Today’s find: Gala!

What a party! (And what an odd feeling, too!)

We’ve seen a lot, my Sweetie and I, in the 40-plus years we’ve been members of our parish. We’ve taken in (and helped out at) dozens of Sausage Suppers and Fish Fries. We’ve prayed and shared our faith-stories with fellow parishioners on countless occasions. We’ve celebrated marriages and ordinations here. We’ve served on committees and raised funds to help keep everything running smoothly at St. Joe’s.

But the Gala … last night’s Multi-Cultural Gala … was truly something new for us: a major parish event that took shape almost entirely under our radar. All we did was sign up … and show up … while dozens of others did the work, many of whom I’ve never met before.

Which is kind of the point, I think. The whole idea behind our Multi-Cultural Gala is help us see … and hear … the beauty of hope taking shape in our midst. If you are (as I am) from a fourth- or fifth-generation family of Americans, it’s easy to overlook the hope that first brought our ancestors to this land. We tend to take it for granted. It flies under our radar … the whole idea that God may have called our forebears forth in faith, to seek a new homeland. To see for themselves how God provides, how God “has prepared a city for them,” as we hear this week in a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews.

Hope in this very promise was evident everywhere at the Gala last night. Dozens and dozens of first- and second-generation Americans, my fellow parishioners, put this party on … and the place was rockin’, overflowing with the joy of communion. They shared their love of the “old country” with us in the form of music and dance – with talented troupes providing a taste of the vibrant cultures they left behind: Brazil, India, Colombia, Philippines, Panama and Mexico.

I was duly entertained. And deeply blessed, too – to see such faith bursting forth in the lives of all these folks, my new friends. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for,” we hear in Hebrews, “and evidence of things not seen.”

Thing is, I’ve seen it now. It’s no longer flying under my radar, the faith and love and hope of the fellow parishioners I’d never met before. They pointed toward the truth contained in Christ’s promise:

Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom…an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy…

Yes, I think I’ve seen the truth of it now: It is indeed quite a party that God has planned … for those who stand ready to answer God’s call.

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS