Be Patriotic This Thanksgiving, by Adam Luca

By Adam Lucas, Crisis Magazine, Nov. 27, 2024

Adam Lucas holds a Masters of Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. He’s the coauthor of Feasts of Our Fathers: Praying the Church Year with the Early Christians (Catholic Answers Publishing) with Mike Aquilina. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and son.

Thanksgiving is for coming together in simple gratitude—especially after a contentious election season.

I think there’s something Providential about the proximity of Thanksgiving and Election Day, however man-made both days may be. The entire nation pents itself up for months—years even—for the biannual culmination of history upon which the very soul of our country rests. We yell, fight, debate (or used to), plan and manipulate for what appears to be, and sometimes actually is, the day to determine the next four years of our flourishing or declining.

And then, we all eat turkey.

The chaos of election season ends as abruptly as a bad date; and we’re supposed to pivot back to our real lives, real families, and real brotherhood as fellow Americans around the Thanksgiving table.

This pivot, as sudden as it’s always been, has gotten harder in recent years. Thanksgiving risks becoming simply another political fracas, all the more bitter because of the familial and formerly-sacred setting. ….

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