Tomorrow we will be celebrating Thanksgiving.  It is a day in which our homes will be filled with the glorious smells of roasting poultry and other culinary creations, which when voluminously combined in our bellies, will leave us in a sluggish state of gastric nirvana that draws us to the nearest couch.  (Yes, I know many of you probably deep fry your turkeys…but hopefully your house isn’t filled with the smells of a turkey being deep fried because more than likely it will also be filled with the

sounds of smoke detectors going off, and a frantic call to 911 to let them know you just set your house on fire.  Be sure to deep fry your turkeys away from your house or anything else you value should that turkey seek to avenge itself from beyond the grave.  That concludes my public service announcement of this blog post….).  But I digress.

In addition to stuffing ourselves with too much food, there will be also the traditional talk and discussion of “what we’re thankful for”.  During this week, young students across the nation are given the assignment to write or draw about something for which they are thankful.  On Thanksgiving Day itself, for anyone watching TV, we’ll get the steady stream of “I’m thankful for…” statements from football players, sports announcers, celebrity parade hosts and other talking heads.  And they’ll all be thankful for the usual feel-good PC things like health, family, friends and country.  All of us will usually say those same things between forkfuls of our second helping of pumpkin pie as well.

But I think we’ve lost the purpose of observing Thanksgiving Day.  We all give thanks for something on Thanksgiving Day.  But in the act of giving, it is implied that there is a receiver.  There is someone to receive that which is being given.  If we are giving thanks, to whom are we giving it?

Which leads me to wonder why those who claim to be atheists celebrate Thanksgiving.  If they are giving thanks, to whom are they giving their thanks?  The universe? Evolution?  Fate? DNA & Richard Dawkins? Karma? Society?  Government? Themselves?  An atheist participating in Thanksgiving Day is nonsensical.  The best they can do is give thanks for something.  Why do they need a national holiday in which they practice good manners (i.e.- saying ‘thank you’)?

And that is where society seems to be stuck as well.  Thanksgiving has become a national holiday in which we frivolously do an accounting of all the good things that we’re thankful for.  And when a holiday becomes frivolous, it becomes expendable.  Have you noticed this year how the retailers have expanded Black Friday into a week long celebration?  The retailers aren’t stupid.  They know as a society we are insatiably greedy, and Thanksgiving is merely just a day to stuff our faces while we politely say a very hollow sounding ‘thank you’ and think of things we’re going to buy the next day.

We as Christians are called to be better than that!  I know Christians will be giving thanks to God on Thanksgiving, and do so most other days as well, but I think in order for Thanksgiving to have meaning again and in order for us to grab it back from the wretched hands of the retailers, Christians need to be even more deliberate and purposeful in our giving thanks to God.  Let’s stop being thankful for stuff on Thanksgiving Day, and simply be thankful to God.  We need to be vocal in reminding others that we are simply thankful to God.  Make it a goal on Thanksgiving to say “I am thankful to God” or “I am thankful to God for….”.  Each of us needs to hear us saying that.  Society needs to hear us Christians being deliberate and purposeful in simply giving our thanks to God.  If your church offers a thanksgiving service or Mass tomorrow, how about attending it?  Society needs to see us Christians being thankful to God as well.

So for this Thanksgiving let’s be deliberate in giving our thanks to God.

Recently while remodeling our downstairs bathroom, I was surprised to find on our newly purchased vanity, a warning sticker. It wasn’t a label telling me that this solid wood vanity was pricey (I already knew that) or that I should read completely the instructions on how to install it (I didn’t do that). No, it was a warning sticker telling me that the state of California determined that “drilling, sanding, or machining wood products generates wood dust, a substance known to the state of California to cause cancer…”.  Really.  Has anyone warned Norm Abram at the New Yankee Workshop?!?

Just what is it about the state of California and their incessant need to find things that cause cancer in lab rats?  Apparently they have a division in their state government that hates rodents and does its best to find ways of slowly killing them via exposure to every known substance on earth.  I’m still trying to figure out just how long it took California to get the lab rats sufficiently trained in wood working in order to conduct these tests.

So while it seems that California should change its official state motto from “Eureka! I have found it” to “Eeek! It’s going to kill me”, we need to be reminded that God does not want us to live our lives in fear.  The inauguration of His plan to redeem the world through His Son Jesus Christ, repeatedly involved the words “Do not be afraid”.  God’s angel Gabriel spoke these words first to Zechariah (Luke 1:13) and to Mary as well (Luke 1:30).  Joseph was also comforted with this same instruction in his dream (Matthew 1:20).

This same theme ran through the pontificate of St. John Paul II, undeniably the greatest pope with which our modern world has been blest.  In his inaugural homily he urged the world to be not afraid: “Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power”; “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ”; “Do not be afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man'”.  He reiterated this in his book ‘Crossing The Threshold Of Hope’ where he succinctly tells us why we should not be afraid: “Why should we have no fear? Because man has been redeemed by God”.  (Insert retroactive MIC DROP by the Pope here).

It’s very easy to live our lives in fear of what may or may not happen, and very easy to be distracted by the fears that governments, the media, or terrorists try to force on us.  We let our imaginations run amuck and before you know it, we’re cowering in a dark corner.  Jesus tells us not to be like that in Matthew 6:34 “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself”.  Jesus wants us out there living out our lives the way God intended-  living them to their fullest potential in glorious praise of Him!

 

Earlier this week, our great nation recognized all those who have served in its military by observing Veterans Day.  We are blest to live in this great country, and even more blest that there are men and women courageous enough to defend it and the freedoms we enjoy, and more often than not, take for granted.

And less than 48 hours after observing Veterans Day, we are faced with the stark reality and reminder from the events in Paris that there is a war going on around us all.  It’s not a war that involves generals drawing lines on maps where foot soldiers will be deployed to engage the enemy.  But it is a war that engages us all, for this war is being fought over that thing each one of us has- a soul.

And sometimes this war does involve physical carnage as we have seen in Paris.  There are those who apparently believe that causing bodily harm to another person while yelling that their “god is great” will earn them carnal pleasures in the afterlife.  How foolish and misled are they (Matthew 7:15).  And how even more foolish we will be if we cower in fear and attempt to placate them by giving into their demands.

Jesus warns us all not to fear these evil doers who look to physically harm us:  “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matthew 10:28).  Jesus warns us of the more important battle that is going on for our souls.

And in this battle, the enemy uses attack methods that do not involve loud percussive explosions of bright light that will draw our attention.  Satan does this on purpose.  The last thing Satan wants is a sounding of the alarm and additional troops shoring up our defenses against him.  No, he and his followers use the “death by a thousand tiny cuts” technique to destroy our souls.  These attacks are very subtle and go easily unnoticed if we are not paying attention.

The Catholic Church wisely uses the term “The Church Militant” to describe the followers of Christ who are alive in this world.  We are the foot soldiers who are doing battle on a daily basis in a multi-front war in which we are being attacked from all different directions.  We battle the devil.  We battle the world.  We battle ourselves.

In closing, Ephesians 6:10-17 eloquently invokes the imagery of our daily battle:

“Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.

Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.

For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.

Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.

So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate,

and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all flaming arrows of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

 

 

Fall is lovely here in the northern reaches of Kentucky. As the season progresses, bushes, shrubs and trees of all sizes and shapes begin to transform; their canopies of varying green become woven tapestries of yellow, red, orange, and purple hues.  The biological mechanism behind this transformation is actually very interesting (The Science of Color in Autumn Leaves).  Eventually, all of these colorful leaves will fall, especially after a good windy day, and become smothering crinkly blankets of brown that must be removed from lawns all across suburbia.  This is something I don’t think any homeowner looks forward to doing but they also know it has to be done if they don’t want their yard eventually turning into a mushy mess in which nothing seems to grow.  During the Fall, especially on weekends, the drone of leaf blowers can be heard as homeowners attempt to blow the leaves off their lawns and into piles (or sneakily onto their neighbor’s lawns!).

Perhaps the Fall season has a message and reminder for us.  All of these trees proudly draped in these splendid colors are suddenly stripped bare and left empty.  What happens to those trees reminds me of  Proverbs 16:18 which states “Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall”.  I have often found that the times that I might start feeling or acting a bit prideful, are the times that precede me figuratively tripping, stumbling, or doing a complete “face plant”.  As soon as I choose to start draping myself with the yellows and oranges of boastful thinking or the red and purple thoughts of self adulation, I no sooner find myself doing or saying something that strips that all away and humbly exposes me for what I truly am.  Pride sets us up for a fall.  Actually, all of our sin originates from PRIDE.  Sin is us proudly telling God “I am choosing to do my will over Your Will”.  Sin is us foolishly adorning ourselves in the temporal colors of pride.  And just like the trees in the Fall season, eventually something happens, perhaps the intervening breeze of God’s gentle admonishment, that strips all of that away.

And what are we left with after that happens?  Nothing but our bareness, and nothing to show for it but a pile of rotting brown.  And let’s face it, just like homeowners, none of us want to deal with those piles.  But we must because if we don’t, they will smoother out other things within ourselves or others around us.  Sure, some of us will try to blow those piles into our neighbor’s yard by making excuses, blaming others, or justifying our sins.  But the only thing that works is for us to get out there, clean up those piles by reconciling ourselves to God.  It’s not an easy thing to do and requires us to honestly look at ourselves with humility.  Sometimes we choose to avoid doing these necessary cleanups by spending more time looking at all the leaf litter on our neighbor’s lawn in the hopes that it will make our own yard appear not so bad.  Or worst yet, we simply lower our standards by listening to popular culture which tells us those brown piles of decay really aren’t brown piles of decay and that we should conform to what everyone else is doing.  But a pile of brown decay is still a pile of brown decay (see Romans 6:23) regardless of what the world tells us.

So those are my musings for now.  Hopefully this is something we can all reflect on as we enjoy the Fall colors and spend time raking up the brown leaves.  It’s time for me to get out the leaf blower while my neighbor isn’t looking…. (just kidding!).

Something strange happened today (1 November 2015), a.k.a. “All Saints Day”.  Actually it started yesterday, intensified today, and has culminated in this steady flow of electrons shooting across your computer screen, hopefully pixelating it with a purpose.

So what is with the ‘Someday Saint’ moniker?  I’m glad you asked. (If you didn’t ask, I’m pretending in my mind that you have and there’s nothing you can do about it).  Anyways, I’m a Roman Catholic Christian.  I believe that everyone exists for a purpose, actually many purposes, one of which is to eventually make it to Heaven to be with God.  Those that do this, or who have already done this, are referred to as “saints” (not angels).

This concept of becoming a saint someday was first introduced to me when I heard a priest ask a group that I was in “Who plans on being a saint someday?” Not many, if any hands were raised in the affirmative to that question, including mine.  I surely did not think of myself as “saint” material.  A ‘saint’ was someone who lived a long time ago, devoted themselves to non-stop prayer, lived simple monastic lives of servitude, and apparently had as part of their wardrobe, some sort of halo.  Even my fanciful imagination could not generate any future scenarios in which the Church celebrated in its calendar a day for me.  It wasn’t until the priest explained to the group that a saint is someone who has made it to heaven. Once he had presented that definition, a second asking of his question was greeted with a much more positive and enthusiastic response!

That simple, but pivotal experience left a lasting impression on me.  I started to look at myself with that simple, but challenging goal…becoming a saint someday.  A saint someday…a Someday Saint.

I think I’ll end my first blog post here:

My name is Mark.

Why this blog?

Because we are all called to be saints…someday.

And with that in mind, I hope you’ll find something here

which will help you in your journey towards sainthood.