Celebrate the Feast!

By Jacques Daniel
Office of Marriage and Family Life

There is a scene from Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol that moves me every time we read or watch it as a family (our favorites are the Muppet version and the Marquee TV filmed theater version starring Nicholas Farrell). It occurs at the very end of the story, after Scrooge has encountered all the ghosts and seen his own past, present, and future in reality, and has woken up in his own bed on Christmas Day. It’s one of my favorite moments from the story because once Scrooge realizes it’s Christmas Day, he knows exactly what needs to be done. He sets in motion a plan to share a feast with his clerk and his family. Not an ordinary meal, but an exquisite feast with all the best foods, complete with choice trimmings. Why? Why does Scrooge do this? How did he know what to do? Having been a miser most of his life, what about this moment calls for the prize turkey he has seen in the shop window? Singing! Whooping! (My own kids giggle every time they experience the pure joy of Scrooge on Christmas Day. “Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!” There is something special going on here that Dickens captures, pointing to a deeper understanding of the meaning of feasting, and that is relevant in these days of the Easter Octave!

This was brought to my mind last week as my wife, Annie, and I were chatting about an interesting experience she had at the dentist. She was at the dentist last week – a special kind of Holy Week penance was before her – and she overheard one of the hygienists talking to another client in the next booth. The conversation ran something like this:

Hygienist: “You know Easter is almost as important as Christmas, but we sure don’t celebrate it that way.”

Poor Soul at the dentist during Holy Week: “I know. Well, I’m excited for….”

Hygienist: Shared her own excitement about Easter celebrations…

Poor Soul: “You know I’m not even really sure what we are celebrating.”

Annie then described what felt like an excruciatingly long silence. Amid the poking and prodding, she wondered what happened next in this conversation. Maybe it’s a question many people have? What are we celebrating these days? Why does the Church call us not just to one day of Easter, but to a whole octave followed by a whole season? Maybe it is fairly obvious. Maybe we’ve heard it so often it’s lost its power. Jesus Christ, our savior, has risen from the dead, just as he said! Alleluia! Do we really believe it, or have we gotten back to business as usual? Is the importance of the Paschal Mystery something that can be savored in one weekend? Should we chuck the bunny decorations and the easter eggs on Easter Monday, just like many do with their Christmas trees?

These are good questions, and some that I’ve been contemplating most of Lent. Not just because it’s been a hard Lent, or because I gave up some monumental thing that I was longing for its return, but mostly because I’ve been slowly reading Josef Pieper’s book, “In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity.” It’s a beautifully philosophical book that seeks to answer the questions: What is festivity? How is it different from work, and how is it different from entertainment or leisure? Is it just that festivity isn’t work, but more of something that’s out of the ordinary? Pieper suggests that, “The real nature of festivity, of course, is not made apparent solely by its contrast to labor…(and) a festival is not just a day without work.” He goes on to explain that true festivity arises from a free and joyful “yes” to the goodness of reality, and ultimately from seeing and LOVING Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and even Being itself. Festivity is an act of love and contemplation of Love. He goes on to point out that festivity doesn’t deny or avoid evil, but confronts it head-on and still allows the person to say with their whole heart, “Yes!” In one of the most moving quotes of the book, Pieper says, “Such affirmation is not won by deliberately shutting one’s eyes to the horrors in this world. Rather, it proves its seriousness by its confrontation with historical evil. The quality of this assent is such that we must attribute it even to martyrs, at the very moment, perhaps, that they perish under brutal assault.” Wow! The martyrs at the moment of their death can be said to enter into the spirit of festivity. He concludes that the highest form of festivity flows from ritual worship and praise of God. Without these qualities, not even the most decadent celebration can bear the name of festivity, leaving a person engaged in it wanting. He identifies that worldly, pseudo-festivals have all the marks of a culture that no longer affirms the goodness of the world, and because of that, cannot truly rejoice. As I have been reading the book, a number of moments have come to mind that exemplify these characteristics of festivity in my own life and have left me longing for more, particularly this Easter.

One summer evening at Totus Tuus Girls camp, I was surrounded by the lovely, energetic nuns who came to camp to witness to the girls the beauty of religious life. That evening, the sisters were sharing their various paths to the communities they were called to, and one of the young nuns asked, “How do your communities celebrate the Lord’s Day?” There was a flurry of ideas and giggling as each community shared how they made Sunday special. For some, it was the only day they would eat pizza. For others, it was ice cream. I watched in awkward silence as I wondered to myself, how does MY family mark this great Solemnity each week? How do the Daniels celebrate the Lord’s Day? Is it just a respite from work? Is there truly a festive attitude to the day? I don’t remember the exact details of my thoughts; I just remember feeling a bit sheepish that, in my own home, where we try really hard to create a vibrant Catholic Culture, Sunday was a day we mostly tried to regroup so we could trudge through another overly busy week ahead. In some years of my life, I spent my Sunday on the couch with a device in hand. If it was a “good” Sunday, it meant that a long nap was taken without interruption. As I reflected on it, none of the things Pieper suggested that should mark a festive day were present in my home. Since then, we’ve tried to be better, to unplug from the distraction and busyness of “regular life” and sink into the graces of the liturgy, to share good food together, to spend time reading in leisure, and, when I’m on top of it, even have a bottle or two of sparkling grape juice at dinner. That is one of the ways we mark an important day in the life of the Daniel house. Glass goblets and sparkling grape juice and lots of cheese!

It reminds me of a memorable encounter Pope Benedict XVI had at a World Meeting of Families, where a little girl asked him about his family life and what it was like when he was little. His response is so moving every time I read it that I feel compelled to share it in full here. He responded: “Sunday was always an important time for our family, but Sunday already began Saturday evening. Father read the readings to us from a book that was very popular in Germany at that time. The book also included an explanation of the readings. That is how Sunday began: we were already entering into the liturgy, in a joyful atmosphere. The next day we went to Mass. My home is very close to Salzburg, so we had a lot of music – Mozart, Schubert, Haydn – and when the Kyrie began, it was as if heaven had opened up. And at home, a big lunch together was naturally important.  And we also sang a lot: my brother is a great musician, he composed music for all of us already as a young man, and the whole family sang. Dad played the zither and sang; they are unforgettable moments. Then, of course, we took trips together, walking; we were near a forest and so walking in the forests was very nice: adventures, games, etc. In a word, we were one heart and one soul, with many shared experiences, even in very hard times, because it was wartime – first there was the dictatorship, then poverty. But this love that we had for each other, this joy even in simple things was strong and so we were able to overcome and endure even these things. I think that it was very important that even little things gave us joy because the other person’s heart expressed itself in this way. And in this way we grew up in the certainty that it was good to be a human being, because we saw that God’s goodness was reflected in our parents and in us children. And, to tell the truth, if I try to imagine a little how paradise will be, I think always of the time of my youth, of my childhood. In this context of confidence, of joy and love we were happy and I think that paradise must be something like how it was in my youth. In this sense I hope to go ‘home,’ going to the other side of the world.”

Imagine feeling that paradise must be something like that! The beauty of these Easter days is such a stark contrast from the necessary penance of Lent, the painful re-living of our Lord’s passion in the Triduum. And yet the whole of Holy Week reaches its culmination in the Easter Vigil liturgy. I think about the smiles on the faces of those who just entered the Church this Saturday evening at the Easter Vigil. Full pitchers of water poured over their heads, heads anointed with Holy Chrism, the whole Cathedral lit up with candles, and yet they could probably light up the room with just their smiles. It’s that joy, that “yes” to Jesus and all the Resurrection has to offer that we must hang on to for 50 days! That is what we are celebrating, and we must remember and celebrate every Sunday as little easter days when the glory of the resurrection breaks through, and we experience the newness of life again fed at the Lord’s table! My prayer is that I’m able to savor it, to enter fully into the “yes” of love, the “yes” of the goodness of life, and abundant life in Christ. It’s my prayer that my family, especially my children, experience these moments of festivity that make their hearts long for paradise, long after Annie and I are gone. So Whoop! Laugh with abandon! Be generous of spirit at your table and in prayer. Surprise others with your joy that Jesus Christ is risen, as He said! Alleluia!

For further reflection on the joy of the resurrection, read this great substack piece: https://theinscapist.substack.com/p/sicut-dixit-166