Helllllllooooooo Otterites!
Welcome to yet another Wobert Wednesday post. I know, I know. I shouldn’t spoil you with so many regular posts. We’ll just have to chance it.
I was thinking about doing what is really a stereotypical holiday post, when the thought occurred…
Why would I want to do that?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the holiday at all. At its core, this is one of the best ecumenical holidays there are. We even did a Thanksgiving episode once about things we’re grateful for. That’s all fine and good. People need to be reminded to stop and remember to be thankful for what we have, what we’ve earned, what we’ve been given and what we might have escaped. In the modern world, we’re so on the go, that we need to be prompted.
In fact, this need to be prompted has spawned a cottage industry of sorts around the theme of Gratitude.
As a Catholic, giving thanks is almost second nature. It’s built in to the most important part of our faith, the Eucharist, which basically means thanksgiving or to give thanks. We are thankful that God came down from Heaven, became man and died for our sins. We engage in this thankfulness when we pray the Our Father and when we receive Christ in the Eucharist… Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
The whole idea of Thanksgiving is religious at its roots. We are thanking God.
Yet.
Yet so much of our modern culture actively rejects God and strives to punish any expression of belief.
Before anyone goes off, no… I’m not a conspiracy nut. You either believe this, or you don’t. It seems to be one of those things that has no middle ground. There is definitely a vocal segment of the population that hates religion. Radical, extremist atheists. They’re out there and this ideology has sidelined much of the religious meaning behind the tree most popular and important Christian celebrations.
Easter is all about the candy and Easter Bunny to most.
Christmas itself has devolved into a secular, consumerist orgy of spending.
Thanksgiving has become like Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It’s the feast whereupon we gorge ourselves and gather our strength to sprint to the end of the race for what everyone simply MUST HAVE, yet no one needs at all. More stuff.
Though even that analogy falls short. Even amongst the more traditional minded Catholics and others that practice it, Lent is often a half-arsed attempt at piety and sorrow for our sins.
Thanksgiving is perhaps the key to the restoration of the proper place of the other two. There can be no proper religious celebration without this concept, no matter what faith we’re talking about. If we aren’t thankful to whom we worship, what’s the point of worship? If we aren’t thankful for the gift of life, Grace and redemption, we might as well stay home.
But how to re-instill that proper sense of thankfulness?
Maybe it’s by starting with the fourth Thursday of November. A Thanksgiving feast is not about the food. It’s not entirely about the gathering of family. It’s especially not about the football. Though this last one is a blessing and a curse for me. As a Lions fan in Louisville, I don’t get to see them on TV much. But then again, I don’t have to watch the dumpster fire that this season has become.
As readers and listeners know, I love to get into the context of things. I think that more than most things, helps us truly get at and understand what’s happening, happened, or going to happen. It helps us get to the true meaning of things.
In this case… WHAT we are thankful for, and WHO we give that thanks to.
Looking back at history, we see Thanksgiving celebrations all over the world. A Catholic Mass is the highest form of this. We gather with the family. We acknowledge both our community and our failings, but quickly put those aside as the price of entry. Contrition is paramount. Pride has no place in this celebration. We ponder what makes life a blessing. We offer our own meager gifts to the feast and prepare ourselves for the feast by acknowledging God’s benevolence and His blessings upon us. We are grateful for them and vow to amend our ways.
THEN we can eat (partake of the Eucharist).
Take that description of Mass out of the setting of the Church, and it fits quite neatly into what many of us think of when we ponder the idealized celebrations of our youth. Celebrations that probably weren’t as ideal as we make them out to be now. But this is the template and the ideal we need to shoot for.
Gather.
Acknowledge none of us are perfect.
Promptly forget all past transgressions.
Ponder what God has done for us.
Bring our gifts (time, talent and treasure) for the good of all.
Thank God for His role in our lives and the Blessings we receive.
Eat, drink and be merry!
OK. The last one is a little tongue in cheek, but not entirely. If we are to truly celebrate, especially at Thanksgiving, those are essentual.
But they are meaningless, self-serving and self-condemning if we skip from the gathering straight to the eating, drinking and making merry.
Don’t skip the middle, Otterites. It’s what gives the whole thing it’s meaning and deep impact on you, me, our families, our communities and even our country and world itself.
