1 Kings 8:65 "So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days." 

This seven-day feast is the culmination of the dedication of the Temple that Solomon built. All of Israel joined in this celebration. I can only imagine the joy, wonder, and pride the Israelites must have felt when they saw this most amazing and holy of places finally completed and dedicated to the Lord. There was complete unity among the people over this wondrous thing. 

This is the kind of unity I would love to get back to, and that God is calling us back to. We are all so fractured right now, in our families, in our nations, and even in the Church, but God wants us to come together in joyful celebration of His gifts - that is what every Mass is, in fact!

I think this kind of unity is only possible in God. The Israelites were celebrating the building of the Temple, the House of the Lord. I am sure they had differences of opinion on many things, but not on God, and not that this Temple was a wonderful thing. As our culture and much of the world become more and more secular, it seems we try to find unity and celebration in other things. We celebrate secular holidays almost religiously, and we secularize religious holidays so that all can be included. But these celebrations are never as meaningful and unifying as we try to make them be, because they are not about God, but about human things, and we will never all agree on human things.

God is the only true unity. He is One, and He wants to gather all of us into His Oneness. When we celebrate things that recognize His place, as the Jews did here, unity comes naturally, it is a reflection of His unity. To feel this level of unity again, then, I have to continue praying for the conversion of souls. If all come to look towards God in His rightful place, we will all truly have reason to celebrate again.