Welcome, Ven a gozar!

I went to an organized church function on Saturday. It was disconcerting attending a function that they has changed little over the years. I imagine it is the same with all organized religious services, but maybe not, as I have not experienced that many different religious services. This particular one was only different in the level of the priest(s) conducting the event.

They spent many minutes telling us - the audience - how great they were, and what they had been doing the last month or so. One of the two shared that he had been in the Pope’s presence earlier in the week celebrating a mass. While it is all good and wonderful that they were having such wonderful things happening in their lives, I thought the news could have been saved for a different time. For some of the people attending the event, I am sure the only vacations they have ever enjoyed were the summer break of their school years when they were too young to work.

The bragging portion of the event finished reminding everyone that the event was not a formal service and they were not excused from their obligation of attending service on Sunday, such as they are directed by the Church. I found it interesting that they did not feel the same restraint when it came to passing the hat for collecting money during the initiation. It also was not a substitute for the Sunday collection. As the basket came by me, I wondered, if I were a member of the church, would the leaders be hurt if I just donated an amount twice as large today and skipped showing up tomorrow? It always seemed that money is the main point of some church services.

The people for whom the service was being held ranged in age from teenagers to gray haired adults. While these people were being celebrated, they were also being admonished. They were reminded many of the do nots that every parent tries to ingrain into their children as they grow up. I thought the chastising was a little late in time, not to mention the months worth of classes they went through to get to that point.

The high point for me was listening to a three year old girl talking to her best friend a few seats away. She had a lot more important ideas to share than the droning coming over the speaker system. She informed her friend that when she was a baby she lived inside her mother’s body. Now that she is not a baby any longer she lives with her mother but not by choice. That in itself I thought was quite a revelation for a three year old, but there was more important information she needed to share still coming.

The little girl prattled on as an self proclaimed expert in many subjects that most three year olds have little awareness of. At one point she notified her friend that she lived with her mother for reasons other than she was birthed by her. She told her friend that she was born by her mother because that was the only way she could be with her sister who arrived before her. She loved her sister and did not like being separated. She then said that if it was not for her sister she did not know if she would have been born by her mother. I am sure that comment made Mom feel a little dejected.

For my part I suppose I did not add much to the service, as I spent the better part of an hour with one ear listing to the droning, and a more attentive ear listening to a three year old talk about love, and life both here and before. I thought it was a sad state for the celebration, or perhaps a sad state for myself when a three year old captured my attention over the service. I doubt my absence was noticed by anyone as they were trying hard to pretend the droning litany was a new revelation which they never contemplated before.

I always find young children’s thoughts fascinating. They talk about things when asked the right questions with such authority that sometimes I wonder how little water they drank at the river Plato wrote about. Of course just like the rest of us, a few years later if they were to be asked the same questions they would look up with a clueless expression and say they don’t know anything about that.

Comments (0) Apr 22 2008