No Mashed Potatoes

Homily for Thanksgiving Day 2008
This year, my family made a major decision that could forever change the landscape of our Thanksgiving Day table – we dropped mashed potatoes off the menu. Now, this decision was not an easy one to make – it actually took several years for everyone to agree that we simply had too many side dishes for one meal. And then, once we acknowledged the overabundance of side dishes, it was even more difficult to decide which one we could give up. And it was only after much discussion and bargaining that the mashed potatoes were chosen as the one side that we could do without – at least for this year. Maybe it’s just a sign of the general trend of our entire country right now – the need to cut back and make do with less. Or it could be part of a general realization that, just because we can have something, that doesn’t mean we have to have it. Or maybe I’m just thinking too much about what a mashed-potato-free Thanksgiving meal will be like.

Of course, we know that Thanksgiving Day is not really about the food. Today is a day to count our blessings, to remember the rich abundance that God has showered on us, and to direct our minds away from our own needs and desires and look instead toward God, the source of all our gifts. Today is a day to spend time with those we love – the family and friends who help to give our lives joy and meaning. And today is a day to remember others – to remember those who were with us for this holiday in past years, but who are separated from us now; but also to remember those in our community and in our world whose blessings are fewer in number than our own.

In the whole scheme of things, the meal is really secondary. This day would certainly have just as much meaning for us if there were no turkey or cranberry relish in sight, and it is part of our fallen human nature and our longing to be satisfied that we spend so much time and effort on the food. To give thanks in all things, as St. Paul calls us to do in his letter to the Colossians; to give thanks in all things does not have to happen around a dinner table, or even in the company of family and friends. To give thanks in all things is a way of life, a way of making decisions, no matter what the external realities of our lives bring us. To be able to know how to live in abundance and also to live in humble circumstances, to thank God in all things through our words and our actions, that is what it means to be a Christian. But the real blessing of this day is that an entire country of people – all 305 million of us – can put aside our differences and our anxieties, our fears and our dreams, to do one thing: give thanks. The real blessing of this day is that, when you strip away all the externals, we can all agree what it is really about. Today is a day to give thanks. Now that is a miracle that no amount of mashed potatoes could make happen.