Today’s find: Illuminating

It felt a bit like somebody had neglected to pay the electric bill when the “Daily Mass regulars” arrived for 6:30 Mass this morning.

There was already a glitch in our accustomed routine: With the church building closed (due to the in-process installation of a new HVAC system)…and the Parish Center unavailable in the wake of yesterday’s massive Sausage Supper…that meant Mass had to be scheduled for the gym.

Just one small problem: Nobody had a key to turn on the lights.

So the early-arrivers rustled about in the darkness, groping like Jonah in the belly of the whale to determine how (or whether) we might proceed.

But before long, we were under way – with a few extra candles adorning the temporary altar and glowing cell-phones to illumine our missalettes.

Afterwards, someone remarked that this day’s pre-dawn liturgy had a definite “catacombs” vibe going. And that felt about right: It was good, for once, to do our praying in the dark…to change things up a bit.

The darkness somehow gave us new eyes to see…to more fully appreciate the inexhaustible grace present in our familiar routine. Bread, broken and shared. And not just bread…but Jesus, offered to us all from the (temporary) altar.

Truly, a taste of heaven – and an affirmation of what we heard proclaimed in the gospel passage: “…there is something greater than Solomon here.”

Out of darkness, light — indeed, the Light of the World.
Photo courtesy of Bob Grimm

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS