Veterans Day

This coming Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  It is a day when we as Americans give thanks for all the blessings we have.  Compared to most other nations of the world, we are truly blessed in so many ways.  One of the greatest gifts we have is the gift of freedom.  With freedom comes the responsibility of making reasonable and good choices that will benefit ourselves as well as others.  Coupled with our faith we have an ideal situation.

In the preface of the Mass that we will celebrate on Thanksgiving we hear: "He (Jesus) spoke to us a message of peace and taught us to live as brothers and sisters.  His message took form in the vision of our fathers as they fashioned a nation where all people might live as one.  This message lives on in our midst as a task for us today and a promise for tomorrow."  In this prayer we praise and thank God for what we have in our nation and at the same time commit ourselves to what still needs to be done that all people might live as one.  Unity is something we pray for at every Mass we celebrate.  In the eucharistic prayers we hear: "Grant that we who are nourished by his body and blood, may be filled with his Holy Spirit, and become one body, one spirit in Christ."  "Father, look with love on those you have called to share in the one sacrifice of Christ.  By the power of your Holy Spirit make us one body healed of all division."  If we expect these prayers to be answered we must be involved and be sincere in our efforts to live the unity Jesus came to bring.  It is how we treat one another, how we welcome one another, and the attitude we have toward one another that shows how seriously we take these words of prayer at Mass. 

Recently I spoke with a black family who told me of how they are made to feel not welcome in our parish.  The woman said that at the sign of peace there are people who refuse to shake her hand.  That is terrible and a contradiction of the unity we celebrate at Mass as well as working against what Jesus came to do.  Still, people call the rectory asking for a non-foreign priest or a "priest who speaks English."  Again, what an insult.  To me that says that at times we see ourselves as consumers, not believers.  I make a donation to the church for a wedding, funeral or baptism and I will tell you what I want for my money.  That is not what we are about.  We are blessed with the foreign priests who leave their homeland and families to serve us as the church.  Because of them we are able to offer all the services we have.  Without them we would not have everything we have now.  In my last parish I was the only priest,  so I told the people there would no Mass on Thursdays so I could go home to my family for the day.  We all need a rest.

What is particularly disturbing is the prejudice that is still alive and well in our church.  How can we refuse to shake the hand of a fellow believer?  Jesus came to make us one.  When we turn our backs on our brothers and sisters in Christ we exclude ourselves from his family.  The line I read recently from Ronald Rolheiser’s book keeps reverberating in my mind:  "Everyone is invited to the kingdom who is ready to sit down with everyone else."  Until we are willing to welcome all people into our midst we are not ready for the kingdom.  We are not really part of the kingdom.  We are just going through the motions. 

Statistics show that the Smithtown area is more than 95% white.  That makes it so easy to think that only those who are like us in skin color or the way we speak English are acceptable or welcome.  Jesus and his Mother Mary were not the lily white Europeans that so many artists have depicted in their paintings.  They were probably darker skinned Semites from the Middle East where they lived.  But we are so accepted and loved by him that he gave his life on the cross for us and all people.  This Thanksgiving let our words of prayer inspire and enliven us to live the unity we have as Americans and even more as the followers of Jesus.  May we welcome and love all those God has entrusted to our presence and company.

Father Walden