They’re coming, coming on planes, trains, in cars, limousines, or on foot from down the road a piece. Pilgrims, all. Seekers. Not heading for Mecca, nor a Baja Temple, nor a grand cathedral, but home.

Kind of makes your heart melt, doesn’t it, just to think how, in our high-tech age, home is responsible for the greatest movement of Americans in the entire year?

Home can be a log cabin by a lake, or a penthouse overlooking New York’s Central Park, or a farm house surrounded by fields of winter wheat nestled under a comforter of snow.

So free is this holiday of commercialism, it is like a hermitage in which Americans take shelter against the approaching blizzard of blaring TV ads, reminding them of how many shopping days remain before Christmas.

Yet, it is more than a holiday; it is a holy day, presided over by women priests from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Their vestments are aprons; their sacred vessels, pots and pans and the finest china and cutlery in the cabinets. Nothing is too good nor too costly for their parishioners, who will gather at the altar, the family table.

The invitations contained unspoken messages of forgiveness for past wrongs, large or small, for encouragement to come apart and rest a while for those of every age who might be hitting bumps on the road, and, for those whose faith may be floundering in troubled waters, there is a peaceful sanctuary, where everyone is welcomed, no questions asked. And there is love, unquestioning love.

Not easy, this priestliness. Hidden. No job description, except whatever needs being done. No consecration by the bishop. Only grace and the trust of family members brings the priestess again and again back to her altar of God, delivering unspoken homilies in acceptance and laughter, the joys of being family, frequently including in the mix those without family, who know for all too-brief-hours a sense of belonging.

And there will be discussions over Iraq, our national heartache. Some time ago, I wrote a piece on an article Thom Shanker contributed to The New York Times: “All Quiet on the Home Front and Some Soldiers Are Asking Why.”

Blessedly, it wasn’t so quiet in our political House Friday night, November 18, when Republicans and Democrats finally found their voices that made the chamber appear like Tony Blair’s Parliament, especially when the youngest member, Ohio Republican Jean Schmidt told of a phone call she had just received from a Marine colonel back home:

“He asked me to send Congress a message – to stay the course,” Mrs. Schmidt said. “He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message – that cowards cut and run – Marines never do.”

Wrong move, Schmidt. You attacked the man who is fast becoming an icon for millions of Americans who had almost despaired of ever seeing anything approaching leadership from the Hill.

Here is a man who speaks our language, and the chances are overwhelming that he will be present in discussions at dinner tables across our nation on Thanksgiving Day.

Murtha and his wife are regular visitors to our wounded veterans; he actually wept speaking of young men and women blinded, without limbs, disfigured, and, in many instances, alone. Along with Murtha, we’ve all heard horror stories of veterans who have left hospitals only to return home to bills in their mailboxes. My suggestion is that such bills be traced back to the one responsible for sending them, who would summarily be dismissed, with no going-away party, nor severance pay.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had reasons to be proud of our elected officials, but Friday night was one of those occasions, and, once sparked, this prairie fire of discontent will not soon be quenched

We want an end to this charade of a just war, planned in secret, executed with complete disregard for the safety of those asked to fight, far removed from the Pentagon’s air-conditioned offices and afternoon cocktails.

We want an end to bombing Iraq into peace, while bomb-makers busily count their profits with each bomb dropped.

As women priests call God’s families together for Thanksgiving, may they know how valuable are they to the Church, the Body of Christ, which is all of us. They have earned our trust, and our love, they have given us a home.

Happy Thanksgiving, and God bless us, everyone!

Home

Archives