Hello, and welcome to ¡Por la Fe! English.
This is an ugly blog.
Why?
Because English. Is an ugly language.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
I will archive here corrected Google translations of all of my Spanish language posts for the benefit of my English speaking audience (which may now no longer be bigger than my Spanish one, since I just told everyone they speak an ugly language!).
For the original, pretty blog, go here: http://elgringocatolico.blogspot.com/
Thank you all, and may God bless you!
Saturday, February 11, 2017
The Illustration of the Turkey
Original: http://elgringocatolico.blogspot.com/
In the first week of January I visited with my girlfriend Mai (pronounced "May") and my friends Gregory and Teresa in South Dakota. I started the trip by staying in Custer, my girlfriend's hometown, with her family for The celebration of the new year. Then we attended the Tridentine Mass in the Immaculate Conception Church, Rapid City, where we met Teresa and Gregory.
We then went to their homestead in Allen and spent the following week in much fun, activity, and prayer, for which, thanks to God and the devotion of his servants, I have begun to recite the rosary daily.
But the real subject of today's publication is his particular farm and their various animals. They have a positive menagerie of ducks, geese, chickens, goats, and, we come to the subject, turkeys. (They also have a cat and two great Pyrenees, one of whom, Eustace, helps with maintaining peace among the farm animals. I personally saw him punish a goose that was attacking a rooster! Perhaps I will write about that in a future post.)
Their female turkeys are originally their own, but Teresa caught two wild males. When I saw a goose flapping its wings, I asked Teresa if they clipped the wings of all their birds. She replied that all their birds are domesticated and cannot fly, all except male turkeys.
They can fly, but they won't.
We immediately remembered the last Sunday's homily. Father made a simple point about gratitude.
"As we move into the new year, we must always be grateful for every moment of life and every spiritual gift that God gives us in the sacraments. We show our gratitude when we remain in grace and practice our faith which we have by baptism." (Paraphrase)
The turkeys do not leave the farm because they are grateful for the care they receive, food and drink, and protection from the dangers of the wild and predators.
We, too, should never neglect the spiritual life because of our gratitude. God feeds us with His Most Holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
If wild animals can yield their liberties to serve a human master only on account of earthly food and the protection of their physical lives, why can not we also submit ourselves to the Lord for such heavenly food and protection unto eternal life?
This is the first lesson from the turkeys. But there is at least another related lesson which occurred to me.
If one day the turkeys decided to leave the farm, they could only fly a short distance. Turkeys are not created with wings to fly far.
And at the time they will have flown that short distance, they will have to make the decision either to fly back to the farm, or to continue flying farther from it.
The farther the turkeys fly from the farm, the harder it will be to return. This is a warning to us.
When a Catholic commits a mortal sin, he throws himself out of the homestead of God, the Holy Church. Such a one also has to decide whether he will repent and confess his sins or not.
If so, it demands only a little humility, a little inconvenience, a little self-denial.
But if he will not, he stays in the bondage of Satan. From there, he will continue to compound and multiply his sins. His journey home will require a lot of humility, a lot of hard work, and a lot of self-denial, and what a great effort this work of humility would need of him when his pride has grown so fat! For with every sin he has moved himself step by step further from the kingdom of God.
Just as if the turkeys flew far enough from the farm they could never find the way back, the soul that continues to sin and does not listen to the voice of God will risk being lost forever.
But unlike the turkeys, our journey back to God is not primarily a physical difficulty, but a spiritual one. God is always ready to forgive us of all our sin for a single good confession, honest and pure.
Only one.
How difficult or easy that confession will be depends on us.
And you, Reader?
Are you a wandering turkey?
Kneel! God awaits you.
In the first week of January I visited with my girlfriend Mai (pronounced "May") and my friends Gregory and Teresa in South Dakota. I started the trip by staying in Custer, my girlfriend's hometown, with her family for The celebration of the new year. Then we attended the Tridentine Mass in the Immaculate Conception Church, Rapid City, where we met Teresa and Gregory.
We then went to their homestead in Allen and spent the following week in much fun, activity, and prayer, for which, thanks to God and the devotion of his servants, I have begun to recite the rosary daily.
 |
The nave and sanctuary of Immaculate Conception Church
|
 |
| A sleepy Eustace with Roosters |
Their female turkeys are originally their own, but Teresa caught two wild males. When I saw a goose flapping its wings, I asked Teresa if they clipped the wings of all their birds. She replied that all their birds are domesticated and cannot fly, all except male turkeys.
They can fly, but they won't.
 |
| The Turkeys |
"As we move into the new year, we must always be grateful for every moment of life and every spiritual gift that God gives us in the sacraments. We show our gratitude when we remain in grace and practice our faith which we have by baptism." (Paraphrase)
The turkeys do not leave the farm because they are grateful for the care they receive, food and drink, and protection from the dangers of the wild and predators.
We, too, should never neglect the spiritual life because of our gratitude. God feeds us with His Most Holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
If wild animals can yield their liberties to serve a human master only on account of earthly food and the protection of their physical lives, why can not we also submit ourselves to the Lord for such heavenly food and protection unto eternal life?
 |
| Special Thanks to Teresa Derrickson for all the pictures of the animals |
If one day the turkeys decided to leave the farm, they could only fly a short distance. Turkeys are not created with wings to fly far.
And at the time they will have flown that short distance, they will have to make the decision either to fly back to the farm, or to continue flying farther from it.
The farther the turkeys fly from the farm, the harder it will be to return. This is a warning to us.
When a Catholic commits a mortal sin, he throws himself out of the homestead of God, the Holy Church. Such a one also has to decide whether he will repent and confess his sins or not.
If so, it demands only a little humility, a little inconvenience, a little self-denial.
But if he will not, he stays in the bondage of Satan. From there, he will continue to compound and multiply his sins. His journey home will require a lot of humility, a lot of hard work, and a lot of self-denial, and what a great effort this work of humility would need of him when his pride has grown so fat! For with every sin he has moved himself step by step further from the kingdom of God.
Just as if the turkeys flew far enough from the farm they could never find the way back, the soul that continues to sin and does not listen to the voice of God will risk being lost forever.
But unlike the turkeys, our journey back to God is not primarily a physical difficulty, but a spiritual one. God is always ready to forgive us of all our sin for a single good confession, honest and pure.
Only one.
How difficult or easy that confession will be depends on us.
And you, Reader?
Are you a wandering turkey?
Kneel! God awaits you.
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