Sunday, November 06, 2005
CHURCH HOPPING
We tried a different church today--one downtown--an old one. One that looks like a church instead of someone's idea of what a gathering space should look like. The vigil lights in front of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin were lit, and the tabernacle was on the old altar against the wall in the sanctuary...a wall that had a crucifix on it. Thankfully Mass held few surprises, the main one being the infamous "Introduce yourself to your neighbor" before the prayers began. Everyone stood before communion, and a lot of people knelt after, but not all. The acoustics were horrible. When father talked from the pulpit, I could understand only about every third sentence, if that. Fortunately he moved to the center of the sanctuary for the homily because it was a good one.
He talked about the need to have a purpose to life, mentioning the title of the book THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE in the process, and telling an anecdote that ended with the object of life being getting to heaven and taking as many people as possible along with you. That's really what living is about for a Catholic, even though we get sidetracked with the goals the world offers.
He mentioned something else, an ethical will, which he said was a Jewish custom that is taken seriously. As he explained it this is a document drawn up not only for the purpose of leaving some wisdom for the next of kin, but also for the purpose of keeping the writer on track, aiming for the right things. It might be a valuable custom to adopt. Along with the material assets, it would be a good thing to leave a written record for the kids of what their parents found to be most important. And of course the process of deciding what to put in this spiritual legacy would be a motivator for making sure they have a memory of their parents actions matching their parent's written word.
Of course, there is that "parental" element that may be part of the motivation to write. It's never easy to stop parenting. No matter how old they get, we are still just as much older as we were the day they were born; and we want them not to forget it. Giving voice to this desire is a perscription for trouble. There is nothing that will drive a grown kid away faster than parenting when the job is finished. Which leads me to the reason I was in that church this morning.
My daughter has been telling me that she likes it. I wanted to see what she likes. Now the question is do I tell her that I was there and she wasn't, or not? I think that silence on this one is going to be the better part of wisdom.
