What the Young Lady Did Wrong
The young lady is late again for mass. She hurriedly makes her way up to her usual place right in the front bench of the church, her heels click-clacking nosily on the marble floor. Unmindful that the attention of everybody in the church has been diverted from the first reading onto her, the lady prostrates herself on the floor right in front of the altar in a sign of great reverance before she finally makes it into her place.
She kneels right through the remainder of the service, unconcerned with all the standing, sitting and kneeling going on around her. When it is time for communion, she leaps out of her seat in great haste, trying to make it to the head of her lane, but suddenly moves to the next, because she notices the one serving communion in her lane is a lay person. The young lady believes that Communion should be served only by a priest. Communion received, she doesn't return to her place, click-clacking her way instead right out of the church so that she can be the first out of the parking lot. The young lady doesn't want to be late for work.
What's wrong with what the young lady did at mass?
She got to mass late again
If somebody important invited us to their house and asked us to be punctual, we'd make certain that we were there well before the designated time. We need to do the same thing at Mass. There are, of course, occasions when we might get delayed because of traffic jams, accidents and the like, but these should be one-off instances, not the norm.
She disturbed everybody on the way to her place
If we do get late to church, we should genuflect briefly, sign ourselves in, and quietly slip into the closest available seat near the door we enter through, rather than go prancing about the church distracting other worshippers. If everybody else is kneeling at the time, kneel; otherwise, simply join them in standing or sitting.
She knelt right through the service
The young lady is undoubtedly genuine in her desire to pay homage to God and her kneeling down is a heartfelt sign of respect. Mass, however, is communal worship, and it is important that we participate in the service as a community. This means that we sit together, stand together, and kneel together.
Note: Because there is are slight differences in postures as practiced by different countries, parishioners who go to different parishes may end up confused with when they should kneel or stand, especially during the Eucharistic Prayer. It helps in such cases for the parish priest to say softly: "Please stand" or "Please sit" at the relevant moments. [Also see article: What is the Proper Posture for the Eucharistic Prayer?]
She jumped out of her seat to receive Communion
There are no rules here, really, but in some churches I have seen parishioners go to receive communion row by row. This makes for a very orderly and smooth distribution of communion, with the only drawback being that the persons who are at the end don't get to spend to much time in "communion" with Jesus before the final blessings commence.
The young lady changed lanes
The young lady is not obligated to receive mass from a Eucharistic Minister, but she needs to understand that we must live in the Church of the present day and our Church permits Eucharistic Ministers.
She left church the moment she received Communion
I had the dubious honor of being in a courtroom once. Everybody stood up when the judge rose at the end of the session and nobody took a step in any direction until he had left the courtroom. The priest, in case anybody needs reminding, is in persona Christi, deserving of far more respect. Barring an emergency, one should not only wait until the final blessing is given but until the priest leaves the altar.
E-mail this article to a friend
|
