In Defense of Mondays

by Fr. Gabriel Terrill  |  02/22/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

Dear friends,

I do not like Garfield… the cat. I do not really like cats in general, but on a personal level, I hold disdain for the lazy, lasagna-loving feline. I grew up reading comic strips in the Sunday paper and was always disappointed when I read Garfield. In many ways, humor is subjective, but I never found Garfield amusing. Over time, I grew to resent Garfield.

It seems petty to resent a fictional character, and surely it is, but I couldn’t help nurturing a growing bias towards him due to his general unfunnyness and his pessimistic and lazy outlook on life. This all came to a head years ago when, to my horror, I realized that I had taken on the temperament of Garfield. Not so much the penchant for eating lasagna or his extreme laziness, but Garfield’s trademark mantra. I realized that I hated Mondays.

The whole reason Garfield is relatable as a wisecracking cat is the fact that he, like many, hates Mondays. This is because Monday marks the hard transition from Sunday, the day of rest, into the harsh work week. Disregarding the fact that Garfield is a cat and does not have a job, most people can relate to dreading Mondays. I certainly did and, at times, still do. At one point, I recall complaining about Mondays so consistently that I started to complain about complaining about Mondays. Thankfully, a good friend of mine challenged my attitude and told me to stop committing myself to hating one-seventh of my life. I had never thought about it that way. By hating Mondays, I developed an unhealthy and ungrateful attitude towards life. Why? Well, because Mondays are hard. Life is difficult. Sometimes you have a “bad day.” But does this mean life is not good or that it is not worth living?

To my chagrin, I have often fallen into the Garfield mentality of hating something because it is hard and not responding to a challenge because it might cause me discomfort. I want to be “comfortable,” I want things to “go my way,” and if they don't, I am going to complain about it and say, “It’s not fair.” Certainly, this has happened, and I even bring it to God as though I were an unhappy customer at a store demanding to speak to the manager. I bring my complaints to God about the Mondays, the bad days, and my disappointed expectations as though I am owed some kind of refund. How patient, and gentle, and generous the Lord is with me as he continues to encourage me and soften my heart while he takes the brunt of my complaining. It is only with the wisdom and illumination of the Holy Spirit that I come to realize that I have dedicated my efforts towards rejecting parts of my life while only accepting the things that I deem as “good.”

I am reminded of Job’s response to his wife when, after enduring unwarranted suffering and tragedy, he defends the Lord, saying, “We accept good things from God; should we not accept evil?” What does Job mean by this? Well, we are more than willing to accept consolations and blessings, but how easily and quickly we reject the cross when it is placed on our shoulders. As the Lord calls us to follow him, it is necessary that we embrace the cross and that we accept the good and the bad in our lives while holding firm to our faith. If we commit ourselves to comfort and consolation while drawing the line when things get di􀅬cult and abandoning the faith in the face of Calvary, we become fair-weather friends to Christ, or as Cyril of Jerusalem wrote, “...you will be a friend of Jesus in times of peace and his enemy in times of war.”

This is particularly difficult in our world today since it is easier than ever to avoid the cross altogether. How easy it is to settle for comfort, to find a life that is unchallenging or non-disruptive, life as a bowl or room temperature oatmeal, or an orange cat that likes lasagna. It is for this reason that we need to be even more intentional as Christian disciples in recognizing the cross and actively taking it up with joy. This looks different for all of us, but we were made for something more than comfort; as Pope Benedict XVI once said, “The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” With this in mind, I encourage us to embrace the life God has given us and to live boldly in our discipleship as we do not shy away from the cross but take it up and follow the Lord to greatness. And if you should be reading this on Sunday and dread tomorrow, give Monday a chance. Each day is a gift from God, and this holds true for Mondays.