Tuesday of Week 34 in Ordinary Time
Apo 14:14-19
Lk 21:5-11
“All these things you are staring at now — the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.”
We’re heading into the final stretch of Thanksgiving. By now, the pros would’ve already completed most of the meal. All that’s left is to roast the turkey. The sides simply need to be reheated. The cranberry sauce is done. Even the gravy should be mostly made by now. Nobody who takes this seriously leaves things to the last minute. You’re meant to enjoy the day, and that means not getting up at 4am to cook a full meal from scratch. Only amateurs scramble to the finish line.
I’d like to think that I’m one of the pros at this. Thanksgiving has always been my ‘Super Bowl’. Yes, I am one of those moms. I start game-planning Thanksgiving in the summer. I am laser-focused on organisation and execution. I have a large and well-utilised freezer specifically for the festive season. Except this year, it’s as if something has snapped and I am actually…scrambling. I don’t know what has happened to me. Maybe it was all those doom reels during the US elections, or watching people fight for their lives in the hurricanes in North Carolina, or listening to American families talk about their financial struggles. Something has snapped in me. It seems wrong somehow, to be so focused on this one meal, to be so obsessed with delivering perfection, when so much is wrong with our world. Earthquakes, famines, plagues, storms, wars and insurrections, and so many families displaced as a result. It seems wrong to be focused on Thanksgiving when so much is not as it should be.
“…the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed”. What words of dread, but so fitting for our current time. I am wholly unmotivated to make the perfect meal this year. I want to hunker down, draw close to God, and hold my family tight. I am filled with fear for our future. I know that I need to find a way to surrender this up to God, so that I can return to being a functioning human being, but I’m not really sure where to begin. So I’m going through the motions, scrambling to the finish line, all while haphazardly trying to pray.
I know I am not alone in how I feel. I know I’m not the only one overcome with helplessness at the state of things. Perhaps God will gather up all of us lost souls this Thanksgiving, and give us not the sickle of His fury, but His peace and His mercy. Only He can save us from ourselves.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)
Prayer: We pray for all who have been displaced due to climate change, famines, plagues, wars and insurrections. May God find them where they are, and give them comfort, sustenance and peace.
Thanksgiving: We give thanks for our families, for our homes, and for the Holy Spirit, who puts in our hearts, gratitude and humility. We pray for God’s mercy, and for prudence and wisdom in all our undertakings.
OXYGEN 
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