Last weekend, our
parish celebrated the 25th 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
