Isn’t it
just great to get the group together?
The old saying “There is strength in numbers” still holds true, with
many possible ways to understand the notion of “strength.”
Last
weekend, the whole gang got together for our annual Fall Festival. It was great to see so many people out and having
fun with one another, whether while watching their kids in the cake walk, or
elbow-to-elbow in the frenzy of the bingo tent.
Over in the Knights of Columbus tent, Redskins fans were even grazing
peacefully together with Giants fans– that’s a real the lion shall lie down with the lamb moment!
We had
very good weather this time, thank God, despite the iffy start to the day. I know we lost some participants when we
rescheduled from three weeks ago because of that hurricane. But it was good crowd, great fun, and a
splendid moment to meet the parish community for any of our neighbors who came
by for the event.
Please
join me in thanking those responsible for making it happen, especially Laura
Irwin and Kristien Carroll who oversaw the whole thing. Along with Lauren Draley, a chairman emerita who apparently doesn’t believe
in retirement, they really pulled together a beautiful festival – and they did
it twice! Almost everything had to be changed, redone,
restaffed, or reordered when we rescheduled.
All the volunteers did a super job.
Thank you so much.
This
weekend, too, we are having an all-hands-on-deck gathering of a different
sort. For the Solemnity of All Saints,
we bring out all of our relics of saints to be venerated on our altar. We are privileged to have a large variety of
saints represented in our collection.
From Christ’s contemporary John the Apostle to Maria Goretti of the 20th
century, the gang’s all here!
A
relatively tiny sample of the denizens of heaven, it is nonetheless a
representative sample. Like attracts
like -- Saints Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, and Catherine Labouré are
grouped together in a “Vincentian” cluster indicating their link on earth. But differences are also overcome: Saints Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of
Loyola, founders of radically different religious communities, now rejoice
together in heaven, and their relics are side by side here in Silver Spring,
too.
Any time
one of your secular or Protestant friends tries to be hip and dismissive of our
care for relics of the Holy Ones, feel free to point out how relics are woven
into the very fabric of our (American) culture: remember when soldiers took a
lock of hair from their beloved and wore it on a chain around their neck? More recently, how many people wait in line
and pay money to visit Graceland, and touch the things of Elvis? Heck, I bet most folks have a tool or kitchen
utensil treasured because it belonged to a beloved grandparent.
It was
clear last Sunday was a good day when I saw several children weeping simply
because the bouncy house was being deflated.
They did not want it to end! And you know it is a good day when so much human
evidence of Christ’s reconciling power throughout the ages is so clearly present
right in front of us. The saints are
people like us, friends and fellow members of the Body of Christ. Having shared a purpose on earth, they now
share the fullness of communion in heaven.
All Saint’s Day is how we celebrate that the very best gathering never ends.
Our relics
are many, but the saints are many more – a number uncountable by us, since so
many are unrecognized by us. There is
strength in their numbers, and helping us to be numbered one day among them is
the very best use of their strength. Saints
of God arrayed upon the altar, and future saints arranged around it: isn’t it just great to get the group
together?
Monsignor Smith
