Yesterday when Mike and I came into church we sat on the side next to the wall, and I was able to look into the room where the priest, altar servers, cantor, and everyone else meet to put on vestments and get organized. I saw someone that made me gasp.
"Is that the deacon?" I muttered, nudging Mike.
"Looks like," he murmured back.
I grumbled a little and he said, "It's not too late to go out the side door and just watch Mass on TV," he said.
"No, no, we're already here," I said with a sigh. It bothered me because I really don't like our deacon too much. Well, I shouldn't say that...I don't really know him as a person. But after a few of his homilies now I've wondered whether he really meant his comments to be vaguely sexist. Did he really mean to imply that the older daughter in that story was less loved and less worthy because she left home? Did he honestly hint that women were meant to be just mothers and homemakers? Or am I just too sensitive?
Now, if the deacon were just a guy at work on on the street I'd dismiss him with a shake of the head. However, I feel a little different when he's speaking as a deacon, because it's like he's representing the beliefs of the Catholic Church. When he's up there he's their spokesman, and suddenly it seems like the nuances I detect in his sermons are nuances in Catholic belief.
I know that deacons, nuns, and priests are just people, and they come to church with values, beliefs, experiences, customs, and personality flaws that are independent of our faith, just like I do. I really should learn to sift between Catholic doctrine and some old guy's prejudice. At least it'll make listening to the deacon's homilies less painful.
1 comment:
so far as i know, up here only priests do the homilies unless they have a guest speaker come in (which isn't that often) to talk about some pilgrimage or what'sit...ummm..you know, where they go off and preach to and convert the heathens or do street outreach.
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