Thanksgiving and Baseball

Seeing Jesus supplanting the sacred and secular

03/16/2021

John 5:1-16 There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’“ They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.

Do you ever wonder about the origins of our national holidays and traditions? They can be both interesting and entertaining. I recently looked up where the holiday of Thanksgiving originated and where the seventh inning stretch came from in baseball. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the fall because it coincides with the fall harvest time. It was because there was an abundant harvest in the fall of 1621 that 53 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians sat down at the table together. It was later in 1789 that President George Washington declared it a national holiday.

The seventh inning stretch was started by President William Howard Taft in 1910. The hefty president attended a game between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics. He could not stay for the whole game because of pressing business, so in the middle of the seventh inning he got up to leave. Everyone saw him and stood up out of respect for the president of the United States. And people have been observing those two traditions ever since. In fact, these secular traditions are so special to us Americans they almost carry a sacred quality, that is, we observe them “religiously,” and never want to change or lose them.

The gospel of John is meticulously mindful of the traditions and holidays of the Jews, like we are of American traditions. John always points out what feast gives the backdrop for Jesus’ ministry. Sometimes it is the feast of Passover, as in John 6, where Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish. Or, in John 7 and 8, it is the feast of Tabernacles, where Jesus describes himself as the “living water” and as the “true light.” And then Jesus gives light to the man born blind in John 9. In other words, John is saying Jesus has come to supplant these sacred traditions because he is fulfilling their original intentions and ultimate meanings.

So, it is somewhat surprising John does not clearly identify which feast provides the backdrop for today’s gospel from John 5. Most scholars agree, however, it is the feast of Pentecost, which occurred 50 days after Passover. Like the American tradition of Thanksgiving, Pentecost was also originally a harvest celebration, the spring harvest of wheat. So, at Pentecost Jews traditionally brought bushels of wheat to the Temple for an offering. Pentecost also commemorates the receiving of the Torah, or Law (10 Commandments), at Mt. Sinai by Moses.

With the feast of Pentecost as the liturgical backdrop, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath and therefore, he is saying I am the one who gives you the real wheat harvest of the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, and I give you a new law, the Law of love. Imagine how we would feel if Jesus said: I have come to replace Thanksgiving and the seventh inning stretch with new traditions, because I am greater than the Pilgrims and the presidents? Would you stop celebrating Thanksgiving or remain seated during the seventh-inning stretch? That is how outlandish and offensive Jesus’ words sounded in Jewish ears.

Does that comparison of Jesus replacing Jewish festivals as well as American holidays seem far-fetched or unwarranted as an analogy? Well, ask yourself what you missed more during the pandemic: not having secular celebrations or sacred celebrations? Did you miss holidays more than you missed the holy days? Some of us here at I.C. may have missed the Spring Festival more than we missed Easter Mass. Some Catholics may have missed exchanging gifts last Christmas more than the music at midnight Mass. And my greatest fear is that the pandemic extinguished what little faith some Catholics were clutching on to, and they didn’t miss anything at all last year, and may not go back to Mass. Although, I am sure they will go back to celebrating Thanksgiving and cheering at baseball games.

In some ways this pandemic forces us to ask the same question quietly sitting in the background of every chapter of John, namely, who is Jesus? John’s answer is that Jesus has come to supplant every sacred and secular tradition by fulfilling their original intentions and ultimate meanings. Is that who Jesus is for you?

Praised be Jesus Christ!