Every day a cause for celebration

The couple was married thirty four years ago today.  No Guinness record set by this, but a cause for celebration nonetheless.  The anniversary presents an opportunity to pause and reflect on all the many blessings (too many to count) that God has bestowed upon this family and to express gratitude to the source of this love.  And wonder will find its way into the thoughts of the couple of what they ever did to deserve such favor.  The only truthful answer is that God loved them first and seeks only that this love be made manifold and generously shared.

So it is that to those to whom much is given, much is expected.  The good news is that this expectation does not bring with it a burden.  It is rather an exhortation to come to understand that these gifts that God showers upon us are intended to be shared with others and will only attain their full measure when given away.  It is within the family, the domestic church, that this seeming paradox is most evident.  It is within the family that we first come to truly trust in God’s providence.

This is what makes the parish family, our faith community, the dynamic treasure that it is.  On any given day within the parish, a wedding anniversary occurs . . . or a marriage . . . or a birth . . . or a baptism . . . or a celebration of life within a Resurrection Mass.  On these hallowed occasions the graces that our Lord confers upon the family spill over, splash over and generally wash over all who are present with collateral blessings.  To be a guest is to be invited to a much grander banquet than the invitation would suggest.  It is God’s intention that the generosity of his love, which is the main course of the feast, be known.  We should therefore not be taken by surprise when we come away from these celebrations feeling nourished and fulfilled although we had thought of ourselves as mere witnesses.

The Sunday celebration of the Eucharist is, of course, the “source and summit” of all of our celebrations.  I say, “of course”, because I know that the Mass, being regularly attended as it should be, can seem to become routine, ordinary and commonplace; hardly a celebration at all.  In light of the thanksgiving liturgy that the Eucharist actually is, we must always be looking at this parish family gathering as the grand banquet spread before us by our Lord who showers us with his love, making all of our other wonder-filled family celebrations possible.

Each day, therefore, the parish celebrates the life within it that is lived out in its families and shared and witnessed by the community.  This is the reason to belong to a parish.  That we might give and that we might receive the lifeblood of the Church; the shared love of Jesus Christ, who loves us first.