A few weeks ago, in the parish’s R.C.I.A. programme (Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults), one of the candidates for baptism spoke of the challenge of dealing with people who might find inconsistencies with some of the things that are said in the Bible. I am sure we have all encountered people like this. At work, we might meet someone who will ask if we really believe that the world was created in seven days. When we explain that we do not take the story literally, and that with God one day could be a billion years, they may try and find some other inconsistency with our behavior, or the Church, that would allow them to reject the faith. It is also not uncommon for teenagers to try and find ways of rejecting the faith that their parents try to hand on to them. A teenager might also decide that since his or her parents are not living the faith to the exact letter, he or she can reject it as not worth following. This kind of rejection of Christ also happens when people feel that the weak humanity of a Christian leader is reason to reject God. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving is a North American holiday. If I remember my school lessons correctly, it derives from the experience of the first European settlers here in North America and their experience of their first few years here on this continent. The way we were taught about this holiday when I was in elementary school recalled how difficult these first Europeans found the bitter winter to survive on their own and how unprepared they were to make it through this difficult climate. They were so unprepared for the conditions they found on this continent that it was only with the help of the Indigenous People, who knew the land and the ways of growing here, that they were able to make it through those initial days. Once they had learned to grow crops in this territory and figure out how to survive the conditions on this continent, they were so grateful that they began to have a special feast called “Thanksgiving” at the end of the growing season to celebrate the goods of this land and the great opportunities that they had discovered here. From my school days, I recall a part of those initial Thanksgiving celebrations involved celebrations with the Indigenous People who had helped these first settlers to make their lives possible here. That is why so many of our celebrations still highlight the many vegetables and local products that were handed over to the Europeans by the Indigenous People to help them survive. Continue reading →