Not that it matters-- but I was impressed with an action of a young priest the other day.
We had arrived our usual fifteen minutes early for Mass (which is quite an accomplishment some days). My son hurried into the sacristry to ready himself to serve.
Mass began two minutes later--great.
The Mass times had been changed. Yeh, we should have known better.
So there was my son, looking pretty torqued during the entrance procession.
No sooner had everyone reached their place in the sanctuary when my boy was pulled aside by a priest who corrected the posture of his hand folding technique.
"Oh boy...here we go." I thought.
I knew what my son was thinking. "Does it really matter how I fold my hands?"
Throughout the rest of Mass I watched as he wrestled with not wanting to be part of a bunch of false piety.
As Mass continued he stood, sat, and knelt--and had absolutely no duties to perform.
But his hands were properly folded.
He was a liturgical flowerpot.
Earlier that day I had an article ready to go. Ironically it was titled; Entitlement, Clericalism and the Sin of Pride.
In it I was going to share some observations about how some clergy come to believe that certain rights, behaviors, and excuses are inherent with ordination and even priestly assignments.
***note I said SOME clergy***
I was drawing on my experiences from my life behind the altar and in the rectory to outside the church to the present moment of just sitting in the pew.
But I can't send out the article just yet.
You see the young priest called the next day to check up on my son and to clarify what happened. Of course I was defensive. Of course I wouldn't have handled it the same way (arm chair priesting)--but in the end, the young priest called and that in itself is a worthy action.
