When Things Don't Seem Right

 

I’ve always said intercessory prayers to St. Joseph, but in recent times they have become more focused, as I recognized him as a carpenter who can create new fixes to unique problems --- like mine.  I had a total ear blockage recently, which confused the doctor, but which totally cleared as I stood in front of a statue of St. Joseph at my local church.  But that was just the start.

Last week, while praying in an adoration chapel named in honor of St. Joseph, I thought about an invite I had received to the first mass of a newly ordained priest --- who I didn’t recall meeting.  The mass was at St. Joseph’s church in another town, but on researching, I found was a 20-mile straight line from the chapel where I prayed, and right on the corner of the crossroad.  I answered the invite with a question about where we met, and the (still) deacon John politely wrote back that he understood my forgetting because “you meet so many people”, but we did have some meetings, he said, and he read my blog.  I changed his life, he said, so he invited me to his first mass, and the family gathering afterward.  Family?  At the mass, his first sermon was very insightful; I may have forgotten him, but I will get to know him more in the future. 

Also last week, a friend had said to me that she was glad the Latin mass was gone “because nobody could understand it.”  I briefly explained how it was part of the global unity of Catholics and said that I still had the childhood missal that I used at mass on my coffee table.  Glancing at it, I told her how the mass words were in Latin were on the left pages, while the English translation was on the opposite pages.  I understood what was being said, despite not speaking Latin.  And it was then that I noticed the first page of that missal, which had my name and age (13), and that the book was named: The Saint Joseph Daily Missal. 

All these things about St. Joseph led my mind to perceive a unity about them, like the unity of the church.

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When I went Fr. John’s first mass, I was put off by the interior décor of the St. Joseph’s church where it was held.  Where things were and how they looked were foreign to me (kind of like that Latin mass to my friend, I guess).  There were no stained-glass windows, no vigil candles, and the few statues were “modern art” in appearance.  I didn’t “feel” like I was in a holy place, a Catholic church.  Before mass, I sat in the back reading my morning prayers, and I could hear people talking all around me --- but, their noise didn’t seem to bother me like at other churches I attended.  I perceived the noise as being friends and family speaking to each other; I perceived a quiet love there.  I had noticed that the choir area near the altar had lots of drums, and I expected loud modernistic music, in line with the décor, but at mass only a pianist played, and the choir and mass attendees sang hymns and psalms together in volume, one not dominating the other.  After mass, Fr. John thanked me for coming and for what I did for him “and people around the world” --- obviously referencing my blog.  We will have much more to speak of in the future, but meanwhile he prayed over me.

It was on the drive home afterward that I became more aware of the farmlands all around me.  Away from a large city, the people lived more apart, but as demonstrated at the church, seemed to know each other better than people at my suburban church.  I don’t pretend to understand it all, but the strangeness of the St. Joseph names, the church décor, the beautiful mass, and my meeting this new priest created within me an atmosphere of family, community, and belonging.  As part of his sermon, Fr. John had said that the focus of Christianity is not to avoid sin, but to love God and neighbor.  It all fit.

My life is not about me being in control or having things be as I want.  God is in control.  I may not understand all He does or permits, but my gift of life was given me with a simple commandment: Love God and love neighbor, as Jesus did.  Around the world, and in the farmlands of the United States, this love may look different, but if you could see the hearts of the people loving, and worshipping, they would all look the same.

“Do not keep judging according to appearances; let your judgement be according
 to what is right.”      --- Jn7:24

Do not be anxious.  Trust.  Grow in holiness.

“Nobody can remain the same when they realize that another loves them.”
                     --- How to Pray, by David Torkington (p71)