The June lectionary each year seems to be brimming over with special celebrations and liturgical feasts. In addition to the usual Sunday celebrations of Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, the month of June now includes the yearly secular observances of Father’s Day and the Juneteenth holiday. It seems that many June days are given over to a special occasion. All of these must vie additionally with graduation celebrations and anniversary commemorations. June days are jam-packed with happy moments.
Occasionally, it is a challenge to bring the light of God’s Word to shine on events, that while they may be especially important, do not necessarily coincide with the current liturgical readings. Our clergy try their best to use the Church’s lectionary to highlight other special moments in the lives of our people – even when an observance has a secular origin. Occasionally that can be a challenge. The scriptural lessons we find at Mass often collide with other moments in our lives.
For all our proud graduates, I urge you to reflect on not only what you have achieved but what God has done in your life – giving you a quality education, loving family members and many supportive friends. The academic achievements that you have attained should cause you to reflect on all that you have received as pure gift through the generosity of others – most especially from God – as well as all that you have accomplished through your hard labors and skills.
Happy anniversaries are not simply rewards for endurance and stamina, but they are also occasions to recall God’s fidelity in your life. Hallmark provides a list of gift items that are often associated with a particular anniversary. These gifts tend to become more valuable and cost more with each anniversary. Almost every person who has managed to reach a particular anniversary will most likely tell you that the spiritual dimensions of each year are priceless.
Father’s Day falls on Sunday and that is a happy coincidence since Sundays always place Our Heavenly Father at the center of our worship. While we will pause to honor dads, grandads, and stepdads, our hearts should know that the Father of us all outranks even the best dads in any of our lives.
It is easy to blend these celebrations as somehow co-equal in importance. Faith tells us that even those which arise apart from any liturgical moment can often help us to find God’s presence even in them. And these secular moments are enriched when seen through the prism of faith. June is a month filled with happy moments – made even happier when we allow God His proper place in each one of them.
(Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, writes his “What I Have Seen and Heard” column for the Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)
