Homily Notes, 09-20-20 - Importance of Feast Days

 September 20th, 2020

The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio

What is the role of these feast days in our lives?  Why does the Church present them to us?

Look at the universal whole: an array of beautiful feast days varying in degrees of importance.  Like the night sky full of stars, some shine more brightly than others, but all add the luster of their beauty to the heavens.  The Church is trying to show us these feasts.  Don't let them pass by without giving them any importance.  

How many can identify the principle feast of the month of September?  Is it the Nativity of Our Lady?  The Exaltation of the Cross?  The Sorrows of Our Lady?  It's a tragedy if they pass us by, unaware.  Are you more aware of the secular feasts?  The world celebrates them "religiously" -- and there is nothing really wrong with that -- except that these feasts are disconnected by anything higher than the natural world.

On a basic level, the feasts of the Church offer us an opportunity to have order and structure in our life.  It's far more important than we realize.  Without reference points, we quickly become lost; we lose sense of direction.  Our time is the same: we make sense of our time when we have consistent reference points to which we always return, and it's important that those reference points are associated with God. With that as a guide, it gives us a sense of our place in time.  It gives order and structure to our lives.

Each feast gives a measure of tremendous graces.  St. Matthew's feast day is a 2nd class feast -- even there is immense treasure in that!  It gives us the opportunity to grow in our supernatural relationship with this human being who, like us, was a sinner, but he converted.  The saints have a great love and care for us, even when we have little knowledge of them.  They still show great care and attention to the good of our souls.  We have a chance to grow in familiarity with them.  Feast days give us a chance to grow in our love of the Church. We can come to understand deeply what the Church is, and grow in love of the Church, through the feast days.  Matthew is an apostle, one of the men chosen by Christ to be a pillar of His Church.  The feast of St. Matthew is an opportunity for us to grow in love of the Gospel.... a beautiful Gospel!  Everything we read about Jesus is a window into the mind of Our Lord and God.   Read a chapter a day.  Spend a few minutes with a desire to get to know Our Lord better.  These are treasures beyond anything we can imagine.

Because all these feast days are here, it is an opportunity for rituals: to celebrate.  God made us -- the only reason God made us is to know, love, and serve Him.  We were created to be happy.  And that is why he drew us out of nothing.  It's a sobering and beautiful thought.  I'm here to be happy!  This world is tough - a vale of tears.  But God does not intend for us to be miserable; that is not His goal.  Feast days are an opportunity to rest and celebrate, and to link them with the joy of Heaven.  Where do all these good and nice things in the world come from?  What is their source?  They reference us back to God.

Make the effort to use the feast days as reference points -- the joys and the sorrows -- to live in the rhythm of God.  Our goal is to be filled with the fullness of God.  But it is only possible if we live in his river -- we have to order our time on how HE wants us to.  So set aside these days.  Go to Mass if you can.  Open your heart to the infinite riches that the Church gives us.  We will be better able to live with God in this life and better prepared to enjoy His company, and the company of the saints, for all eternity.