What I said at the prayer service yesterday:

 

Yesterday I asked my students what came to mind when they thought of Thanksgiving. The answer at first was:

Mashed potatoes

Family

Stuffing

In that order.

Then after a few seconds of thought, one of my students said, Thanksgiving is based on a lie. We’re celebrating a story that didn’t happen the way we wish it did with the Pilgrims and the Indians. We all know how it really turned out for the Indians and it wasn’t good.

And I thought

DANG

My little brother is conscious.

Which is why I am grateful for your whole generation.

Because if it was you back then it would have turned out a better way for everybody.

You are the information generation.

In other words

You value the truth.

And that can only be good for our future.

Because the TRUTH of the old-fashioned picture of the Pilgrims and Indians celebrating the first Thanksgiving, that is, the kindness and generosity and the gift of life handed from one group of people to another, is something we should be celebrating. We crave kindness. We crave human connection and love and mashed potatoes, family and stuffing.

In Luke 6, Jesus said,

But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Take a deep breath.

We celebrate Thanksgiving because we are already so grateful. We desire the kindness and generosity the holiday represents, regardless of how we’ve fallen short in the past. Every moment is a new opportunity to seek truth, to act with kindness, and to behave with the grace and mercy Jesus has called on us to share.

So now let’s bow our heads and pray:

At CBHS we talk in lots of acronyms

That is, words made up of letters standing in for other words

We have CB, FCP, AP, CP, CBHS

Maybe this is God just trying to talk to us in code.

Because I see that CBHS stands for Christian Brothers High School

But I also see

Students who are

CARING AND BEAUTIFUL

COURAGEOUS AND BRAVEHEARTED

CREATIVE AND BRILLIANT

COOL AND BRAINY

ALL THEY CAN BE

COULD BE

THROUGH HS

HOLY SPIRIT

 

I SEE IN CP THAT WE ARE CELEBRATION PEOPLE

AP? ALL POSSIBILITIES, YEAH AND I HAVE ANOTHER CORRECTION

GIVE ME FCP I’LL GIVE YOU FUNDAMENTALLY CREATED IN PERFECTION

 

Because we are the FALCONS

FRIENDS ALL LOOKING CONSCIOUSLY ON NEW SOCIETY

And we are the BROTHERS

BELIEVERS REJOICING OVER THE HOLY ETERNAL RENEWING SPIRIT

 

And we have GRATITUDE because GRATITUDE is NOT

GRABBING REVENUE AND TORMENT IN THE USUAL DEVILISH EVERYDAY.

GRATITUDE is NOT

GOD REFUSAL AND TEXTING INSTEAD OF TALKING UNTILL DESTRUCTION EVERY WAY

Gratitude is

GOD REMINDS ALL: TURN INWARD THE UNCHAINED DEFEAT EVIL.

So join hands around the table and see God in each other

Put down the cell phone and say thank you to your mother

Be good to the little ones and the old ones and aunt Mabel

And be nice about the fact you still got to sit at the kid table.

Because we know that the story of love is only a lie if we make it so.

We’ve got the power of the promise and the Gospel lets us know

Let us remember we are in the holy presence of GOD

GREAT ORIGINATOR DIVINE

Holding us in the TRUTH that is yours and mine.

 

Thank you. Thank God for you. Happy Thanksgiving.