Holy Thursday
At the seminary it isn't just the statuary shrouded for Triduum this year.
More after the jump
Our Holy Thursday Mass was celebrated by an elderly priest that I've seen at the seminary many times in the nearly four years we've been in Beijing, but I've never seen him say a Mass. His manner is so gentle I imagine someone surely has nicknamed him Father Grandpa.
After the brief procession towards the end of Mass, Myles was beginning to get antsy to leave. I could not blame him. It was well after 8:30, and we had been at the church for more than two hours. I whispered to him that this time in the darkened church represents for us the time the apostles could not stay awake while Jesus prayed in Gesthemene. He did not want to be a sleeping apostle, so he assumed a reverent, prayerful posture for a few minutes longer. He asked me again if we were leaving soon.
I still wanted to remain yet, and Brigid was not as anxious to leave as her brother. I quietly told him another reason we should be happy to stay in the cold, unlit church with our fellow parishioners and Jesus for company.
"Thirty years ago," I said, "this all would have been illegal in China. The Mass, the Holy Thursday rituals, our sitting quietly with the Eucharist. A lot of people went to jail because they wanted to have this. Maybe even some of the older people at our church, kneeling all around us. I don't know for sure, but maybe even our priest tonight."
He suddenly looked more serious than impatient. "Didn't people have secret churches?"
"Yes, but if they were found out, they were probably arrested."
He thought about this and started to pray again with renewed purpose. This brief conversation (which I am sure will come up again and again) bought me another ten minutes.
As much as we enjoy a fantastic church life here in China, I need him (and eventually Brigid) to come to understand how much we cannot take this for granted. In time, too, they'll learn that what I describe as past events have in some cases occurred more recently.
More after the jump
Our Holy Thursday Mass was celebrated by an elderly priest that I've seen at the seminary many times in the nearly four years we've been in Beijing, but I've never seen him say a Mass. His manner is so gentle I imagine someone surely has nicknamed him Father Grandpa.
After the brief procession towards the end of Mass, Myles was beginning to get antsy to leave. I could not blame him. It was well after 8:30, and we had been at the church for more than two hours. I whispered to him that this time in the darkened church represents for us the time the apostles could not stay awake while Jesus prayed in Gesthemene. He did not want to be a sleeping apostle, so he assumed a reverent, prayerful posture for a few minutes longer. He asked me again if we were leaving soon.
I still wanted to remain yet, and Brigid was not as anxious to leave as her brother. I quietly told him another reason we should be happy to stay in the cold, unlit church with our fellow parishioners and Jesus for company.
"Thirty years ago," I said, "this all would have been illegal in China. The Mass, the Holy Thursday rituals, our sitting quietly with the Eucharist. A lot of people went to jail because they wanted to have this. Maybe even some of the older people at our church, kneeling all around us. I don't know for sure, but maybe even our priest tonight."
He suddenly looked more serious than impatient. "Didn't people have secret churches?"
"Yes, but if they were found out, they were probably arrested."
He thought about this and started to pray again with renewed purpose. This brief conversation (which I am sure will come up again and again) bought me another ten minutes.
As much as we enjoy a fantastic church life here in China, I need him (and eventually Brigid) to come to understand how much we cannot take this for granted. In time, too, they'll learn that what I describe as past events have in some cases occurred more recently.
Comments
and God bless the Church in China, Jen, makes the HHS mandate look like a cakewalk!
I think about that, and the HHS mandate debate, and wonder if the US is heading to a similar end. The events leading up will be different (I don't think we'd see the likes of a Cultural Revolution), but as the religious sphere retreats from its public work (like Catholic Charities in some states getting out of the adoption referral business), the permitted area in which to exist will look increasingly like the four walls of the church, where you are Free to Worship.
And your private home, of course.
Did any of that make sense?