On This Date

Well, 4/4/4 passed without comment on this blog, I'm sorry to say. On top of general busyness, we had an eight-year-old's birthday party to attend. And before that I had to recover from reading the "Voice" part of the Passion at Mass. One thing that Mel Gibson's movie did for me was to fill in some of the blank canvas around the words that I was reading as I, as Peter, denied Christ and, as Pilate, declared Him innocent but handed Him over anyway.

Putting us in those roles — with the entire congregation saying, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" — may be among the most profound ceremony-driven reminders of our place in the universe. As Jeff Miller suggests in a post marking five years as an inducted Catholic, the Church calls us not because we are perfect, but because we are the opposite:

I will never forget that night five years ago when I was received into the Church and first received Communion (licitly). Walking back to the pew I realized that I had truly spent forty years in the wilderness and had entered the promised land. My reading in Church History and listening to Catholic radio especially Catholic Answers prevented me from some idealistic church where all Catholics had halos and the Mass was always conducted reverently. If the Church would accept me than other suspicious characters could slip in also. So while I am greatly thankful for being in Christ's Church on earth I always remember St. Paul's words about persevering to the end.