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» In Light of Faith
 
Sunday of Christ the King, Cycle C, November 25, 2007
by Richard Linneberger
Can you imagine what our world would look like if there was no poverty?
Or what would it seem like if those held captive by mental illness or a debilitating physical disease were cured?
How would things be different if the blindness of hatred and prejudice were no longer present in our cities?
How different would our world be if the oppressed in many nations were set free — they could find meaningful employment or worship freely? What a vision!
In today’s Gospel we hear one of the criminals crucified with Jesus say, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus’s response is “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The ultimate realization of the “kingdom” is the eternal Paradise. There Jesus “will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces.” (Isaiah 25:8)
That is the kingdom we long for as we reflect on the end of days — this time in the lectionary and liturgical year when we are called to reflect on the end of time.
However, there is also another sense of the “kingdom.” On the weekend of January 21, 2007, we heard about the inauguration of the new kingdom. As we began the readings from Luke for this Cycle C year, Jesus proclaimed:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord … Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Lk 4:18–19, 21)
A new kingdom was proclaimed! A new kingdom was initiated. Jesus began a new kingdom — a new way of life, a new way of living. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Last January we heard Jesus proclaim the new kingdom. When we heard the Gospel last January, we joined our journey of becoming part of that new kingdom. When we were baptized and confirmed, we began our journey of becoming part of that new kingdom.
Each week at the Eucharist, we are fed for the journey of becoming part of that new kingdom. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Now almost one year later, our Cycle C readings from Luke come to a close and questions remain: How have I journeyed to become part of a new kingdom? What have I done with the grace of God to make the kingdom a reality in those with whom I have come in contact?
As we celebrate this feast of Christ the King, we ask: How have I brought glad tidings to the poor? How have I proclaimed liberty to captives? How have I proclaimed recovery of sight to the blind? How have I helped the oppressed go free?
Then together we can say: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
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Thanksgiving is favorite family holiday
by Mary Hood Hart
Our oldest child, Katie, was always the most enthusiastic of the four when it came to Christmas. Her excitement was palpable.
We have memories of her coming into our bedroom every hour on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, unable to sleep because she was so eager to open presents.
One Christmas, when her brother was still an infant and too young to be affected, exhausted from late-night Santa preparations, we gave in and allowed her, then 4, to open presents at 3:00 a.m. She played for a while; then we all went back to bed.
Remembering her childhood enthusiasm for Christmases past, when talking with Katie, now 24, on the phone recently, I was surprised to hear her say that Thanksgiving has become her favorite holiday.
For a few years now, our son Jimmy, 21, has proclaimed Thanksgiving his favorite, too.
Thanksgiving has certainly become more meaningful to me since my children have grown. The opportunities for us all to gather around the table continue to diminish, now that three of them are living elsewhere most of the year.
It’s human nature to appreciate more that which becomes scarce.
Not only do I love the time we have together, though it’s always too short, but I love the anticipation of their coming. Even cleaning the house becomes appealing (and that’s saying a lot) when I do it with the children’s homecoming in mind. Everything from grocery shopping to polishing the silver is cast in a new light.
Katie and Charlie are close enough to drive home the Wednesday preceding, while Jimmy will arrive by plane. I love picking him up from the airport, amidst the excitement of all the arrivals. I love watching family members standing at the gate waiting to greet their loved ones with smiles and hugs.
I love, too, the moment Katie and Charlie drive into the driveway, when Jim, Anna, and I rush to greet them and help them carry in their bags.
Katie told me she is bringing a bottle of wine and a special hors d’oeuvre for the Thanksgiving meal. This is a new experience, having a child contribute to the festivities with offerings of food and wine.
Jimmy and Charlie, both still in college, are at the stage that, after enduring a surfeit of institutional fare and hungry for home-cooking, they arrive empty-handed, eager to consume mountains of their favorite foods.
Not only is Thanksgiving more eagerly anticipated, since we are now reuniting as a family, but my list of what I’m thankful for has also changed.
When they were small, I was thankful for little things — their silky hair, cuddling with them on the sofa with a pile of good books, a silly comment, a bedraggled wildflower hand-picked for me. I was thankful also for the grander blessings — our good health, our comfortable home.
Now, the gratitude I feel for my children is reflected in less sentimental but equally tangible ways — a humorous remark, a stimulating conversation about a book, theology, or current event, an anecdote about their experiences in college and work, doing a crossword puzzle with Katie who’s as fond of them as I am.
On a grander scale, I am still grateful for good health and our material blessings, but I am most grateful, perhaps, for the pleasure they take in one another’s company, and for the ways they have matured in character, intellect, grace, and love.
I know that one Thanksgiving before I know it — perhaps even next year — we will not all be sitting around the dinner table. But this year, because we are, my heart is full.
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 A Grateful Heart
by Barbara Hughes
This Thursday on Thanksgiving, Americans will gather around dinner tables, bow their heads and remember to give thanks.
It’s an annual ritual and one of the few holidays that crosses the religious divide. For 24 hours Americans publicly acknowledge the abundant generosity of God without apology or fear of offending non-believers.
It’s a national holiday on which separation of church and state and political correctness become non-issues.
It brings to mind the words of the well known Benedictine monk, David Steindl-Rast who said, “Gratefulness is the perfect prayer.”
When I first heard this, I thought he was referring to the Eucharist which is Greek for thanksgiving, but instead he was speaking of thanksgiving from the perspective of human psychology.
Brother Steindl-Rast said that a grateful heart is a happy heart and that thanksgiving is an intrinsic form of all prayer, even intercessory prayer and the prayer of compunction. According to the monk, prayer of petition is anticipated thanksgiving. We wouldn’t ask if we didn’t believe that we would receive, even though our believing may be imperfect.
We wouldn’t seek God or ask for his help, if we hadn’t already found him. Similarly, we wouldn’t be inclined to pray if the desire to pray hadn’t already been placed in our hearts.
Every prayer is a response to God’s initiative and to act on that response is a form of gratitude. We accept his gift and we use it when we pray, regardless of the form it takes.
Recall the last time you received a gift that you really needed. Chances are you took it joyfully, expressed your gratitude and put it to use. A gift displayed, an article of clothing worn when the giver is around continues to say thank you long after words of appreciation are uttered.
A similar understanding can be applied to the prayer of contrition. We wouldn’t cry out to God for mercy if He hadn’t already promised that He would always be with us.
God’s covenant, which was realized through the death and resurrection of Jesus, bridged the divide between humanity and divinity for all time. And so, we know that mercy is already ours. Asking for it is simply another way of saying “thank you” to God for the gift of forgiveness. In essence we are using the gift that has been given to us.
We are acknowledging the mercy that God lavishes on us without condition. We gratefully accept a love which is so abundant that we can never fully appreciate it. When we petition God from the depths of our hearts, we do so out of gratitude for we know that God hears the cry of the poor.
Knowing this helps us remember that the only posture we can rightly assume before God is one of complete and total gratitude.
Every thought, every word raised to God is the response of a grateful heart. And so like Mary, we can say, “the Lord has done great things for me” and we can proclaim with Zechariah, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.”
We acknowledge that we are healed even as sorrow is transformed into gratitude.
Gratitude is a sign of good mental health. A friend of mine who is a psychologist once told me that she knew clients were truly healed when gratitude was present. Grateful people are happy people for they see everything as blessing.
When we recognize God’s presence in every moment, even during times of trial, we are able to bless the occasion. In the Jewish tradition, burying a loved one is declared a blessing because it serves as an occasion to meet sorrow face to face. Yes, even suffering is a blessing as we learn in the Book of Job.
Giving thanks is the sign that a heart has been healed. But healing is a life-long process and comes in stages.
Yet, God continues to be patient with us. Each day we are invited to see God’s presence in our life and give thanks. When we do so, we are healed - one wound at a time.
The problem comes when we begin to take God’s love and generosity for granted. And so we ask: do I pray only when storm clouds gather or seek forgiveness only after I’ve been humbled? Or do I remember that God is always there?
God’s gifts are infinite but, more often than not, they come wrapped in the plain brown paper of every day life. Some gifts get tossed aside, unopened and forgotten. The way I see it, Thanksgiving Day is a good time to take inventory of the gifts we’ve been given, the wrapped and the unwrapped. I suspect that when we do we will discover that Thanksgiving is about more than food, festivities and football.
It’s even about more than sharing with those who have less or reaching out to those who are alone.
Thanksgiving is about grateful hearts saying, “Thank you” to God and then displaying his gifts for all the world to see. For gratefulness, truly, is a perfect prayer.
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Copyright © 2006 The Catholic Virginian Press. Articles from Catholic News Services, including Fr. Dietzen’s column, may not be reproduced here due to copyright considerations.
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