This year’s Labor Day Mass Aug. 30 at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Maryland unlike most liturgies, was sprinkled throughout with both celebrations and homilizing. 

After receiving three unsatisfactorily muted replies to his “Good afternoon” greeting following the processional hymn “All Are Welcome,” St. Camillus pastor Father Brian Jordan, a Franciscan, said even more loudly, “This is not a wake. This is a celebration! This is Labor Day!” 

He also told the union members gathered inside the church that the word “Church” is derived from the Greek word for “community.” Father Jordan added, “We’re all VIPs here – very important people of God.” 

In his homily, Father Jordan said that union members and sympathizers, both then and now, have faced discrimination and retaliation. He cited the example of Mary “Mother” Jones, a fiery union supporter for decades who spent the last of her 99 years in Maryland.  

“There’s a shrine to Mother Jones” in Adelphi, about two miles from St. Camillus, Father Jordan noted. After Communion, the parish choir sang what was said to be Mother Jones’s favorite hymn, “Be Thou My Vision.” 

Noting the political and ideological antagonism rife within American society, Father Jordan exhorted his assembly, “We don’t need another Civil War. Put pride to the side and let God inside.” 

Father Jordan also quoted two presidents’ inaugural addresses eight years apart. At Dwight Eisenhower’s first inauguration in 1953, he said, “A person that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” 

The other quotation came from John Kennedy, the nation’s first Catholic president, in 1961. “The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it –  and the glow from that fire can truly light the world,” Kennedy said on that chilly January day, before continuing with the quotation for which he continues to be most remembered: “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” 

The Mass was celebrated in the midst of two victories in late August that could be significant for the labor movement. In a National Labor Relations Board case, the board ruled that any employer found liable for firing a worker trying to bring a union to their workplace would be forced to recognize and bargain with the union. Also, the Labor Dept. has proposed a rule that would greatly expand who is eligible for overtime pay. 

A front-pew occupant at the Mass was Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. Father Jordan had recalled how, 30 years before, then-Gov. Parris Glendening, while visiting St. Camillus, said he was going to get stricter gun control laws on the books, working with the state’s legislators to do so. Commenting on the pervasiveness of gun violence at the time, Glendening said, “Enough is enough.” Glendening achieved his goal.  

Moore, in a brief press availability following the Mass, said he had no single issue to roll out as Glendening did in the early 1990s, but he would continue working with lawmakers to introduce “bold” but “fiscally responsible” legislation to benefit the state and its residents. 

Steamfitters Local 602 had by far the largest presence at the Mass, taking up most of one of the six sections of the church, including five pews where Local 602 members were shoulder-to-shoulder. The union also had a tent outside St. Camillus, offering light refreshments after the Mass.  

Local 26 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Local 639 of the Amalgamated Transit Union were also well-represented at the Mass, and Lodge 35 of the Fraternal Order of Police in Montgomery County had three police officers present. 

Before the prayer over the gifts, Father Jordan asked the police to stand to be recognized. The priest acknowledged that police have been responsible for some abuses, but noted that police work is a profession where it’s been hard to attract good candidates, and that they carry out a challenging task each time they put on their badge. Father Jordan asked for – and got – a round of applause for the police. 

With the help of the workers and unions present at the Aug. 30 Mass, Father Jordan declared, “next year we’re going to fill this church.”