Our flag is the number one symbol of our country. Its design of 13 stripes
and
50 stars means unity through pluralism. It represents our belief in a
layered government
with authority given by citizenry.
The flag stands for all the
positive values of our experiment in democracy.
There are other symbols of our country. This month features
pictures and displays of the harvest rituals and feasts that occurred in the
early 1600s in Massachusetts, Virginia and elsewhere. These serene images obviously compress history. They are influenced by famous paintings, including one from
1915,The First Thanksgiving by Jean
Louis Ferris (1893-1930) and one from 1943, the still popular Four Freedoms by Norman Rockwell
(1894-1978). Thanksgiving was celebrated regionally until 1863 when President Abraham
Lincoln (1809-1865) designated a national day of Thanksgiving to “Almighty God…for
fruitful fields and healthful skies.”
The Statue of Liberty is another symbol of our beautiful,
bounteous country. It is a fitting image to link with Thanksgiving.
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), whose Italian
parents immigrated to France, was involved with a circle of people who were
aware of how France aided our struggle for independence. They considered the United
States a model for their own movement for liberty. They raised money to donate a
statue symbolizing their appreciation for our country. They wanted the spirit
of their gift to keep moving in the sense that the United States would support
and sustain liberty among freedom-seeking people around the world.
A preview of the gift appeared at the Philadelphia Expo
in 1876, but it took until 1880 before a complete statue was delivered to the United
States embassy in Paris.
It wasn’t until 1886, however, that the statue was
dedicated in New York’s Upper Bay. In the meantime a private fundraising
campaign in our country was needed to secure the statue’s site, particularly to
finance its pedestal. Part of the fundraising was the auction of a 14-line
sonnet, The New Colossus, by Emma
Lazarus (1849-1887). Her ancestors were Jewish-Russians who emigrated here
before our Revolutionary War. At the time her poem was commissioned, Lazarus,
sufficiently known in literary circles, was volunteering at Emigrant Aid
Society on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The poem was mostly neglected but in
1903 it was written on a bronze tablet and only in 1945 was it mounted on the
statue’s pedestal. The poem and the statue came to represent the generosity of
our country’s residents. So thankful, in fact, that we generously open our
hearts to “…your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free.”
The statue’s symbolism of thanksgiving is, of course,
reinforced by its proximity to Ellis Island, where from 1892 to 1954 many freedom-seeking
immigrants entered our country, including my grandmother. (For the record,
Ellis Island is mostly in New Jersey and Liberty Island itself is in New York.)
Each generation of arrivals enriched our country with
creativity, social capital, unique culture, patriotic service and faith. These
are their gift to subsequent generations. Thus our table prayer on November 27th 2025,
is not only one of thanks for God’s bounty, and thanks for the privilege of
residing in this country, and thanks for the family and friends gathered, but
also thanks for our ancestors and for those new arrivals who keep the gift
moving.
P.S. Fr. Gary Graf of Chicago is walking all the way from the boyhood
home of Robert Prevost/Pope Leo XIV in Dalton, Illinois to Ellis Island to
raise awareness about the plight of today’s immigrants. Follow him at www.ourladyoftheheights.org.
