What if we looked at our Thanksgiving gatherings with fresh eyes--focusing less on the food and the football, and more on each family member's missionary mandate?
It may sound like a stretch but--especially for the Catholic faithful--the family should be less like a comfortable pillow and more like a living launching pad. The family is one of life's greatest "goods," and it serves as the irreplaceable foundation upon which society is built; it is a "school of Christian love" which is ordered to the common good. Yet the deepest purpose of the family lies in the ongoing formation and sending of missionary disciples of Jesus Christ into the world.
Thanksgiving Day is a uniquely American opportunity to express gratitude for the fellowship we enjoy with family members and extended friends. Even where there may be differences or tensions among family members, it is an opportunity to show the special form of "accompaniment" that is possible only in families. But maybe it is time for our gatherings to resemble the reconvening of missionaries who come together to be fed--physically, emotionally and spiritually--before resuming their adventures of sharing God's saving grace.
Some of the missionary disciples around our Thanksgiving tables may be weary from their labors, of course; others might gave grown lukewarm or disoriented regarding their task. Yet this annual rite of nourishment and encouragement should provide an opportunity to "reboot" our commitment to bringing Christ the King into our increasingly weary world.
We need to be patient with our fellow missionaries, of course, since the terrain which we navigate has become increasingly hostile toward God's Truth, Beauty and Goodness. And yet we should remain confident that we have Good News to share in our respective mission fields: The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the one from whom all of our blessings flow, as well as the one to whom we should direct our various acts of thanksgiving :)
Let's pray that each and every family may reclaim this deeper identity. After all, "The mission of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit" (CCC, n. 737).
