TO THE EDITOR:
A few months ago as I knelt before Mass to pray, I had an overwhelming sense of the generations that have attended this church, knelt in these pews, and offered prayers and thanksgiving to God. I breathed in the smell of incense and candles absorbed into the wood and the walls.
I thought of the thousands of priests that have held up the Eucharist with such fervor and love that you couldn’t imagine that the Eucharist was not the Real Presence. I considered the great pains taken by the faithful to make sure that the altar linens were carefully placed, flowers arranged, and other routine duties performed. These tasks may be described as pageantry by some; but I believe for those who performed them, they were an expression of the deepest kind of love.
Our immigrant ancestors built these churches to carry on our traditions from the earliest days. Rituals brought comfort and routine and a sense of community to those who understood their greater meaning.
Thomas Merton’s Book, “The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith” describes his conversion taking root on his journey visiting churches throughout Europe. It was in these unassuming edifices that Merton first felt called to devote his life to Jesus. He was inspired by the artwork that hung on the walls celebrating the history of the Early Church – a history made richer by the celebrations early Christians participated in.
And when a triumphant David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem he did so with great fanfare. He and “the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals”. Surely an achievement so grand should be celebrated with much zeal and pageantry.
For me, it’s not about Jurassic Park or Tiananmen Square, it’s about a celebration. It’s about a celebration of the gift that all of us were given — the gift of eternal life. And if that isn’t a reason for pomp and pageantry I can’t think of what is.
Joyce Reilly, St. Thomas More Parish
