Ready for Reunion Today?

Perhaps I should have found it a little odd after the third or fourth school kiosk and church announcement that read THE homecoming. What homecoming, when and where and for whom? Block after block I continued to see flyers, signs and announcements about THE homecoming. Beside the fact, why would a school decide to broadcast this on the first week of school, is that normal?

How could a homecoming be for ALL schools/institutes anyway? Wasn’t the point of having a homecoming to celebrate those specific members of those specific institutes, you just can’t have the lion mascot sitting next to the lamb mascot? Homecoming was that special time to reflect on the uniqueness of all those wonderfully shared experiences while reveling as a collective whole, so why THE homecoming?

These signs are welcoming all of us to this reunion/celebration despite the fact that we have all been to or trained in various schools/schools of thought. At this event there will be all these groupings of people with all their differences based on each school’s thoughts and collective manners that are uniquely shaped by culture, history, race, class, gender, religion and culture, etc.

By being trained in different schools, we have developed an inherent us versus them approach (whether referring to that schools’ teams, colors, mascots, ideology, geo-politic positioning, dogmas) distilled in each and every one of us. This divisive instinct mixed with fear is what a lot of us are carrying around these days. Instead of gravitating towards a message of celebrating THE homecoming our inherited defensives tell us to defend our own school versus the ‘other’.

This cosmic homecoming is calling for all of us to celebrate one another by seeing strength in our unity and not our manicured differences. Who is putting this event on and why? The creator of this calling wants to unite us through this invitation to fellowship and know each other. The creator wants all people to see that they are invited to this reunion just because-just because the creator wants it that way. The creator’s invitation extends to all people; in fact I thought I saw the invitation written in the stars!

Henri Nouwen, a fellow pilgrim, highlighted in his book Prodigal Son various reactions that we might have upon hearing about something as grand as THE homecoming. Whether it is wanting or not wanting someone to attend, demanding that this invitation be for only for your school or your people/your thoughts, or perhaps wanting to have the best seat at the banquet table. The creator of THE homecoming desperately wants all of us to drop this division of in/out and celebrate that ALL schools of people are warmly and equally invited, simply because that’s the way we are all invited. This invitation, out of love, is for all people to come together and celebrate the creator’s party by sitting side by side in growing through conversation and unity.

As I continued walking and spotting these signs everywhere a thought occurred to me that from all these signs: THE homecoming invitation never stated a time or place. Perhaps, like any invited guest, I should prepare by cleansing my hands and mind from all its blemishes of divisive thinking and fearful thoughts of the ‘other’ and begin envisioning, like the invitation, to see that we are ALL invited to come home and enjoy the rich, diverse company of others while radiating in the glow of the creator’s loving acceptance.

Squinting across the intersection, between the intervals of passing vehicles, I notice another peculiar sign. And it reads: THE homecoming is here and now, enjoy! I ask the stranger next to me if they can see this sign to check my own sanity and she says yes. Enjoy!