Well, it’s Monday, and I’d like to start the week out with a little dose of humor to fuel the thought-fire on this rainy day. This weekend I had the distinct honor of attending my 7 year-old niece’s first Holy Communion. While I haven’t been to Mass in quite sometime (I was raised both Catholic and Methodist by divorced parents) there were a few instances of dogma and practice that made me chuckle throughout the morning:
First, I had forgotten how frequently the congregation is asked to respond, “Lord have mercy,” before the administration of the Eucharist. This may not strike some of you as funny, but after years of listening to reggae, it seems I have lost the ability to sing “Lord have mercy” the “white” way. Naturally, each time the response was called for, I belted my best Rasta “lawd ‘av mercy”, and found that this made mass much more enjoyable for me. Hopefully those around me weren’t too offended, but if they were I think such an injection of humor into their lives could be a great folk remedy for the “I take myself too seriously” disease plaguing contemporary America.
Secondly, it is customary throughout Catholic mass for the congregation to respond to certain phrases spoken by the priest with a pre-ordained mantra, as I alluded to earlier. Hands-down, the funniest of these exchanges occurs at the very close of the service: the Priest concludes mass by announcing, “The mass has ended. Go in peace,” while the congregation replies, “Thanks be to God!” I found it very funny that the close of church is announced and every one basically shouts, “Praise the lord!”; although, I must give some respect to the Catholics for consistently modeling the practice of counting ALL blessings in life, including the closing of a long church service.
While paths through our universe—and maybe other universes, too—are many and rather diverse, truth is always one. Though I would never proclaim to be an avid church-goer—or religious in the traditional sense of the word—I find that the divine follows wherever one is willing to look; and for a sinner like me that could even mean church.
