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May 28, 2023: Keeping God in the Picture
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A friend of mine recently told me her priest recently said, “I don’t like any secular holidays.” I believe he said this to stand up for the richness and greatness of all religious holidays, such as the Ascension of Jesus, Pentecost, and the upcoming feasts of the Most Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi, just to name a few. I thought the statement rather odd, if it was reported to yours truly with accuracy. I understand that some things we priests say will be off the wall at times, without question. My own ears have been tuned in to such sayings over past years when away on vacation, or sitting comfortably in another Church as a concelebrant, causing me to look up and think, “Did he really just say that?” We priests – most of us – received an A+ in our seminary class titled Put Your Foot In Your Mouth, 101. Few future priests fail this class. I was not one of the few who failed to fail.
At times I wonder if a priest will say something off the wall just to get a reaction, or, to see if the folks out in the pews are actually listening. I’m happy to say I have not taken my homilies to this point after 17 years of priesthood. However, there are times I can see the eyes of a person seemingly planting themselves on another planet, daydreaming about what’s going on after they walk out the door of God’s house, and then intentionally raising my voice a notch or two, just to see if they will come back to earth. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If it doesn’t work, I just think, “Let them enjoy their happy space.”
But no question, I don’t need to inform you that priests are strange ducks at times. I’m sure you four or five people who read this column have your own story connected to the topic of off the wall comments priests have spoken either during Mass or elsewhere. Saying “I don’t like secular holidays” could rank up there as one of the better ones. For example, when we consider what we as a nation celebrate this Monday, Memorial Day, we consider not only going to the Cape, Maine, New Hampshire, or south of the border to little, tiny Rhode Island, or even consider the “unofficial start to summer.” We consider also the loved ones who have gone before us to see the face of God, hopefully marked with the sign of faith. That’s the good, holy mark the writer of the Book of Revelation says we need in order to get past St. Peter and his Pearly Gates. The mark, of course, is not literally found on our foreheads, as some certain believers may imagine. We think of the mark we receive on Ash Wednesday every year at the start of Lent, marking us out as creatures who will die one day soon. This visible mark is also a good, holy mark, but not one that plants us in the mansion of God’s house. It’s extremely helpful, for sure, reminding ourselves that we depend upon the Lord Jesus, his mercy, and all he did for us to arrive safely home one day. But the mark referred to in the Book of Revelation is the good, holy, indelible mark of Baptism planted on the human soul that can never be taken away: “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” These are not off the wall words of Fr. Riley or any priest; they are the words of Jesus, which makes them “on the wall.”
Memorial Day is one of several secular holidays that represent the better side of our nation and humanity. For our country to officially set aside a national day of remembrance for our loved ones who have died, a day that began after the Civil War, was, shall we say, a very good idea. It reconciles with the will of God. And, Memorial Day was initiated when reconciling with the will of God was paramount in the hearts and minds of Americans, predominantly. This secular holiday was inaugurated by Civil War veterans who had the deepest yearning to remember the soldiers they tagged along with for four long years, fighting battles for freedom, for a united nation, for the extinction of slavery, for what represents the good in how God has created us. Civil War veterans took the initiative to bring forth Memorial Day when they saw their comrades dying off by the hundreds and thousands each year after the terrible fighting of battles was over, at least in one real way, after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. To remember their friends and comrades was off the charts important to them, having read some of their spoken and written words given at the graves of fellow soldiers, words that reveal the most loving concern about the lives of other veterans. As we know, this bond of service remains strong to this day.
Even though Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day for decorating the graves of deceased soldiers, was originally set aside as a day to remember the lives of Civil War veterans, this secular holiday has evolved into a day of remembering all our loved ones, while maintaining a primary recollection for those who kept our nation together when permanent division was steering the United States in the eyes, having literally become two countries. The word “United” in United States was not true for four years. As God will do with much of the bad, evil, and violence we can perpetrate against one another, the Lord will bring forth from it some good. This, of course, is a sign of God’s power, grace, and mercy, and not giving up on the human project. No credit such belongs to us. We create the mess in our free will; God brings forth a new day of hope from the mess. Part of the new day of hope from a Civil War that took the lives of approximately 750,000 American soldiers (a new, updated number that used to be 660,000) is what we now know as Memorial Day. We could have established a memorial day for veterans and all people without four years of fighting a Civil War. But history shows that this is what it took for the present secular holiday to come about.
When we think of Memorial Day and all that this day means, at the heart of it are to be found the deepest religious overtones. Political correctness alongside the present absolute, total, wayward, incorrect, and dangerous misunderstanding of the separation of Church and State we see today, these public elements – or public enemies - were very far off in the future. I wish they still were. Our nation would be a thousand times better without the godlessness that has taken hold of too many sectors of the 50 states. Civil War veterans did not think such thoughts of offending someone if God was at the heart of their plans. Correctly, they would have considered such a thought as foreign to the central purposes of our nation; One nation under God; endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”
Sadly, the godless in America in need of our prayers – which we all need - have done a hack job on the sacred words that recognize this nation as one founded and established by the will of God. Yes, even with all America’s past and present social sins, most notably slavery and abortion, this nation has been established by the will of God for good purpose, in my humble opinion. Civil War veterans who established Decoration/Memorial Day understood the Power behind the idea of remembering their fellow veterans. And the Power was/is God. Maybe I can write something off the wall as a priest at this point? Anyone who is offended by God, although we are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbor, which we are to do, but not love all things about them, those offended by the use of the word “God” need to lighten their loads. This nation was founded for use of God’s name in all places, both in the public square and in private conversation.
Anyway, despite the short ranting against secular holidays by a priest whom my friend knows, there are a few secular holidays that we as a God-fearing people see as much more than a three- or four-day weekend. They are loved and accepted as days that reconcile well with our Catholic faith. Besides Memorial Day and the remembrance of our loved ones whom we pray have gone home to God and eternal rest, we also are blessed with Thanksgiving Day, a day of giving thanks to God for the many blessings bestowed upon us. This day too, like Memorial Day, has deep roots in the Civil War, as Abraham Lincoln was the first President to declare Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. Lincoln’s thoughts were centered in God. The 16th President was not looking for a nation of millions to thank themselves in any way. His thinking and actions were to give thanks to God for battlefield victories that eventually would lead to a nation of firm purpose and amendment to remain as one, holding together the experiment of self-government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Honest Abe understood what was at stake at the time, eventually becoming a martyr on the altar of democracy. But Thanksgiving Day in America has been a longstanding day with religious overtones attached to it, rightfully so.
As we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost in the Church this Sunday, a celebration with spiritual and physical ramifications far beyond any secular holiday, we still do well to embrace the purpose and meaning of days like Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and one or two others. They were established by God-fearing men and women with the presence of God at the heart of such reminders and celebrations. Now, it’s our job to keep God in the picture.