Sermon Cloud

On Friday afternoon, as I was arriving in Toronto, I noticed the long lineups of cars on the highways.  It was mid-afternoon and I must admit that my first thought was that it's pretty normal to have bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour, especially on Friday afternoons.  Then I remembered - this is Thanksgiving weekend too and holiday weekends mean even more traffic than normal.

The faces in our pews this weekend may be a bit different from the normal crowd.  Some faces are missing while we are happy to welcome among us others who for various reasons are visiting with their loved ones.  Thanksgiving weekend provides an opportunity for families and friends to visit, to catch up on the stories of our lives and to find a reason or two to be thankful for all we have.

When we recognize the abundance that is ours, and see it with the eyes of faith, we understand that God’s gifts are not given to us for our own personal gain, but rather so that they can be given, shared with others who are in need.  Thank you to all of you who have brought gifts of food for the needy this weekend.  As I said in last week’s bulletin, these gifts will be distributed in the coming days either to the parish Community Kitchen or to others in the city who need our help.

A thankful heart is indeed a blessing, but for some of us, perhaps it is difficult to rejoice because the past months may have been filled with a variety of challenges, changes or difficulties.  Perhaps there are some among us who feel more like the prophet Habakkuk in today's first reading (Hab 1:2-3).  He became frustrated at God because he had been calling out for help, and it seemed that God was not answering his plea.  Even if there were a multitude of blessings, they might be forgotten in the light of struggles that we must sometimes endure, and what we perceive is frustration rather than thankfulness.

Even in times of deepest despair, when we feel that God is furthest away, we need only listen to the words of the second reading today (2 Tim 1:6-14) to be reminded that the gift of God's presence is within each of us, from the day of our baptism.  This gift doesn't diminish over time; in fact it gives us the power of God's love to console us and to strengthen us so that we can continue each day to share the joy of our faith with one another, to support one another on our journey and to turn in thanksgiving toward our God who is always near.

Every one of us has moments when we question or doubt.  There are moments in life when we question ourselves about decisions we must make.  There are times when we doubt or wonder about whether the things we learned about our faith are actually true.  Jesus tells the disciples today that even if their faith is the size of a mustard seed, (Lk 17:6) so small that it seems to be almost invisible, they would be able to do wondrous things.

For what shall we give thanks today?  I think that we should start by defining the most valuable gifts we have received - family, friends, companions on the journey, faith to help us face the moments of fear and doubt, love to strengthen us each day.  May our gratitude find its expression in the way we reach out to God’s people, sharing the fruits of his blessings with all those who are in need.