The local parish pulled up all the carpet around the sanctuary and revealed a beautiful floor. Then they cleaned off all the glue and residue from the carpet. It all was looking very good and bright. Then they put a big carpet back down on a considerable portion of the floor. I was told that the carpet is beautiful. It is not.
But I am not in charge. I can go crazy or become resentful. I can say many more mean things. Or I can be into acceptance. When craziness goes on around me I do not have to respond in kind.
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Father Terry,
ReplyDeleteSince I returned to my faith and re-committed to the Church that I missed so much, I decided to concentrate on prayer and my love for Christ through the Eucharist and through service to my parish. I don't second guess Pope Benedict or the Church's decisions or the priest's Sunday homily (Yours are splendid!). I listen, discern and accept; even the rug covering that beautiful floor.
I noticed the floor last night too. I was amazed that anyone would want to have covered it up in the first place. I noticed the little flaws and glue marks from the carpet having been taken up and thought, I wonder if there is anything I can do to help clean it up. Then I reasoned, well they are probably going to cover it up again anyway, so why bother.
ReplyDeleteNow, tonight I read your comments and thought wow Father Terry and I felt the same way, and he has even more power than I do so I REALLY can't do anything.
Then, another thought struck me. As I mentioned in my other post, I'm reading the biography on John Paul II. I'm up to the point where he is trying to heal the schism with the Anglicans (they are I believe the two faiths closest in their beliefs) and it looks like it is all going to work out, until they (the Anglicans) decide they are going to ordain women as priests, and that breaks everything apart. Now, I have nothing against women, I like them so much I married one ;), but that seemed to me to be a change church that didn't need to be made. As I sit here now, I wonder if it was the work of the Evil Spirit making sure that Christianity stays fractured. They claimed it was modernizing the Church. I don't think the Church needs to be modernized. Jesus was a man, Mary was a woman, and they both have their places in the Church. Mary's place is VERY important.
Tonight, I realized that putting that carpet over the marble floor was an attempt to modernize our church. Covering up the floor was someone's idea of making the church more beautiful, and appealing to people. I don't think that new carpet is going to bring more people into the church, but it creates a nice environment for the people who are already there. I'm sure that the new carpet was beautiful and people really commented about it, but over time tastes change, and the carpet becomes old and worn, and someone will say again "We really need to do something about that floor." They may put in something beautiful that everyone loves, but over time it too will become old, outdated and worn. A new generation will come in and say "We really need to do something about that floor, it looks terrible." They'll pull up the carpet, see the marble underneath (unchanged) and someone will again say, "Wow, that is really beautiful... why would anyone cover that up?"
The way I see it, the marble floor represents the foundation, the bedrock, of the Church. Yes, you can cover it up, and try to make it appeal to others, but tastes will change and the covering will age and need to be changed again, but the foundations will still be solid underneath, and people will ask, "Why do we need the change?"
I don't follow the Anglicans, but I believe they (and the Episcopalians) recently decided they need to make another change, and allow openly gay(lesbian?) priests to be ordained. This time, the change is tearing their Church apart. I believe that there are both Anglican and Episcopalian clergy joining the Catholic Church because of it. Why the Catholic Church, and not some other denomination? I certainly don't know, but I believe it is because this is where their faith is, and our beliefs have not changed based on current trends or tastes, based on whomever is in charge. We have a solid foundation, based on our history, and that direct line of authority back to St Peter.