“Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” (Luke 17:18)

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 winters 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 →

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).

During Holy Week, you and I hear two different versions of the Passion of Christ. On Palm Sunday, the Passion is read from one of the Synoptic Gospels—either Matthew, Mark or Luke. In these versions, Christ’s death on the cross is always seen as something shameful and all of the apostles run away. It is this version that is the source of the tradition in the Latin Church of covering the Cross on Good Friday. On Good Friday, we always read the Passion from the Gospel of John and the emphasis in this Gospel is very different from the Synoptic Gospels. In John’s Gospel, the Cross is presented as the throne on which Jesus saved the world. Throughout the Passion narrative in John, Jesus is in charge and is freely giving himself to save humanity. The big difference from these Gospels is that John stayed at the Cross to see Jesus save humanity through His gift of self. It was because John saw Christ save humanity on the Cross that he writes: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of God be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”  In the Eastern Churches, because they follow more closely the tradition expressed in the Gospel of John, on Good Friday they do not cover the cross, but adore it with flowers. Continue reading →