Thanksgiving -- Truly a Feast of the Beast

From Beyond Politics: A Meta-Historical View, by Solange Strong Hertz, 2003, pp. 39-46

The closest proof to hand of the second Beast's presence in the U.S. is Thanksgiving Day. Man made in America, it is the first holyday in the secular cycle to rise above mere ideology and assume a recognizable religious character, despite its lack of any religious antecedents. Truly a feast of the Beast, it draws its credentials solely from a native harvest celebration which the Mayflower Pilgrims had shared with the Indians not long after arriving on American shores. Adopted and perpetuated by the judaized Puritans of New England, who seemed to see in it a latter-day Feast of Tabernacles, it was for a time imposed by statute. The day was eventually declared a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln, who set aside the last Thursday of November for its observation.

In 1939 Franklin Delano Roosevelt removed it to its present location on the fourth Thursday at the behest of mercantile interests eager to lengthen the shopping time between the rites of the turkey and those of the Christmas tree. The shift created no problems, because the national holy Thursday is unique among holidays anywhere. Not only is it an obedient creature of the government, but as the occultist writer Manly Hall pointed out in a lecture delivered in Carnegie Hall in 1942, "This is the only holiday which depends upon the day alone for its observance, and is peculiarly the American holiday which expresses thankfulness for freedom of religion, for freedom of opportunity, and freedom of life." For these revolutionary blessings, allegedly bestowed upon us by the Beast from the sea, the god of the Beasts must be thanked.

Like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving is honored by the new American Catholic liturgy with a special Preface in the Sacramentary. Introduced by the American Jesuits of the Collegio Bellarmino, it is now celebrated in the Eternal City as Ringraziamento. Strangely enough the feast also figures in the Prophecies of the Catholic seer Nostradamus. First published in 1660, barely two generations after the landing of the Pilgrims, his predictions are believed to contain references to America under the names of Hesperides and "the blessed isles of the west." That he also calls America "the land which keeps the Thursday," leads us to believe that Thanksgiving Day may have a greater significance than we realize. Whatever that turns out to be, the occasion is a full-blown religious holiday in worldly trappings. Instituted as such and observed as such within the secular cycle, independently of the Church, it presumes to direct civic piety to a nameless god everybody can worship around the dining room table or anywhere, even in church.

Who is this god we are supposed to be praying to? Whence this "god of your choice" whom the nation as a whole is encouraged to address officially once a year? Is he some lower echelon god of gluttons propitiated by ritual gorging on turkey and trimmings, or is he the Dragon himself? Could he be the God of the Universe addressed in Paul VI's Novus Ordo Missae? That's hard to determine, because for the time being he must remain vague and ambiguous if he is to retain his legal status, still precarious in many minds. He must offend no one and be acceptable to everyone, imposing no obligations and proposing no truths to be believed. On the face of it, he seems little more than the god who blesses America, sheds his grace on her and crowns her good with brotherhood no matter what.

He may be referred to as Almighty, All-Wise, or even as Mother Nature, but this seems to mean that he has no religious preferences and is not restricted to the Christians the Supreme Court had in mind. Hindus, Mohammedans, animists, Jews, pantheists, snake-handlers, New-Agers, all may confidently take refuge in him. Could he be the Life Force? Maybe he is the god of Democracy, whom Archbishop John Carroll seemed to have been addressing in his famous "Prayer for Civil Authorities." Was he present at the landmark prayerfest of all religions held in Assisi in 1986? Will he be present to Christians and Jews on Mt. Sinai in the year 2000? Or is he simply the god of Nelson Rockefeller, who in Politics and Religion Can Mix quoted the handy creed he inherited from his father: "I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God named by whatever name?"

Is he perchance the god of science? There is every indication that the ecclesiastical Beast's ultimate intention is to replace God's Church with the "scientific organization in the light of the Gospel" foreseen by Canon Roca. Now that a Pope has publicly declared that the condemnation of Galileo illustrates the "duty for theologians to keep themselves regularly informed of scientific advances" in view of "introducing changes in their teaching," the highest theological authorities can be expected to look to science rather than to revelation as the final arbiter of truth. Among the false Christs and prophets our Lord predicted would "show signs and wonders to seduce (if that were possible) even the elect" (Matt. 24:22), the satanically inspired may be expected to figure prominently.

Whoever the god Thanksgiving Day addresses turns out to be, and whatever his name, he cannot be written off as some allegorical deity like those Bromidi painted on the heavenly clouds inside the dome of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. By nature this god is entirely spiritual, like the devil. The closest he comes to materializing is when he appears as the All-Seeing Eye in the Masonic triangle on the dollar bill, but that doesn't mean he isn't real. The national liturgy proposes him to us as real. By way of collective thanksgiving, real worship is expected from us, on a special day set aside for that express purpose.

Whatever we call him, he is clearly not the trinitarian God revealed to us through Christ, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who did materialize among us two thousand years ago in the Sacred Humanity received from the Virgin Mary, and who continues to materialize among us under the appearances of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist. [Note: Eucharist = Thanksgiving.] Whoever he is, the American god Thanksgiving Day addresses is clearly not the God whom all must confess who would be saved.

Like that government "of the people, by the people, for the people" which produced him, he is the people's creature, made by them and for them. He owes them everything. Man, who was made in the image of God, finds in him a god made in the image of man. As Canon Roca said, he is "humanity itself in principle." With him people can deal in full freedom as mature human beings, running the universe as it should be run, from space probes to oil spills. He is their cosmic man-made Christ, the god who has freed them from God. Could he be anything but a prefiguration of the Antichrist, that "image of the Beast" announced in the Apocalypse, under whose rule the Dragon intends to unite all mankind in one diabolic, theocratic church and state?

Cardinal Pie of Poitiers, who inspired the well-known Fr. Denis Fahey in his apostolate for the reorganization of society under Christ the King, once told his diocesan priests in synod: "By means of an old and by now well known tactic, this hateful elevation of man's nature masquerades as mysticism, enthusiasm, and spontaneity. You can see, gentlemen, that here Christianity has been overturned." Here is "no revelation, no miracle, no prophecy, no incarnation, no act of faith, hope, and charity, no Sacrament – particularly the Eucharist – No tenet, no evangelical counsel, no example of the saints is left standing. . .Jesus Christ is suppressed."

Borrowing the words of St. Hilary, his ancient predecessor in the See of Poitiers, the Cardinal continues, "They have introduced a new, different Christ, in whom Antichrist could seek refuge. They do not concede that their fabricated Christ is divine; it is enough that he is a finer being than others. . .The Christian religion is proclaimed as the most perfect without comparison, the holiest of religions, but pains are taken not to proclaim it as the only true religion. In contrast the proclaimers glory in communion with all the great philosophies and religions in the world. . .Theirs is a psychological Christ, conceived in the mind of man, born of man's intelligence. The Christ my faith revealed to me was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. Their Christ came from a lowly plane, from the bowels of humanity. My Christ descended from above, from the heart of the Eternal Father. Their Christ is consubstantial to man, mine is consubstantial to God."

Our Lord taught us to pray to "Our Father who art in heaven," lest by inadvertence we rashly address another, that father of lies who is in hell. We say, "Hallowed be Thy Name," and no other. For the same reason the Church has always been careful to offer her liturgical prayer to Almighty God exclusively "through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end." Gods of whatever name she has never acknowledged, especially those advertising themselves as Christian. Pope St. Pius IX deplored in a secret consistory the folly of those Catholics "who think one may hope for the eternal salvation of those who have never formed part of Christ's true Church."

Cardinal Jouin recalled an informal conversation with this Pope carried on with some members of a French delegation on June 18, 1871. Speaking of a distinguished Catholic of his acquaintance who had attended a friend's funeral in a Protestant church, the Pontiff told them, "It is certainly right to assist Protestants in their necessities and illnesses and to give them alms, especially the alms of truth, with a view to procuring their conversion; but it is excessively blameworthy to take part in their religious ceremonies!" What this holy Pope would say of ecumenical Thanksgiving Day services is left to the reader's conjecture.

Gods "of whatever name" can be worshiped only in defiance of the one God who commanded us, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind," having first warned us, "Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me." In the fullness of time, the Church's first Pope would proclaim the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God as the only name whereby men could be saved, clearly defining, "Neither is there salvation in any other" (Acts 4:12). To worship any other defies the second great Commandment as well, which is like unto the first: "Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself," for it is impossible to love our fellow citizens and at the same time confirm them in their errors.

Patriotism forms part of the virtue of religion, of the filial piety ultimately due to God alone in justice. Degraded to worship of an ideology, patriotism becomes idolatry pure and simple, with incalculable effects throughout society. Because men are composed of body and soul, their common good demands that their natural needs be met in the light of their eternal destiny. Any state which separate itself from the Church on principle not only deprives its citizens of political helps to heaven, it automatically incorporates them into the economy of the Dragon. According to Cardinal Pie it "cooperates in their damnation."

He said, "To say Jesus Christ is the God of individuals and of families, but not the God of peoples and societies, is to say that He is not God. To say that Christianity is the law of individual man and not the law of collective man, is to say that Christianity is not divine. To say the Church is the judge of private morality, but has nothing to do with public and political morality, is to say that the Church is not divine."

These are the words of a prelate who was cruelly censured after publicly rebuking Napoleon III for abandoning Pius IX and the Papal States to the forces of Garibaldi. He warned his clergy about " men whose great wrong is to provide the monster that will devour them with new strength every day. . .May we never cease being pained by the ever greater advances made to invade and usurp the rights of the Church, because they represent both a crime against God and disaster for nations."

In "Our Apostolic Mandate," Pope Pius X clearly defined the Church's essential role in political affairs. He stated categorically, "The state cannot be built unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work. . .You cannot build a society without God." In Vehementer nos he had already anathematized separation of the state from the Church as "a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. . .guilty of a great injustice to God…" to Whom is owed "not only a private cult, but a social worship to honor Him."

Such being the case, it's easy to see that separation of church and state is of no consequence whatever except where the true Church is concerned. Unfortunately, if the secular state is to maintain its identity, it has to keep free of that Church, for there is no common ground between an ecclesiastical authority of divine institution and a self-created government acknowledging no authority beyond its own. How could these two possibly be joined, which are diametrically contrary in principle? Their separation is predestined. God decreed it from the beginning of the world when He "divided the light from the darkness" (Gen. 1:4).

As St. Paul said, "What fellowship hath light with darkness" And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" (2 Cor. 6:14-16)

How is it possible to love one's country without trying to wrest it from the Dragon and the Beasts? Apostate America, their first permanent outpost in the modern world, cries from sea to sea to be "re-invented' in the love of God which inspired Columbus and Isabella and all the Catholic saints, martyrs, and missionaries who carried the faith to her shores. It is useless to look to the clergy for political leadership. History is witness to the baleful effects of clericalism in government. In the two centuries during which the Dragon was quietly consolidating his new society in America, the Catholic laity not only never seriously opposed his plans, but were actively discouraged by a clergy bent on democratic co-existence at any price. If this be treason, well, as Patrick Henry said, make the most of it!