From the Pastor's Desk | November 19, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week, we will gather with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. Personally, I am thankful to be here with all of you! The last five months have been a whirlwind for sure, but they have truly been a blessing. I am blessed to be the pastor of St. Martha Parish and School which has proven to be an amazing community of faith, and I am so excited to see what the future holds for us!

At the same time, Thanksgiving of 2023 will be bittersweet. As many of you know, my father passed away in December of last year. Thanksgiving has always been our holiday - the holiday where, each year, the extended family has gathered together to celebrate and be thankful. I miss my dad. Below is an excerpt from his funeral homily that I preached last January: 

There is a lot I could say about my father. But, what I want to do this morning is talk about three themes, or three trajectories, if you will, of my father’s life and then tie them to what it is we come to do today as we pray for my father – that is to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The first theme is Thanksgiving. The family knows that Thanksgiving has always been our holiday. Thanksgiving was the day that we would always gather as a family, whether it be at Uncle Martin and Aunt Judy’s or at our house. Without fail, we gathered on Thanksgiving. I can hear the noise; I can see the chaos; I can smell the food. Ben, you know mom’s cookies well. Everyone knew the Lions were going to lose, but we watched anyway. We would spend a lot of time playing outside or playing euchre at lots of card tables. I miss those days. And, so did dad. He loved Thanksgiving, and he loved having everyone together. He loved the noise. He loved the chaos. He loved the food (turkey, not so much). Most of all, he loved the family. 

My dad didn’t share it often, but you knew that he was thankful. In fact, we were blessed this last Thanksgiving to be together as a family again. Though we couldn’t gather as extensively as we used to since mom and dad moved to Florida, Shane, Stephanie, and I traveled to Florida together to be with mom and dad. Because of dad’s health, he couldn’t play golf. He was frail, and he struggled to breathe. But that didn’t matter. Why? Because we were together as a family. There was less noise, less chaos, but the food was still there. Dad still wouldn’t eat the turkey. And, get this, the Lions lost. Dad stayed up much later than normal for four days in a row talking and playing euchre.

It hit me this last Thanksgiving just how thankful my father was when he said, “I love the laughter.” What I heard him say in those four words was, “I am thankful for my family; I’m thankful we’re together again on Thanksgiving.” 

We gather this morning at the altar. Much like each Thanksgiving, we will share a meal together. Not just any meal, however. We will share the Eucharist. It is fitting that the word Eucharist – Eucharistia in Greek – literally means thanksgiving. We gather this morning to share a thanksgiving meal not just to remember and give thanks for my father, but even more importantly, to give thanks to our heavenly Father for the gift of His son – His son who suffered and died so that my dad, and all of us, might have eternal life.

Together, you and I will share something more than a common meal. We will share communion – the Eucharist – which not only unites us to the Trinity, but also to one another as the Body of Christ with Christ as our Head. The Mass is thanksgiving par excellence. And we are privileged to have the gift that the Eucharist is – Christ sacramentally present for you and I. Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift – however precious – among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work.” The gift of his saving work. That is why we gather this morning to celebrate Mass, because it is the re-presentation of Christ’s saving work, without which none of us would have any hope. And, for that, we should offer nothing but thanksgiving.

I pray that each of you has a blessed Thanksgiving this week! More importantly, I pray that each of you is incredibly thankful for the many blessings bestowed upon you and most especially for the gift of the Mass, the gift of the Eucharist. 

A Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Fr. Ryan