4th revisited

In Forward Day-by-Day, the writer offers a prayer, "May we, on this day, give thanks for the welcome we have been shown.  And may we become agents of that welcome for others as well."  This is a conclusion I have come to as I have reflected on my own pilgrimage, and I shared that with the youth and their chaperones, whose feet I washed last week: coming to the end of your pilgrimage, you have received the rights and priviledges of pilgrims - gracious and free hospitality.  Now, as you move forward, the return journey must be one of sharing, of "paying forward." 

   This is what the author of the devotional was saying, too.  If we truly consider ourselves, as citizens of the US, somewhat rooted historically in a people called "pilgrims," then we, having arrived at this wonderful convention of democracy, must move beyond the journey "to," and beyond, in the journey of gratitude as agents of welcome.

   I think this is what saddens me about the statue of liberty remaining closed.  It's as if the current political regime intended as part of their agenda against liberty that, before building a wall around the US, it should close its gates, including the most powerful symbol of the country's welcome: as if saying, 'DON'T give me your tired, your poor, your hungry masses yearning to be free.'  But that is the exact opposite of God's Jubilee vocation.  And it is the exact opposite of a pilgrim people.

   The great question remains freedom for what?  I believe the answer is freedom for service in Christ, which is the freedom to love without condition, and to welcome the stranger.