What do the dramatic prophecies of the readings mean for us on a national day of thanksgiving – of feasting in a prosperous nation? In homes around the country today, even though the gatherings may be smaller, there are people who will engage in the usual exercise of stating that for which they are particularly grateful this year. Of course, there is much to be grateful for – health, faith, family and friends, and the blessings of living in a free country. All these things are ours even as we live through a pandemic. We thank God for these things! At the same time we all have to admit that many of these things are accidents of our birth. We have been born into these families in a free country with a health care system that has lengthened our lives.
At the same time, our readings teach us that God promises us more than these simply earthly blessings. God promises us eternal life, where truth and beauty and goodness will reign supreme. God invites us to this feast. In fact the one thing that may escape many peoples’ minds when expressing gratitude is the blessing of the person of God. It is God who is the source of all our blessings whom we could place at the top of our list of gifts for which we are most grateful.
The Book of Revelation tells of the destruction of Babylon, a symbolic figure that stands for human power. At the time this was written, Rome was considered that Babylon. However we all know that God’s power was greater than the political power of the Empire.
The Gospel tells of the destruction of Jerusalem, another symbolic figure of a different kind of power. Though its citizens thought of it as God’s Holy City, it had become an agent of discrimination, excluding the people who did not worship as they worshipped or believed as they believed. While God had chosen to live among them, when God visited them in the person of Jesus, he was put to death on a hill outside that city.
We describe God using all of the adjectives of our language which indicate that God is greater than our limited human imaginations. Consequently, we also cannot fathom what God has in store for us. We describe the happiness of heaven by describing the happiness of our human existence, by thinking once again of the blessings for which we are grateful – family, friends, food and health. Sometimes we refer to heaven by listing the things that we will not experience – no more tears, no more fear, no more pain, no more suffering.
The Scriptures for today ask us to go beyond our human imaginations and recognize that God is the one thing for which we are eternally grateful. The reading from the Book of Revelation ends with an invitation to attend God’s banquet. The Gospel ends with the admonition to stand erect and raise our heads because our redemption will be at hand. God is the source of our happiness and will be the fulfillment of that happiness when we meet face to face.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator