As I said Saturday, getting to Mass is a big deal for me.
I stayed in all day Sunday, and probably will do the same today.
That’s doubly frustrating, since Sunday morning Mass is one of the two times I get out each week, and I prefer doing my weekly errands Monday afternoon.
But Saturday night and Sunday morning we had freezing fog. There was more in today’s forecast, and looks like we’re in for another session this afternoon.
Getting to Mass is a big deal, but so is avoiding accidents.
Good news: no fog in tomorrow’s forecast, and we’ll see temperatures well below freezing.
More good news: Parishes on the Prairie, our cluster of parishes — there’s a story behind that, which will wait for another time — records the Saturday evening Mass at St. Paul’s the other parish in town, so I could join the “online celebration of the Eucharist” Sunday.
With an “online celebration”, I miss out on the most important part. But it’s what I could do, and it’s better than nothing:
Be aware, if you play this, that the audio level and quality is very uneven. I don’t know what the problem was there.
The humming you’ll hear throughout isn’t just in the video. Fr. Greg mentioned it, along with apologizing for the elevator being out of service. The latter would make it difficult for folks in my situation to get up to the sanctuary.
Anyway, the humming might have been coming from the organ: but it wasn’t. And I’m drifting off-topic.
Two Women, Two Children, and an Important Mission
Before I get back to sitting by the window with a cup of coffee and a P. G. Wodehouse story, something from the Old Testament, and something from the Gospels. Along with my take.
“She conceived and, at the end of her pregnancy, bore a son whom she named Samuel.
‘Because I asked the LORD for him.’The next time her husband Elkanah was going up with the rest of his household to offer the customary sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vows,
Hannah did not go, explaining to her husband, ‘Once the child is weaned, I will take him to appear before the LORD and leave him there forever.'”
(1 Samuel 1:20:22) (emphasis mine)
I haven’t dug into whatever socio-cultural context that bit reflects, or what folks have been saying about it over the last couple dozen centuries.
One thing I did notice was something that would have been unusual, at least, in the culture I grew up in.
Hanna, mother of Samuel, TOLD HER HUSBAND where their son would be living.
Now, my mother might have done something like that — not dropping me off at a temple, but rather telling my father where I’d be going.
But she was emphatically not of the ‘barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen’ persuasion where her role in the household was involved. Or outside the household, for that matter.
My father wasn’t the ‘henpecked husband’ stereotype character — can’t say I’m sorry to see that stock character having been de-emphasized — but he acted as if my mother was a ‘real person’. Which, of course, she is. And that’s another topic. Several, actually.
The Gospel reading was Luke 2:41–52: a vignette called Finding in the Temple, The Boy Jesus in the Temple, and probably more monikers.
There’s a lot going on there, but I’ll wrap this post up with something that strikes me about what happened.
Mary and Joseph’s mission was being parents for the Son of God. They both knew this.
Then, on a fairly routine annual trip to a big city: THEY LOST HIM!!
Under the circumstances, I think Mary’s remarks were extremely calm: even understated.
Finally, the usual vaguely-related posts:
- “Christmas: Family, Lights, and a Little Weirdness”
(December 28, 2024) - “False Mysticism, Spiritual Abuse, and the News”
(November 26, 2024) - “Finally Getting Back to Mass”
(April 22, 2024 ) - “Saints, Depression, Assumptions, and Me”
(March 23, 2024) - “‘Christmas Sermon for Pagans’: Viewpoints, Nature; and Hope”
(December 23, 2023)
Speaking of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple, I remember the Holy Family Mass homily I listened to emphasizing how being the Holy Family did not spare Mary and Joseph from the pain of the downs of life, and I found it pretty enlightening, as it lines up with the Cross, and I feel like I could use more remembering about that too.
The point of the Holy Family having hard times – from the highly irregular matter of Mary’s prenuptial pregnancy and pre-dawn exit from Bethlehem, to Mary’s watching Jesus die – yes!
Our Lord’s yoke may be easy, and the burden light: but I figure we should expect a spot of unpleasantness now and again. 😉
If our Lord’s yoke is easy and light, then how much more painful would hell be, yeah? And we get pieces of the answer to that even here on earth. But knowing that would mean nothing good if we don’t believe in heaven, which is where He made us for.
That “yoke is easy” statement has given me trouble – no, that’s not right: I have let myself get troubled by the apparent disconnect between my occasional troubles and what Jesus said. Compared to the pain of permanent separation from God and all that is good – these ‘spots of unpleasantness’ aren’t all that bad.
I’ll admit that I don’t let myself think too much about what experiencing Hell would be like. For one thing, I had far too much exposure to fire-and-brimstone radio preachers as a youth: so I’ve got massive defenses set up against that sort of thing.
Besides, being motivated by what our Lord says will I/we may look forward to makes more sense to me. Granted, we’ve got precious few details. 1 Corinthians 15 talks about one sort of problem folks have had with the idea of eternal life.
I was going somewhere with this. Let me think.
Right. Jesus made and makes a great deal of sense, and if my life now – glitchy body functions, social problems, and all – is so amazing, and a world that’s so pack with wonders that we’ll probably never run out of reasons for amazement – – – if this life is as good, in spots, as it is: what’s ahead may very well be more and better than I could endure in the here-and-now.
Enough!
Basically: Wow!! What a universe! and even more Wow!! – – – – this reality’s Creator.