The love of bare November days...

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days - Robert Frost

On Monday morning I fly to Charlotte, NC to spend some time with my aunt and uncle and my cousin and his wife for Thanksgiving. I'll be back in time for the Solemnity of Christ the King, signaling the close of the Year of Grace 2007.

I'll have plenty of time for blogging while in Charlotte but I'm not sure if I'll be dealing with a dial-up connection or not. Maybe I'll find a local Starbuck's with WiFi! Anyway: if my posting is lighter than usual - you'll know why.

I was at a meeting at Chancery on Friday, a gathering of pastors invited to given their input on why, in addition to the obvious answers, Catholic folks are not beating down the church doors to share in Sunday Eucharist. It was a good meeting with an exchange of ideas on "best practices." Cardinal O'Malley was part of the discussion for an hour and a half and the dialogue was frank and open. One priest invited to participate couldn't make the meeting but sent a lengthy letter with the contribution he wanted to make. Among many good points, Fr. Paul wrote, "We are a Thanksgiving people - who live in a culture of entitlement..."

I saw at least a half-dozen pastors sit up and take notice and I knew what they were thinking: "There's the opening line of my homily for Thanksgiving Day." In conversation after the meeting, my suspicion was confirmed!

Unfortunately, I'll not have an opportunity to preach on Thursday but I was part of our town's interfaith Thanksgiving service this (Sunday) evening and I incorporated that sentiment into the "pastoral prayer" I'd been asked to offer.

Paul's statement is a good summary of what we must face on Thanksgiving Day if we are to be honest with ourselves, our culture and the day's feast. We are a Eucharistic people and by virtue of that alone we are a "thanksgiving people." Still, that's who we are in broader culture that expects, demands, takes for granted, devalues and disrespects much of what we have, forgetting that ALL that we have is the pure and free gift, grace and mercy of God upon us.

Perhaps our prayer this Thursday is for God to scoop us out like a pumpkin for a pie or a squash for cooking that our hearts, so easily filled to overflowing with stuff we don't need, might be emptied for filling with what we truly need and with what our neighbors need us to share. There's a theological word for this: κένωσις (pronounced: kénōsis) and meaning an "emptying" as Christ emptied himself in taking on our humanity.

Ah, the irony: we celebrate the kenosis of Thanksgiving (Eucharist) by stuffing ourselves full with good!

As we enter Thanksgiving week, some anticipate the feast with great joy. Others dread it because it brings close to the vulnerable surface the grief, the hurts, the loss that haunt the human heart. So, I offer this Robert Frost poem. Some may not understand it while others will understand it so very well...

My November Guest

My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.