|
|
|
There seem to be jolting events that suddenly reveal that you are older than you think you are, that you have somehow climbed into the next generation up the age ladder. I wrote previously how I was stunned one evening when I was charged less for my Brown’s chicken dinner than I expected to be charged. About to call the mistake to the young cashier’s attention, I checked the receipt and spotted the “senior discount” the brash child had deducted without even asking. Since then, I also have gotten the discount at a Wendy’s and at a carwash. I am beginning to feel comfortable with my advancing age and especially with the cash saved. Reality also slapped me in the mid-1980s when I was teaching high school at Quigley North. One sad day, I had to pull Juan from class and drive him to the hospital where his dad was dying. A couple weeks later, I recognized Juan’s mom at a parent-teacher night. As I had at the wake, I offered my prayers again and asked her how she was handling the situation. Juan’s mom sighed and admitted, “It’s not going to be easy raising Juan and his brother by myself. I’m only 34.” Thirty-four?! At that moment I also was 34. What a thunderbolt! I was the same age as Juan’s mother! I was old enough to be Juan’s father (although I doubt I would have named my son Juan!). Juan’s mom changed the way I saw my relationship to my students for the remainder of my classroom career. The inevitable facts again punched my stomach during a phone conversation several years ago when a friend with whom I had gone to both high school and college asked me to pray for his daughter. “Sure, Al, I’ll pray for her. I wasn’t aware that she was sick.” “Yes,” Al replied, “She really hasn’t been well since she had the baby.” Baby?! Rewind that conversation. Al – my friend, my classmate, my contemporary – had just subtly told me that he was somebody’s grandfather. Yikes! Last Saturday, it happened to me again. This time, however, I was prepared. In fact, I was looking forward to doing something that would mean I had passed another milepost on the timeline. I baptized Emmersen. She was the 882nd baptism of my career. I keep a book, my own record of my baptisms and weddings. It was not the number next to her name in my book that shocked me. Nor was it her unusual name that caused me to muse about the inevitable march of time. I had never baptized an Emmersen before. Still, hers will not be the last unique name I will pronounce while pouring the waters of baptism. In the next month, I am scheduled to baptize an Aine, an Ava, a Brooke, and a Christian (well, I guess they all are Christians); I believe those all will be original first names on my list of 882+. What caused me to realize what being fifty-five years old and what thirty years of priesthood can mean was baby Emmersen’s father. Her dad has a more popular name – Matthew. I have baptized plenty of Matthews. Even without Matthew standing in front of me while holding his Emmersen, I can understand that Al now has multiple grandchildren; that Juan himself is past 34; and that I deserve my senior discount. Today I write about how close we are to Christ. I write about the indelible signature of Jesus on your soul when He chooses you as one of His in baptism. I write about how I have repeated that great Gospel in Word and in Sacrament for three decades of Holy Orders. For the first time, I write about becoming a little girl’s spiritual grandfather. And I write about baby Emmersen’s father, Number 882’s dad, Matthew. Matthew was my Number 57 the day I baptized him. Last weekend, the entire parish staff received numerous compliments on the new Cathedral floor, the refreshed pews, the gently floating kneelers, and the improved Cathedral lighting. The circumstance of the floor project allowed us simultaneously to address a long-overdue and puzzling annoyance, the old and failing lighting system with its isolated controls. A new pre-set system is much simpler to operate; and it gives us the option of remote control for special events. We add AMS Mechanical Systems of Burr Ridge to last week’s list of skilled trades-people whose efficient and fine work has made Holy Name Cathedral more beautiful than ever. The Frances Xavier Warde School’s Girl Scout Troop 320 will be at the State Street doors after the 9:30 Mass this Sunday and next Sunday selling cookies. Support our friends the Girl Scouts; and enjoy the cookies. In case you missed the announcement last weekend, we have resumed the normal schedule for confessions at the Cathedral. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, the Sacrament of Penance will be available in the Reconciliation Room on the lower level where you have the option of an anonymous confession behind a screen or face-to-face confession beginning at 5:00pm until all are heard. On Saturdays, confessors also will be available in the Reconciliation Room from 3:00-5:00pm. Please come as early as possible and respect the confessor’s need to be somewhere else at 5:00. Finally, confessions will be heard in the confessional on the north/courtyard side of the Cathedral from 6:15-7:15pm each Saturday. That confessional is accessible to a wheelchair. In addition, note that the Lenten Reconciliation Service with opportunity for individual confession and several confessors available is scheduled for Tuesday, March 13, at 6:00pm. Plan to participate in that beautiful evening. Plan now to go to confession during Lent. I am really looking forward to the three evenings of the parish Mission this week. Father Frank DeSiano, this season’s guest preacher, has a terrific reputation. I certainly will be in the Cathedral at 6:30pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I will be looking for you, too. Since I will be here this week on Wednesday, normally my day off, I will be away on Friday, March 2. The final line of the Gospel leaves me with the chills. “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him (Jesus) for a time.” Does that mean he intended to come back, to try again? Re-read the Gospel (Luke 4: 1-13). If you know anybody who sounds like that devil, stay away from him.
Fr. Dan Mayall |
