation.

       Here you have the Incarnate Word of God, explaining the word of God in the Sacred Scriptures. 

       Yeah, our hearts would be burning too.

       And I hope yours is today.

Again, the Council is very clear. “In the proclamation of the Word” Jesus is present.

Step III: We break the bread – The Liturgy of the Eucharist

       Luke tells us, “He took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.”

       Does this sound slightly familiar?  It should. It is right out of the Third Eucharistic Prayer. (Actually, it is the source of these words in the Third Eucharistic Prayer.)

       The reference to the Eucharist at the table in Emmaus is unmistakable. This becomes even more evident when one learns that the early Church used the words “fractio panis” or the “breaking of the bread” as a codeword for the Eucharist.

       Again, the Council is unequivocal in their language, “(Christ) is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister… but especially under the Eucharistic species” of bread and wine.”

       As we know, the Eucharist is the source and summit of all what the Church is and does. Everything that we are and do leads to the Eucharist and everything that we are and do flows from the Eucharist.

       No wonder they recognized him “in the breaking of the bread.”

       Which makes me wonder…do we? 

       More importantly, what about others who wander in our church?   What is going on in their hearts and minds?

       Can they recognize him in our midst as we gather? In the way we treat each other?

       In the way we treat them?

       Are they welcomed? Do they feel like they may have a place here?

Are our hearts burning within us as the scriptures are proclaimed and explained?

       If not, then how can we expect their hearts to be burning within them?

       Finally, is he recognizable in the breaking of bread?

       And can they recognize him, the Risen Christ, as we do so? 

       I pray that it is so.

Step IV: We are sent – The Dismissal 

       At one time or another at Mass and in life, I think we can become like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up with our own situation that we miss what’s really going on.

       I pray that we are a parish family whose hearts are so on fire with the love of God that those encounter us

       Whether within these walls

              Or in our schools or in our neighborhoods

              Or in our places work, or in the public square

                     or in our homes…

       I pray that they would recognize him

The two disciples show us that what we experience here cannot, must not be contained within these walls.

       The dismissal is one of the most essential parts of the Mass,

       That’s why it is so short:

       “The Lord be with you.

       And with your spirit.

              May almighty God bless you…NOW GO! 

Grab a donut and go into that part of the world where God needs you most right now!

       Proclaim the Good News of the resurrection of Christ and the forgiveness of sins.

       May your every word and action echo those of those two disciples, saying in ways small or profound,  

       ‘WE HAVE SEEN THE LORD!!!

       And how he was made known to you

              In the breaking of the bread.    

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From “Do Not Be Afraid” to “Peace be with You.”

   Howdy, Church Fans! Here is the text from this weekend. As always, the vid will be up in a couple days.

   Have you noticed how light is getting outside these days?  Just six weeks ago, we were waking up in darkness and coming home in darkness.  It’s quite a contrast. 

   There is a similar contrast in the post-resurrection gospels.  Did you pick up on it?  Before the resurrection, whether it is a huge catch of fish, while he’s walking on the water, or healing a young person, or whenever Jesus is manifesting some aspect of his divinity, the first words out of his mouth were always, “Do not be afraid.” 

   Now, after the resurrection, the first words out of his mouth are invariably:  “Peace be with you.”  What’s the difference?

   I think much of it has to do with how we understand the word “Peace.” It helps to remember that Jesus and the eleven were all good, pious first century Jews. In our own time, we might tend to think of peace as the absence of conflict or a nice feeling of interior contentment, or some such.  Those are nice as far as they go, but it the Hebrew notion of “shalom” is much more expansive. 

   Simply put, the “shalom”, the peace that we are talking about here is a state where everything is as God has intended it to be.  It’s a subtle but important difference.  

   With other notions of peace, the onus is all on us. How do we work for peace? What structures of institutional sin or policies can we put in place to ensure equality? What programs can we develop to raise awareness?  We act as if it all depends on us. How very Pelagian.

   How very different is the notion of shalom as Jesus and the apostles understood it. As we read in the scriptures, God prepared a people. In the fullness of time, the Eternal Word, the Father’s perfect self-expression took flesh of the Virgin Mary and entered fully into the reality of the human condition. By his suffering and death, he redeemed us. By his rising he has shown us that we too are to share in his glory – perfectly human, body and soul. Finally, things are as God has intended them to be. Because of this, fear simply out of context. 

   As people of the resurrection, we have a role in helping those who do not yet know Christ, or do not know him fully to come to a deeper understanding of these sacred mysteries. Our “Peace be with you,” is not some nice little comforting phrase.  It is a declaration that it is God who has acted and now all is as he intended it be.

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Life is Messy – God is Faithful

Hey there. I’m back from the Alaskan wilderness. Great trip. Once again, the text is here before the video. No worries. I’ll get it posted as soon as my trusty associate gets it to me.

    Joseph has a problem.  He is betrothed to a woman who has been found pregnant before the wedding ceremony is complete. Not only is this highly embarrassing for him, and especially for her, but it could be deadly.

    In the time of Joseph and Mary, there were four steps of the law and custom regarding marriage.  The first was the pounding out of the marriage contract between the heads of the respective households.  This could happen when the parties to the marriage were infants.  The contract was negotiated with great pomp and circumstance. Sometimes the families would erect a special tent just outside where the patriarchs would meet.  There could be lots of ritual shouting and arguing over the various elements of the contract, but after a few hours, the patriarchs would emerge arm in arm with the signed contract in hand.  And then there would be a big feast.

    The second step was the betrothal. It was not unlike and engagement party you might go to today. This usually happened when the parties were in mid to late adolescence.  There was a short betrothal ceremony where an official from the synagogue would be present to offer prayers of blessings…and then there would be a big feast.

     The third step was the transfer of the bride from her father’s home to the home of the groom. This could involve several days of travel.  People learned early on that if you kept marrying people from your own village, eventually the kids would just not turn out right. So, the groom would go to another village, sometimes at a great distance to go get her. Her family would dress her in the finest robes they could muster. Then with her attendants, the whole family, and most of her village would travel with her to the groom’s home. Travel being what it was in those days, it might take some time and they could arrive at any hour of the day or night.  Thus, the groom’s village had to keep watch for when the bridegroom would arrive. Once they arrived, they were greeted with great fanfare and everyone processed to the home of the groom where the marriage was consummated…and there was a big wedding feast.

    The problem for Joseph and Mary is that she is found pregnant after the betrothal, but before Joseph has taken her into his home.  The “shame” that our translation refers to is not clear, but most scholars agree that it is probably Deuteronomy 22:16ff which states that if woman is found pregnant in such circumstances, “they shall bring the young woman to the entrance of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death….Thus, shall you purge the evil from your midst.”  Yikes!

    We tend to take in stride the fact that Jesus decided to show up a little early. But such a thing would have been cause for great scandal in the time of Jesus. What’s going on here? Jesus is truly divine. He waited centuries preparing a people to receive him. Why didn’t he just show up after Joseph had taken Mary into his home and saved them all that anxiety and stress? Everything would be neat, tidy, and orderly. Seems reasonable, no?  

    There is a lesson here. In three decades of ministry, I have found that it is nice when life unfolds in a neat, tidy, and orderly way. I have also found that there are many times when it simply does not. The world and everything and everyone in it has limits. Sometimes those limits manifest themselves in humbling and humorous ways. Sometimes they do so in very tragic and devasting ways. I will let you fill in the blanks from your own life, but you can be assured of two things: life is messy…and God is faithful.

    If you need evidence of this, first ponder how he came into the world as described in today’s gospel.  That was messy. Yet, the Nativity of the Christ is one of the great demonstrations of God’s love for us. God loved humanity so much that he entered fully into the mystery of human experience so that humanity could enter into the mystery of the experience of God. Or to paraphrase Ireneus, God became human so that humanity could become like unto God.

    Next, ponder how he died upon the Cross. Now, that was messy. Yet, the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ is the single most important action in human history.  By it, our sins are forgiven, we are reconciled to God, and can enter into full communion with the very reality that is God. It is the supreme act of God’s faithfulness. No matter how much we may give/ up on God, God never gives up on us.

    The dilemma of Joseph and Mary show us that life is not always neat and tidy. It is in those moments, perhaps, when God is most faithful. You can count on two things in this life. Life is messy…and God is faithful.

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Awaiting the Blessed Hope

Howdy, Church fans! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I’m getting out a little ahead of the game this week. I’ll add the vid after I actually preach it. We enter Advent this weekend. So much different, and I believe more human, than the secular “Holiday Season.”

 

I like Advent. I always have.  For one, it allows us Catholics to be a bit countercultural. While secular America dives headlong into the “Holiday Season”, we Catholics enter into the holy season of Advent. There is a not-so-subtle and important difference. Oh sure, we go to the office Christmas…uh…Holiday Party and some Catholics even put up Christmas trees in December. But beneath it all is something deeper, something much more profound. Advent is about hope. Advent is about expectation. Advent is about preparation and vigilance. 

   Advent is about hope. Human beings cannot live without hope. In his book on the subject, the theologian/philosopher Josef Pieper talked about little hopes and big Hope.  Little hopes are the daily hopes and expectations such as a much-anticipated visit by a friend or a festive Thanksgiving dinner with family.  Big Hope refers to the eternal things, essentially all those things that are mentioned the Nicaean Creed, especially “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his Kingdom will have no end.”  Unlike secular humanism that (mis)places its hope in the capacity of the human person for pursuing the good and the moral, Christian Hope is rooted not in our capacity for good, but in God’s infinite capacity to love. It is God’s plan, not ours, that brings fulfillment now and unto ages of ages. Humans have limits. God does not.

   Advent is about expectation. One important distinction that Jesus makes about the end of the age is between predicting the end of the age and preparing for it. History is fraught with examples of well-meaning but misguided isogetes who think they have “cracked the Biblical code” about when the end of the age will come. The most recent was supposed to be on November 9th.  If you look up their website today, you are greeted by a big blue message that says, “An error has occurred.”  Oh, the irony!

   Rather than predict, Jesus wants us to prepare for his second coming in glory, here and now. Now is the time to get our physical and spiritual house in order. Advent helps us do that. We await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

   Advent is about preparation and vigilance. It’s a time to remove the physical and spiritual clutter in our lives, to get rid of anything that might get in the way of our relationship with Christ and with one another.  How do we spend our time? Is there time for Christ?  How is our physical space and personal space arranged? Is there literally space for Christ?  Is our spiritual house in order? If not, what needs to change?        Advent is a time of hope, a time of expectation, and a time of preparation. May we use this time to prepare well for the second coming of the Lord in glory, even as we prepare to celebrate his first coming in humility.

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Thanksgiving, 2025

Today, all people throughout the United States and most American citizens in foreign lands pause, on what is arguably our last remaining national religious holiday, to give thanks for the blessings we have received as a nation and as individuals.

       The Christian and indeed all people of faith, give praise and thanks to Almighty God.

       (To whom all other people of goodwill give thanks is known only to themselves.)

Many of us are familiar with the commonly held story of the origins of the “First Thanksgiving.” 

Fewer are aware that such celebrations did not become a national holiday until 1863 by executive proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, with a plea for the restoration of unity for a country in the midst of a brutal civil war. 

Even fewer are aware that this proclamation was the culmination of efforts of a single person, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale.  Born in New Hampsire in 1788, to a Revolutionary War veteran, she received her education at home, as such opportunities were not available to women at that time.  Nevertheless, in time she became a noted poet, author, and editor of the most widely circulated magazine in America. She is the one who penned the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” 

Now I shall quote from the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia. 

“Hale may be the individual most responsible for making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the United States; it had previously been celebrated mostly in New England. Each state scheduled its own holiday, some as early as October and others as late as January; it was largely unknown in the American South. Her advocacy for the national holiday began in 1846 and lasted 17 years before it was successful.

In support of the proposed national holiday, Hale wrote presidents Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. Her initial letters failed to persuade, but the letter she wrote to Lincoln convinced him to support legislation establishing a national holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863. The new national holiday was considered a unifying day after the stress of the Civil War. Before Thanksgiving’s addition, the only national holidays celebrated in the United States were Washington’s Birthday and Independence Day.

Hale’s efforts earned her the nickname “Mother of Thanksgiving”.  Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History curator of food history, Paula J. Johnson, claims that Hale was “key in bringing together and popularizing the Thanksgiving holiday with the menu featuring turkey and stuffing”.

In her novel Northwood: Or, a Tale of New England, Hale devotes an entire chapter to describing the many dishes of Thanksgiving—roasted turkey, gravy and savory stuffing, chicken pie, pumpkin pie, pickles, cakes and preserves—and to drink ginger beer, currant wine and cider.”

If Sarah Hale’s efforts show us anything, it is that we should never underestimate the lasting effects that one person can have for the benefit of others.

Ten were healed, yet only one came back to give thanks. That is the one we remember.

The one who was healed tells us that Ms. Hale’s efforts are well founded. What nation, what Church worthy of the name, what family, what individual can long stand without gratitude? 

The grateful heart cannot be jealous, but rejoices in the gifts of those who surround it.

The grateful family cannot be withdrawn, but celebrates with others its joys and comforts others in their trials. 

The grateful parish cannot be isolated, but gives back to God and its neighborhood so much that those around it cannot imagine life without  them.

The grateful nation cannot forget God.

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Philemon’s Dilemma

Homily – 23SundayC, Philemon’s Dilemma

   Whatever your musical tastes, country music has a lot of practical wisdom. Brad Paisley described it as “Four chords and the truth!”  For your edification, here is short list of real titles of real country music songs.

Real Country Music Titles:

  • Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life
  • My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart
  • I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life
  • How Can I Miss you if you won’t go away?
  • I’m So Miserable Without You It’s Like Having You Here
  • The Last Word in Lonesome is “me”
  • The Worst You Ever Gave Me Was the Best I Ever Had
  • If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me.
  • I Been Roped and Thrown By Jesus In The Holy Ghost Corral

   The late, great Toby Keith wrote one entitled, “Wish I Didn’t Know Now (What I didn’t Know Then.)”

   I imagine that is what Philemon was thinking when he opened that letter from St. Paul, probably carried to him the same Onesimus mentioned therein. So, what is Philemon’s problem?

   Well, it’s a doozy. Philemon is a wealthy Greek, probably from the Church in Collosae, who came to the Catholic Faith and was baptized by Paul. Onesimus was his slave…his runaway slave who found his way to Paul and spent a fair amount of time helping him during his imprisonment. Now Paul is sending him back to Philemon asking that he not be received as a runaway slave, but as a brother in Christ. Philemon has a dilemma.  Does he do as Paul asks?  If he does, then does that mean he will have free all his other slaves who have been baptized?  What about the ones who have not yet been baptized. If they come to faith does that mean an automatic ticket to freedom?  If they ask for baptism can he refuse them?  What are the implications if he does not do as Paul asks and puts the slave’s collar back on Onesimus?  Who knew that being a Christian would be so hard? How difficult it is to be an intentional disciple of Jesus! 

   It’s not like he didn’t have fair warning. Jesus said as much in our gospel passage this week from Luke. He does not sugar coat it. Being a disciple of Jesus demands a complete change of mind and heart.

   It’s a good lesson for us. Being a disciple of Jesus has never been about fitting comfortably and anonymously into an increasing secular society. It is about standing in the truth in love.  This may manifest itself at work, at school, on the community council, in the doctor’s office, in the ballot box, and any other number of places. 

   Scripture does not say what Philemon did after he received the letter. Perhaps he did as Paul asked.  Perhaps he did not. Regardless, the early Church has passed this letter on to us to help us in our discernment in our own journey of faith. May we have the grace to respond as Christ would have us do.  It has never been easy, but it is always worth it.