What a beautiful morning! The crisp air feels so good to the skin,
after a heat wave it’s nice to get a taste of the coolness of fall even if it’s
just in the early mornings before the California sunshine takes over (smile). Every Sunday, after assisting with RCIA I
pick up my mom and nephew and we head to the 1PM Mass together. Lately, my nephew has been irritating me
during the service because he keeps interrupting my worship with, “is it almost
time to leave,” complaints. Am not sure
how to transmit the beauty of the liturgy.
I was thinking of telling him something like, “God only asks for one
hour of your time the entire week, don’t you think that’s a small amount to
offer?” But he’s smart and sometimes when a certain priest gives longer
homilies he might be like, “that was more than an hour.” Yet, I understand his frustration and the
frustration of many children and even adults in attending Sunday Mass. We have been condition with a mentality of
doing things in relation to what we get out of it. For a child (or a Catholic only by name adult)
it can seem long, boring and antiquated.
I think protestant churches cash in on this and make their services
completely emotionally based, where people go to worship and leave feeling
elated. Yet, our church hasn’t changed (for
the most part) in celebrating the Eucharist over time because it values Tradition
both with a capital and lowercase T. For
the modern mind stepping into a Catholic service does feel like traveling back
in time and for many who are accustomed to our modern, technological world it’s
hard to make that transition. Especially
for children who have grown up in a world where television, IPads, computer and
electronic games motivate much of their play time.
Even for me
when I returned to the Catholic Church, after attending protestant churches –
where on Christmas Eve service snow fell from the ceilings as the service came
to a close- the Mass was a real BIG change.
And it took me a couple years to go consistently. So, I understand my nephew and my students in
RCIA class who also think the Mass is boring.
I had an atheist friend who loved to challenge me when I reverted. He was like, “I have been in outer space and
I have not found God in the heavens- He just doesn’t exist.” To which I replied, “Well according to C.S. Lewis
you don’t have to travel that far to miss Him, God is everywhere we just need the
proper lenses to see Him.” When we enter
the Mass we need proper lenses of humility to accept that worship is not about
us. It’s not about my emotions and what
I get out of it. It’s about God - of
remembering His salvific act and bow in amazement because God so loves the world. It’s
a celebration par excellence. But it’s
also a celebration where we are invited to come from the depths of our freewill
(no emotional exploitation) because God never coerces. I haven’t found the words yet to explain to
my nephew the beauty that he is missing through his complaints, but I think that
words might not suffice… He needs an encounter to appreciate the
Eucharist. I know that I did. To me it came the day that I participated in
the celebration of the Mass at Saint Peter’s Square with Pope Francis. That day I finally understood the
celebration- I understood that it wasn’t about me. When the trumpets announced the entrance of
Jesus at the beginning of the service, as the Pope and his mates processed I
saw the King of Kings, Jesus walking in and it clicked. The celebration of the Mass is not about the
preacher giving inspiring pep talks, or of the priest doing many rituals or of
me leaving with new insight- it’s about the real presence of Jesus! He’s actually present and I am invited to be
there with Him and share in the most intimate meal. Wow!
This pic taken by me on that special day.
I can’t
talk my nephew into an encounter, so I place him in situations where his eyes
might be opened. He’s in Catechism of
the Good Shepherd and with all his complaints he still goes to Sunday service
every week with me. I also pray for him
and hope that one day he will be converted in this area. That like me he will learn to love the Mass
especially the extraordinary services where all the bells and whistles, all the
trumpets and incense are pulled out to make the celebration more
beautiful.
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