This episode of Ascension Presents is brought to you by the beard.
The beard, not just for men anymore. Wait ...
Hi my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So this Thanksgiving, I want to point out the reality that there's always two ways of looking at our lives.
As if there's nothing to be thankful for and all there is is tragedy
or as if there's always something you can find to be thankful for, there's always an opportunity for blessing.
And I want to look at this through a story, maybe you know actually.
Y'all know the story of Squanto? You know who Squanto was, right?
In third grade, you probably heard all about him, that he was the Patuxet Indian
who was able to save the lives of the pilgrims.
Now you might know that but here's the rest of his story
and in light of these two ways of looking at Squanto's story. Here's the first way:
Squanto, his name actually means "wrath of God" and in many ways, that's what his life looked like.
When Squanto was roughly 12 to 14 years old, he was lured by Captain Thomas Hunt onto a ship
with the number of maybe two dozen other Patuxet Indians.
He got on the ship and was immediately made a slave.
He was brought over to Spain where he was sold to a couple people.
Those people, after holding him for a while, sent him away, sent him to England.
When he got to England, there's another man in England, had Squanto live with him for three years
and finally got rid of him, sent him across the Atlantic, but not back home, to Newfoundland, 2,000 miles away
from his home, he had to live with another guy for another two years not any closer to home.
After another two years- so this round-trip of many, many years-
five to seven years, Squanto finally got back to ultimately
what's known as Plymouth Rock for us.
But when he, when he finally got home, he looks for his family and his tribe
and discovered that everybody he knew was dead.
His entire family, entire tribe had been decimated by disease.
The neighboring tribe, the Massasoit, had been ten thousand strong but now is less than a thousand
and they looked at Squanto with suspicion, this "wrath of God", right?
This like, "nothing goes right with this guy" but they took him in begrudgingly.
After a couple weeks, more Europeans arrived, the pilgrims.
And since Squanto knew how to speak English, they sent him out to deal with those Englishmen.
After a number of years of serving them and a number of years of working with them,
Squanto ultimately got disease from the Europeans and ended up dying.
There's one way of looking at Squanto's life that's just, No, he's the wrath of God.
It's the wrath of God. It's just tragedy. Here's another way of looking at Squanto's life:
Yes, when Squanto is 12 to 14 years old, around 1614, he was lured aboard Thomas Hunt's ship
but then, Thomas Hunt sailed to Spain to sell Squanto and the other Patuxet Indians.
Interestingly, seventy-seven years before this happened, Pope Paul III issued what's called a papal bull.
A papal bull is like, you know, a big decree right, called Sublimis [Deus]
that absolutely prohibited slavery in any Catholic country.
In fact, Pope Paul III said in response to like, "who are these people in the, in the new world- who are they?"
He said, they are true human beings
and said every effort, every initiative on the part of the Europeans to interfere with their lives
has to be oriented towards their good and nothing, in no way, could Europeans, were they allowed to exploit the native peoples.
Because of this, when Thomas Hunt brought Squanto, the wrath of God, to Spain,
the people who bought him were two Jesuit priests and they bought him in order to set him free.
They bought, they purchased his, you know, freedom essentially and they brought him into their home,
they cared for him, they taught him the Faith.
It's actually likely that they baptized Squanto. After a bit of time they sent him to England
because—no crazy—they sent into England as a free man, so he could travel as a free man.
They sent him to England because his chances of getting back to Plymouth Rock area were most likely if he left from England.
When he got to England, there's a man named John Slaney who took him in
and allowed Squanto to live with him, he cared for him, he worked his way up the ladder to work for him
and he taught him English.
After three years of doing this, they finally were able, John Slaney, was able to pay for Squanto's way across the Atlantic
but the best he could do was get him to Newfoundland but when he got to Newfoundland,
there's another man named Thomas Herder who took Squanto into his home, and cared for him, worked with him
and after two years of finally trying and trying and trying, they were able to get down
back to Plymouth Rock and yes, when he got there, his family had been, had, had died and the tribe had died,
but the neighboring tribe, the Massasoit, were able to, even if they were a little bit suspicious,
bring him in and then weeks later, what happens?
These Englishmen, the pilgrims, the Europeans arrived.
Imagine their perspective. Their perspective is we're not, we're not gonna live,
we're not gonna be able to survive this new country, we're not gonna be able to survive this winter
and out of the woods walks not only a native to that area who knows how to hunt, and how to fish, and how to plant
but also can speak perfect Queen's English.
To those pilgrims, Squanto was embraced. He was, he was, he was seen as a brother.
To the, to the Massasoit, he became a brother.
And he lived and he died among those pilgrims as brothers and sisters
and among those Massasoit as brothers and sisters,
so much so that after he died Governor William Bradford, who is the governor of the Plymouth Plantation,
said of Squanto that no, here's the wrath of God. He said, No, Squanto was a special instrument sent to us of God
to provide for our good beyond any expectation.
There's two ways of looking at Squanto's life: one is just tragedy and tragedy and tragedy.
The other is, wait, there is real tragedy but also there were people who helped him who didn't need to help him.
There were people who, who paid for his freedom. They didn't need to pay for his freedom.
People who brought him into their home, they didn't need to bring him into their home.
People who paid for his transportation, they didn't need to pay for his transportation.
Yes, while Squanto's life was marked with suffering and real pain and real death, it was also
marked by an opportunity to do good, an opportunity to be blessed,
an opportunity to not only be helped, but to help other people
and this is how all of us can look at our lives because every one of us has a life that's marked with tragedy,
marked with suffering, and ultimately is marked with death.
We can look at our lives and say that ultimately, it's just suffering, it's just tragedy, it's just death,
or we can look at our lives and say, no, there is real tragedy, there's real suffering, and there's real death
but there's also things to be thankful for
and this is the invitation for today, on this day of Thanksgiving or in this season of Thanksgiving
to be able to say, "Is my life marked merely by suffering, pain, tragedy, and death?"
or "Are there things to be thankful for in the midst of suffering and tragedy and death?"
The reality is with Squanto's life, he could either chosen to say, "No, it's just the wrath of God,"
or, "No, I'm in this place and I'm gonna be the special instrument of God."
The suffering that you're going through right now ultimately could lead to someone else having life because of you.
On this day, I invite you to make that decision:
Is this a life just marked by suffering?
Or just a life marked with, in the middle of suffering, there's also things to be thankful for,
that God can work through that suffering so you can be an instrument, a special instrument,
sent of God to be a blessing and to give life to others.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike
God bless and Happy Thanksgiving.
also kind of funny thing. Think about this: the Puritans didn't like Catholics
but ultimately because of Pope Paul III Catholics saved the Puritans 'cause
the priests and Jesuits you know who saved him and then also probably because
Squanto is baptized Catholic so we claim him. [snap] boom. You know.
Can you hear that like stupid car alarm going off? Man, stupid cars' alarms.