A few
summers back (I think it was the summer after Junior year in high school), I
was introduced to the anime show Clannad.
As the name would suggest (it’s Gaelic for “family”), the show revolves around
the family and community, especially for a group of high schoolers. One of the
characters in the show, Nagisa, is obsessed with the Dango Daikazoku (Big Dango
Family). When I first
saw this video sequence, I was absolutely overjoyed. It was so cute, so sweet,
and…so remarkably true of our Faith. Though people may think me crazy, I think
the Dango Daikazoku (as well as the two seasons of this anime) has a lot to do
with our call to love. I mean, why did God put us here? According to the
Baltimore Catechism, it’s: To know, love, and serve Him in this life, so as to
be happy with Him in the next.
But see,
Catholicism isn’t an individualized, “I’m serving God so I go to Heaven, and the rest of you are losers.” It is very
explicit in Scriptures, starting in Genesis with the creation of Man and Woman,
that God created us for community.
“The LORD God said: It is not good for the man
to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him. So the LORD God formed out of the ground all the
wild animals and all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to
see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was
then its name. The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the
air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the
man.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep
on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up
its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had
taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, the man
said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man this one has been taken.” That
is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two
of them become one body.” ~Gen 2:18-24
This summer, I was pondering this
universal, incredible call to communion a lot, as my family, myself, Jacob, and
his family all prepared for the wedding. Preparing for the wedding and wedding
reception this summer was basically what Heaven will be like (minus little bits
of stress here and there). As we prepared for the wedding, so many people gave of themselves to help us in any possible way.
So many people were going out and buying appetizers for the reception, a friend
of ours spent hours planning, fine-tuning, and taking charge of the reception
hall set up; neighbors I barely knew polished some of our silverware; lots of
friends spent hours setting up the reception hall the day before; a friend of
ours donated tons of her time to sew clothes for the Wedding Party; the choir
director and organist at St. Anthony’s spent much time preparing with the choir
for the Mass; Fr. Hoisington spent a lot of time making sure that he (and we)
knew the ins and outs of Extraordinary Form weddings; a parish priest spent a
bunch of extra time making sure that we had all of our necessary marriage prep
done…the list goes on and on…
Oh yeah, and get this: when I was
in the bride’s room getting ready for the wedding, my mom came down stairs and
said “Honey, you will have very clean steps for the church today.” St. Anthony’s
is downtown, not in the best area, and there are lots of poor, homeless, and
down-on-their luck people in that area. Apparently, this man came by the church
looking for funds. One of the parishioners who is in charge of opening the
church told this man that if he swept the steps clean for our wedding, she
would pay him a little something.
As soon as my mom told me this, I
pretty much lost it. Those tears tried to come trickling out, and I’m not sure
that I kept all of them back. A poor man that I didn’t even know was sweeping
the steps to the church. This incident was a perfect gift from St. Francis; I
felt that he was sending this man to be helped, but also to help and be a part
of the community contributing to our wedding and marriage.
Well, I continued to be overflowed with joy as I processed
down to Jacob in the church. I was so abundantly full of joy and love that my
father was leading me down the aisle so I could marry Jacob, giving my life
completely over to him and God. And then it happened. Our vows. So epic. See,
in Extraordinary Form weddings, the marriage ceremony happens at the beginning—before the priest even
begins to celebrate the Mass! So, Jacob and I were married (so completely epic!!!),
but then we became simply participants, for
the Mass then begun. I just think this reality is so BEAUTIFUL, for our
marriage leads people to God, and mirrors the communion that God desires with
us. So we get married, and then the priest offers the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Being newly married for an entire liturgy was beautiful,
epic, and awesome. Words can’t even describe the occasion. But then, the
reception of Communion blew me away more so than usual. Not only was receiving Communion
with my husband super epic (for the
nuptial bond of man and wife so clearly images the nuptial bond that Christ desires
with each of us in the Eucharist!!), but so
many people were brought to the Eucharist! The priest had to go back to the
Tabernacle to acquire more Consecrated Hosts once or twice, because there were
so many Catholics receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist. God flooded me with so
much joy at all of the people that came to receive Him on that day. EPIC!!!!
And the epicness just continues. We’re in October now, which
is a ridiculously blessed month! We began October with the Feast of St.
Therese, the Little Flower. Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels, who are
epic (pray to your guardian angel today! Be extra nice!). Tomorrow there are
just lots of cool saints who aren’t on the liturgical calendar and I’ve never
heard of (but hey, they are awesome, because they are saints, and you could
learn about them!). Friday is *drumroll* ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI!!!!
PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!! Saturday is Blessed Bartholomew Longo, who was a Satanic High
Priest before he converted (one of my new favorites. Seriously, the Basilica in
Pompeii—which sadly, I have not been to—is the only Catholic basilica built by
an ex-Satanist. God wins BIG TIME!!!). Sunday would be St. Bruno (founder of the Carthusians) except that it’s a
Sunday, and Monday is Our Lady of the Rosary!!!!! So we’re starting off
big-time with lots of saints. And at the end of the month, some extremely epic
days—it’s like a Triduum of Saints. Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls
Day are days that we can and should especially focus on the extreme epicness of
the Church’s communion and saints and God and awesome stuff like that. It’s
just cool.
Here's a gem from our Holy Father Pope Francis (not to be confused with our Holy Father Francis of Assisi) :) all about the community of the Church!
“The image of the
church I like is that of the holy, faithful people of God. This is the
definition I often use, and then there is that image from the Second Vatican
Council’s ‘Dogmatic Constitution on the Church’ (No. 12). Belonging to a people
has a strong theological value. In the history of salvation, God has saved a
people. There is no full identity without belonging to a people. No one is
saved alone, as an isolated individual, but God attracts us looking at the
complex web of relationships that take place in the human community. God enters
into this dynamic, this participation in the web of human relationships...
The
people itself constitutes a subject. And the church is the people of God on the
journey through history, with joys and sorrows. Thinking with the church,
therefore, is my way of being a part of this people."
Have a ridiculously blessed day, everybody!!!
