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Words For The Wind
Dear Friends,
It is so hard to get God right. I
mean we are so conditioned to think that God is
primarily in one way or another concerned about our
behavior.
People still bring their little
kids to church thinking that they have to be good. If
they fuss, parents get nervous and worry about what
people are saying about them.
Every once in awhile a parent
entering church will bring their child to me and
indicate that I will somehow be mad if their kid acts
up.
I am on the kid’s side. We have a
lot to learn from those children, believe me.
Just take a second look at what
Jesus did in the temple in the Gospel story this
weekend. He caused a ruckus, a big ruckus.
In reality, He had a temper
tantrum. He lost it!
The religious experience of His day
had become rigid, impersonal, not at all pleasant, and
hardly exciting to the people.
The folks were manipulated,
deceived, and given to believe that they had no voice in
the worship of God.
Worship, real worship, is beyond
most of us most of the time.
Many of us grew up with rigid
behavior expectations for church. Silence, folded hands,
downcast eyes, decorum, and above all no bare shoulders
have an importance that is outlandish.
The obsession with apparel for
church that we find in some circles is ridiculous.
We have become so conditioned to
what a religious experience is supposed to be that we
are usually immune to experiencing something new
happening each weekend when we come to Mass.
At our recent Trunk or Treat, I had
a parent tell me that his kids love to come to Mass,
really love to come to Mass.
That is the best thing that I ever
heard. I have come to realize recently and have said
that I am the luckiest man on earth to be able to do
what I do when I do it and, especially, where I do it.
Children bring an honesty to their
lives that most of us lose. We start worrying about what
people think.
Real prayer in the liturgy expects
us to be ourselves. The children are themselves,
usually, without pretension. The risen body of Christ
that the Gospel story talks about is a real body, a
noisy body like all bodies.
Saint Augustine began praying with
this prayer: “May I know me!”.
Watch and listen to the children as
they show us the “me” that they are. Think about it!
Peace,
Father Niblick
PS I am marking my 63 birthday in
Scotland and write this on Wednesday morning after being
up all night watching the election returns.
President-elect Obama has a very full plate. Our nation
is wonderful example of people working hard to get it
right. The non-stop coverage on all of the major
European television networks is amazing to me. Our way
of doing things in a democracy is messy and time
consuming and flawed but it sure inspires people.
Senator McCain in defeat showed the world that when all
is said and done, we get our act together and keep
working to get it right.
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