Two thumbs up for the 61st Annual St. Patrick’s Dinner/Dance and congratulations to the organizing committee. You deserve an Academy Award. As much as I was impressed with the food and the party, I was also enthused and overawed by those who prepared for that wonderful and very successful dinner. I saw a community working together from our schoolteachers, the extended care group and students, who decorated the place the day before, to the Sports Committee, parent and parish volunteers, who did the clean up the following day. Everything and everybody was just laudable. Jack Jordan and the kitchen crew have never failed to impress us all these years. Mike Downing tirelessly aided us, despite being already excused to be somewhere else. Too many workers to thank, but I would like to make special mention of Marie Carr and Colleen Durkin. To all of you who have participated in this annual dinner, thank you for your continued support.
That night I learned one Irish Gaelic word, and it is, “Failte” (pronounced as ‘Fault-cha’) that means “Welcome!” Now let me return the favor of teaching you one Filipino word that’s easy to remember. It is “Sopas”, that means “Soup”.
Last weekend when I heard the announcement at the Masses about the Soup Supper on all the Wednesdays of Lent, I could not help but smile. The announcement went like this: “You are all invited to our Soup Supper…It starts with the Station of the Cross at 6PM, followed by a delicious homemade soup in the Flanagan Center, and Benediction in the Chapel.” I asked myself why the Soup Supper was mentioned first, before the Stations of the Cross. In this Lenten season, people should be invited primarily to the Stations of the Cross and the soup supper should come as a bonus, the so-called “Glory” after doing and praying the Stations.
But the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that the order of the announcement was correct. It made me reflect on our Lenten journey to the joy of Easter. In fact, it allowed me to go further reflecting on our life’s journey to the promise of eternal life in heaven. We celebrate Lent because there is an Easter. But of course, there could be no Easter without a Good Friday; there could be no glory without sacrifice. As we simply put it, “no pain, no gain.”
There is a heaven that we look forward to. Without the thought of heaven, our life would be meaningless; our journey is incomplete.
May we look forward to that ‘Sopas’ Dinner in the Heavenly kingdom prepared by our Father who says to us, “Failte!”
SoupFAZ