When Christ Consecrated Marriage, He also Consecrated the Feast

Last weekend, our parish celebrated the 25^th anniversary of our pastor’s ordination. We did it in the most Catholic of ways – with celebration of the Mass and with a party.

During the wedding feast at Cana, Christ consecrated Marriage; instituting the first of the seven Sacraments. He also consecrated the wedding feast as something if not sacramental, at least something good and holy. For His first public miracle, Jesus replenished the wine. He used the same power He would use to raise Lazarus from the dead and to restore sight to the blind – to bring wine to a party. I don’t describe the miracle this way to make light of it, but to illustrate how essential feasting and celebration should be to our Catholic life. Christ’s first miracle was at a party. In an almost literal sense, the Christian religion began with a party. His birth was announced with a song. Many of His parables are set at feasts or celebrations. How many times do the Gospels describe Jesus sitting down to eat and drink for a purpose. A book should be written about Jesus’ uses meals and feasts in the Gospels.

The liturgical calendar provides a balance and rhythm that is tuned to our human nature. Singing, dancing, eating, and drinking in a community of friends and family is as old as humanity. People naturally enjoy getting together and celebrating. The Church calendar has a balance of feasts and fasts that imitates the balance of sacrifice and celebration in the life of Christ. Feasts mark the passage of time and changing of the seasons. We express our identities by celebrating local patron saints, Marian feasts, Eucharistic feasts as well as by wearing ashes, fasting, and abstaining.

G.K. Chesterton put it more poetically, “Because a man prayed and fasted on the Northern snows, flowers could be flung at his festival in the Southern cities; and because fanatics drank water on the sands of Syria, men could still drink cider in the orchards of England.” G.K. Chesterton, “Orthodoxy”

Just as important as giving us reasons to celebrate, the Church gives limits and direction to our celebrations – it helps to keep them in bounds, as it were. Without some sort of restraint, our celebrations would quickly turn into self-indulgent excess. Consider what Mardi Gras becomes when it is separated from Lent. Within the Church, we have a wholesome community with whom to celebrate. God created us to enjoy good things. And celebrations are good things. I think they are even more than just good. They are necessary; because they bring people together – a rather important prerequisite to a healthy community. The Church is where we come together to worship God as a community. And feast days give us wholesome reasons to celebrate as a community. The God Who created us to enjoy food and wine and song also gave us rites, rituals, traditions, and a calendar to bound them and direct them at Him, rather than at our selves; making our feasts a form of worship, in a certain sense. To the best of my knowledge, Catholicism is the only religion with blessings for beer.

This is not just a superficial plea for more parties in the parish hall. I think to not publicly express the exuberance of our faith is a lost opportunity to strengthen the parish community and a missed chance to evangelize to those outside of it.

People outside the Church are turned off by what they perceive to be the dolorous life of the faithful—filled with ashes, abstaining and fasting. But they are attracted to the drinking and dancing of Carnival, Mardi Gras, and Fasching. They don’t understand that the feasts and fasts go together. They celebrate the feast and ignore the fasts. Outside of their proper context, the celebrations have deformed into excesses while the fasts have been forgotten. But, in the end, Mardi Gras leaves revelers empty and aching – despair; and leaves them out of the immense joy of the resurrection at Easter. I think a good St. Patrick’s Day party is worth its weight in green beer if it is the crack in the wall that draws a Mardi Gras reveler in to experience the true joy a Christian feels in both the Lenten fast and the Easter feast and maybe exchange his mardi gras beads for some Rosary beads.

If a Christian wants to observe the feast festively, he has few options outside of the pub. Absent a parish event, people looking to have some wholesome green beer on St. Patrick’ Day or wear a silly mask on Mardi Gras or drink champagne on New Year’s Eve must join the pagan feast or not celebrate publicly at all. I say take the celebrations back. Put them in their proper context. Give folks an alternative to Bacchus and Dionysus at the bar with pasta dinners and step dancing in the school gymnasium.

Does this mean that successful priests must add DJ or MC to their responsibilities? Heaven forbid! Of course, if the parochial vicar can swing dance, or the pastor can sing tura lura, they certainly needn’t keep their lights under a bushel.

No, the most vital thing we need from our priests is sound liturgy and teaching. Pastors have the added burden of leadership and responsibility of overseeing administration. The next most important thing, I think, is presence. I know our priests make every effort to be present to the sick, infirm and dying, and I bless them for it. I think they need to be present for the parish community, particularly if it seems sick or infirm. An old Army saying: “The troops do well what the boss checks.” “Actions speak louder than words.” Leaders express what is important to them through their time and attention. And the most basic action, if our priests want our community to be close-knit is their presence. They probably don’t realize – and the most humble of them realize least of all – that their mere presence at a parish gathering sends a clear message that the event – and the people there – are important. No singing, dancing, or rapping required. It was enough for Christ to be at the wedding at Cana for Him to sanctify marriage. It was His presence that enabled His first public miracle.

But in order for our priest to be there; there must be a place to be. And they cannot be everywhere. That’s where we come in. Christ is the mystical head of the Church. Our pastor is the material head. Heads need hands, arms, legs, and sometimes strong backs to actually put on the feasts. And butts in chairs and on dance floors to actually begin to form a community for our priests to support with their presence. I know I’ve gotten lazy (I would say “busy”) about participating in the parish events that we do have. But I also believe that if I’m going to exhort my fellow parishioners to help our priests form the tight knit community we will need to be to attract others and to weather the coming storms and to help each other in our journey to God, I need to practice what I preach.

See you at the next fish fry!

Catholicism is a joyful faith. “we should thank God

for beer and Burgundy by not drinking too much of them.” - Orthodoxy