Come Home4Dinner!

Home4Dinner is Sunday, September 29, after the 10 am Mass, the only Mass that weekend.

Dear Sisters and Brothers –

In my homily last weekend, I shared one of the primary lessons my extended family taught me at the dinner table when I was a child. Whether it was around my Sicilian grandmother’s dining room table, or at the kids’ table when we gathered with the aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother’s side of the family, it was important – essential, actually – to regularly get everyone together as a family. It was monthly with Nana and Grandpa and more or less quarterly with the Sparrys. And all those dinners were command performances!

It was around those tables we learned what it is to be family and that, while we were bound by blood and a common ancestry, those alone would not make us family in a deep way. It was while eating THE BEST Italian food in the world that I watched family members with different deeply held convictions forcefully argue with one another, not change their minds, and move onto other topics where their respect and affection for one another were evident. It was there that I learned that I could peacefully live with the frustration of a cousin who always tried to cheat at card games, because he was so dear to me. These lessons were only possible because of the time we spent together at those tables.

And those dinners were magical, in a way. The smell of good food permeated the houses. The warmth of laughter and shared stories filled the rooms. As a kid, I know my parents heard me say too often, “Do I hafta go?” But as the years went by, like my siblings and cousins, I came to treasure those dinners. Nana was not a theologian, but she knew intuitively why Jesus asked his disciples to remember him with a meal. And the Sparrys didn’t have theology degrees, but they understood the importance of gathering the whole family together – to be a more tightly woven family, to be a family rooted in love, a family that belonged to one another.

Last weekend, I recalled an experience I had while presiding at a special Mass on Pentecost Sunday five years ago. Because we had a special celebration that day, many people who usually attended other Masses came to the 10 am. The church was packed, and the singing filled both the great space above us and our hearts. Joy and the Holy Spirit were palpable. Then we adjourned to a great feast out on USF’s Gleason Library plaza. That experience helped me to understand at a “felt” level why the women in my family required those dinners so long ago. That was the inspiration for St. Ignatius Parish’s Home4Dinner events.

That Pentecost Sunday was extraordinary. I also believe deeply that God enjoyed being with us in that special way that day, and enjoyed that we were together in that special way. In order that the experience would not be a one-off, I extended Nana’s “warm obligation” to all parishioners to come Home4Dinner once a month for four months in the fall and winter of 2019-20. Those Masses and “dinners” provided God the opportunity to bind us more deeply into a parish faith community. I believe that God wants to do the same with us now. Though we are bound by our common baptism and our faith in Jesus, just as my relatives needed time together to become family, so we need to spend time together to become the Body of Christ in the world.

I am asking all St. Ignatius parishioners to join us for Home4Dinner four times this year. The first one is next week. There will be only one Mass that weekend, at 10 am, followed by “dinner” in McLaren Hall on the USF campus. Please plan to join us. In order that we have enough food, please sign up using the QR code or find the link on the website and in our email newsletter. The event is free, but if you would like, you may make a donation to offset the costs of the meal. Also, we need your help to make Home4Dinner happen, so please sign up to help this week or on the day itself. And bring a friend!

I look forward to seeing you there. In the meantime,

oremus pro invicem.