July 30, 2023
I’m learning much these days about the county I now call home: shortcuts to St. Jude’s that keep me off Route 40. The supermarkets with the best sales and local restaurants with hearty breakfasts. The fact that the Amtrak train makes a lot of noise in the dead of night as it soars by the rectory at 2 a.m. on its way to Baltimore. (They keep telling me I’ll get used to it …)
But more than all of these, I am learning that only the second coming of Christ might take precedence over the Cecil County Fair.
Now admittedly, due to parish bulletin deadlines, I am writing about the Fair before I experience it in its fullness. (That will be a future column, no doubt). But even in the days leading up to the event, there is electricity in the air about all that transpires during the week at the Fair Hill Fairgrounds: the tractor pulls; the extreme chainsaw carving (yikes!); the animal shows and 4-H judging. Plus, according to a priest friend of mine who has attended every year since he himself was a toddler, the food is out of this world. He still talks about crab fries and the stuffed baked potatoes!
In all of this, what keeps coming back to me in the conversations had and memories shared is the fact that the County Fair brings people together and unites us in a way that very few things seemingly can these days. We’re together, enjoying life and appreciating the talents of others and the gifts of the natural world. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, in fact, to say that the Cecil County Fair mirrors in a secular way what we as Church should be, too: sharing our time, talent and treasure all for the greater honor and glory of God.
In the Gospel this weekend, our Lord tells us that the Kingdom of God is like a fine pearl and a net thrown into the sea, catching fish of every kind. They are worthy comparisons which all of us can understand.
But to these, I might also add the following (with apologies to Jesus): The Kingdom of heaven is like the Cecil County Fair, where all come together as one to celebrate joy and the gifts that life offers.
I’m just not sure about those chainsaws in the Kingdom, though….