Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, is encouraging the faithful to enjoy the feasting and fellowship of the Thanksgiving holiday with gratitude, generosity, and praise for God, keeping in mind the call to eternal life with Him.
“November is a month for gratitude, the time of harvest and remembrance of the dead. In the United States, Thanksgiving Day calls us to pause, gather as families, and thank God for his many blessings,” he wrote.
Earlier in the month Catholics celebrate the fall harvest and its new wine on Martinmas Day, in honor of St. Martin of Tours, whose feast is Nov. 11, the bishop explained.
“Giving thanks is at the heart of our faith through the Eucharist, our perfect sacrifice of Jesus’s Body and Blood to the Father,” he wrote. “Bread and wine, the fruit of the earth, are drawn into the infinite gift of Christ’s own sacrificial love that gives life to the world. This is how we should understand the harvest—not simply a matter of grain but of love. Ultimately, we are God’s harvest, for he has cultivated us.”
As St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “You are God’s field,” Bishop Conley pointed out. He explained that the saint taught this “because God wants us to bear abundant fruit in love.”
“God is a communion of persons, and he made us for everlasting union with him,” Bishop Conley continued. “He created human love to participate in his own, to be drawn into the great expanse of his divine charity. To prepare for this, he calls us to love and serve others, building up the communion of charity in our families and the Church throughout the world.”
Bishop Conley’s Nov. 14 reflection published on the Southern Nebraska Register is a part of his year-long humanities syllabus initiative, in which he recommends and offers insights on different works of art, literature, and media. In this column he reflected on Alessandro Manzoni’s book “The Betrothed,” the 1987 film “Babette’s Feast,” Mozart’s piece “The Marriage of Figaro,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline,” and Diego Velázquez’s painting “Christ in the House of Mary and Martha.”
These selections “draw out the power of charity in crowning human love, drawing us through trials to the enduring peace that comes only from God,” he explained. Forgiveness, mercy, and being called to holiness by God are central themes mentioned in the bishop’s assessment of this month’s literature and art.
“As we feast and give thanks to God, we must remember that our eating, drinking, and celebrating should extend our prayer, becoming a means of praise,” he wrote in the column’s conclusion. “Our selections this month focus on how trials can be overcome through patient endurance, often helped by simple things like meals and personal encounters.
“As we celebrate the harvest in the autumn, it’s a time to remember and give thanks for the harvest of love we experience in our family and relationships. God is the one who provides us with every blessing in abundance, so that we can be generous with others, expressing the great harvest of life he desires to reap within us.”
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