Four walls of freedom

It has been almost a year now that I have been attending Mass at the Chinese parish in Nantou. One thing that struck me then was how the Mass was, well, a Mass, but in Chinese. When I would read the line a year ago, "at least the sacraments are valid," prior to going to Chinese Mass, I expected that I would find something not quite a Mass (whatever that would mean) but, at the very minimum, valid sacraments.
Of course, I found so much more there.
It wasn't just valid sacraments, but a new world, for me, of people with rich prayer lives, and intense faith, and devotions I had never heard of before (like Maria Rosa Mystica, a favorite of one of my friends). Most importantly, though, was that Mass was Mass, free from the interference and constraints placed upon other aspects of religious life here.
While the Religious Affairs people hold so much power over so much of religious life here, once Mass starts, it matters little what is going on in the world. Here Christ is present, in Word and Eucharist. Despite everything we all read about with respect to goings on with bishops and priests and underground/official church issues, this fact does not change. We are free within those physical walls of the church to be with Jesus and experience Jesus on His terms, not anyone else's.
I don't know why I find that so awesome, but I do.