The Church of Christ that Cries

Attended my niece's First Communion today. For you heathens out there (and you know who you are) it's a Roman Catholic ceremony where a person receives their first sacrament of the Eucharist. It's all very ritualistic (nihilistic to the whacked out) for a nine-year old.

It was hot. Very humid too. Church's rarely invest in central air systems to cool the place down. Gosh, I hope it's not because they want to prep us for how hot hell can get if we heinously fail in our duties as Christians. Nah. It's surely a matter of economics. Anyhow, it made for a very uncomfortable 82 minutes. More so that we had to entertain a two-year during the mass. I swear the sweat was streaming down my slender face like a guilty Cincinnati Bengals player under oath.

On this day of utmost Jesus importance, what captured my attention was not the Lord nailed to the cross hanging above us all (a standard in most Catholic churches) but the Priest and his introduction. He began asserting his clerical power by laying down some house rules. At one point, my brother-in-laws brother's wife (got all that?) looked at me and said, "I know he has to do this but he's pushing it." It did reach a certain irritating boiling point. He was the Priest Nazi - as opposed to the soup variation made famous on a certain sitcom based in New York.

"Don't do this. Don't do that. Turn your cell phones off. Do not leave the piuse to take pictures." And so on. Etc., etc.

All I could remember muttering was, "is this what it's come to?" Have we become that indifferent to certain ethical standards and social etiquette's to have to be told - heck, scolded - on how to live? We've all heard about how the loss of deference is plaguing society; that moral relativism is on a collision course with the cult of the self-entitled. There has been an erosion of basic civil manners and the Priests' forceful words may simply reflect this fact. Can't say that I blame him.

Too often I see people treat Church as just another meeting place or as a fashion catwalk. The Church has become a box filled with religious ornaments with little significance to people - A place where the sounds of chewing gum and endless gossiping whispers. An Institution of believers who do not believe enough to muster enough decency to even remove their hats. So hell -er, heaven - yeah I totally get the Priest's angle. He's trying to maintain some semblance of authority and common sense. He knows the walls of Jersusalem are cracking.

That's why people squirmed. They know better but choose to ignore their better senses. All the signals transmitted to us tell us we are free to act as we see fit. Say what we feel without proper accreditation. Feel and say what you want, dammit! There does seem to exist an aura of irresponsibility surrounding us. The universal principle has no meaning anymore.

Of course, this led to a discussion later. Some felt he was to harsh. Perhaps. I argued that if people (notably parents) can't even attempt - or pretend - to behave properly in Church imagine how they act in the secular world? Established rules of discipline have to be followed. It used to be that the home, school and Church were the best places to ensure that proper cultural socialization was maintained on a continuum. All three have lost their privileged place and status. For this we should lament.

Talk to any educator and they can tell you the pulse of our children. The picture is not as healthy as it should be.