(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mass-Blog-for-the-7th-Sunday-of-Ordinary-Time-2025.mp3)
Go to enough Lenten fish fries, and you might associate them with cod, fries and pierogi. Those are popular components, but the primary ingredients of such events are blood, sweat and tears. These are found in the kitchen, the supply room and the church offices behind them, and are shed by fellow souls who somehow put on the best fish fries. These unpaid volunteers keep loyal customers coming back year after year.
The combination of people who put out those hundreds of combo plates every Friday of Lent communicates “welcome” in shorthand. The symbol of a fish did the same thing for early Christians escaping their enemies. Ichthus, the Greek word for fish, combined with the symbol of a fish, were posted on places offering clandestine refuge. The letters of that word served as an acronym for the phrase “Jesus Christ, God the Son, our Savior.”
On this second-last Sunday before Lent, the readings depict forms of mercy symbolic of “Christ,” a Greek title meaning “Anointed One.” Anointing is also a symbolic act, used as a way to “bless” someone before or after a life of service.
Paul tells the Corinthians we humans symbolize the earthly and the heavenly Adams (1 Corinthians 15:45-49). The first Adam birthed life-takers while the second one was life giving. The second Adam saved us from the sins of the first one. We are called to bear the image of the heavenly one in service to one another.
Christ symbolizes love of, and mercy for, enemies. We are to symbolize Christ, who dished these delicacies out abundantly, as blessings. In Sunday’s gospel reading, he reminds us, “The measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Luke 6:27-38)
A good fish fry is a blessing symbolic of life, and like all of us, its volunteers are expected to serve up its delicacies to people whether they like those customers or not. Just as the symbol of a fish represented God’s mercy, we are called to see our enemy as a symbol of God’s anointed—the title Jesus’s earthy ancestor David gave his enemy Saul after deciding not to run him through with a spear. (1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23)
In place of a symbolic fish placed over the doorway of Rappe Hall this year, the St. Michael Holy Name Altar Rosary Society of Independence, Ohio will post a sign dedicating this event to Tony DiSalvo. “Fish Fry Tony,” who passed away not long after last year’s event, got that nickname from vendors who supplied him with the soft drinks, coffee, and miscellaneous items he served up at the event every year.
According to Holy Name Altar and Rosary Society president Gary Mann, “No one could do his job, even when his failing health made it increasingly difficult. Upon his passing we decided to honor his years of work by naming this year’s fish fry after him.”
Tony’s surname is Italian for “of the Savior.” As we work this fish fry of life, let’s wear the symbol of the fish on our hearts and open it for service—and refuge.
–Tom Andel
Tony is smiling from heaven.
And enjoying refreshments.
I didn’t know Tony personally, but it is people like him that in many ways make the world go round. He was one of the many behind the scenes, those unsung hero’s that make it happen when no one is looking.
Newsflash, God is always looking and He misses nothing. Like the mostly unheralded writer of this weekly blog. It goes unnoticed by many, but not by the one who sees all.
Unheralded is my middle name, Thomas, but as you and I have come to learn, life can be Hairy for all of us. Maybe that’s a nickname we must all endure.