Titular Feast
What is a titular feast? The word "titular" simply refers to the title of the church. If a church is called Epiphany, then the titular feast is the feast of Epiphany. Likewise, if a church is called St. Mark's, then the titular, or patronal feast, is the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist. Straightforward enough. But why have a feast day for it at all?
Historically, title and patronal feasts originated as a church was built on the site of a significant event (e.g., the Church of the Holy Sepulcher), or if the church housed the relics of a saint (e.g., St. James’ relics at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela). In honor of the saint or the location, people would gather at the building on their feast days for the special services. You may rightly suggest that we don't need to be physically near the bones of a saint in order to celebrate how God used them. However, early in the history of the church, there were several heresies that sought to devalue the physical, going so far as to call the physical evil. One of the ways that the church sought to correct this heresy was by recognizing the importance of physical places where God worked miracles or the bones of an important saint.
While I don’t think we would call the physical world of God’s creation evil (though evil certainly exists in it), we sometimes function as though the physical world does not matter. Why someone would want to be near relics doesn’t make sense to us. Aren’t they in a better place? Yet, in thinking this way, we forget that they are awaiting the redemption of the world. The fact that they are apart from their bodies reflects that the work of God is not yet done. We await a new heaven and a new earth, not a different heaven or different earth, but a renewed one, one that looks very much like the best of the one around us. In the same way, we await our glorified bodies, not different bodies. If we got new and different bodies, we wouldn’t be holding to redemption or glorification; we would be espousing reincarnation. God is concerned with your specific and personal biology and chemistry; that is what he is redeeming. The bones of all the saints who have gone before us still participate in some way with that person because they contain the hope of resurrection and redemption. The same is said for physical places; they contain the fingerprints of divine redemption.
This principle is witnessed in Scripture, where the people of God are called to remember the mercies of God. In Exodus 13:3, we are told, “So Moses said to the people, ‘Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand.'” Furthermore, there are events in Scripture that deal with putting up something physical to remember the work of God. An example can be seen in Exodus 17:15, where Moses builds an altar in thanksgiving to God and calls it “the Lord is my banner”. A similar situation, where a monument is placed and named after God’s divine aid, is in 1 Samuel 7:12, when Samuel places an “Ebenezer” (stone of help), to remember God’s aid in the battle where Israel defeated the Philistines. The people of God are called to remember his works, to build sites that help us remember God’s work of redemption. It reminds us that God is very much concerned about the physical and that he is redeeming it all to his glory.
Following in this vein, churches have celebrated their titular and patronal feasts to give thanks to God and honor the work that he is doing in people and places and through events tied to his redemptive work. They have celebrated the feasts through offering God due praise and worship in Holy Communion, bringing out all the best they have and going above and beyond in celebration, and also by enjoying time with one another as the body of Christ.
Here at All Saints, we have so much to give thanks to God for. The faithfulness that he has shown in the past 24 years, the faithfulness of the MacGregors and those who have been with All Saints for many years, as well as the recent growth of the parish, whether through the birth of babies, new families coming, and those who are finding the church and the liturgy of their youth which they thought had been lost. We have been abundantly blessed. So, we celebrate our titular feast of All Saints on Saturday at 4:30, with a Solemn High Mass to the honor and glory of God, with hearts of thanksgiving.
God's Peace,
Fr. Aaron