November 14, 2009
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BIG Mistake
For the last several years I’ve helped a priest friend of mine with his weekend homilies. He’s from Poland, and he doesn’t think his English is as good as it really is. Writing English is still problematic for him, so I’ve helped him out.
On Thursday of this week I checked my Catholic calendar, and I read that this Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King. When I was in college in Mobile, Alabama, that used to be a big deal that featured a big parade of all the Catholic entities. I marched in it twice in coat and tie as a Spring Hill student. I’m sure they gave that up decades ago as too triumphalistic.
When I talked to my priest friend on Thursady about his homily for this weekend, I told him I had a couple on file from previous years for Christ the King. I sent both of them to him. I thought one of them was unusually good.
He called me tonight to say he and I had made a big mistake. He had read over the homilies and chosen the one I thought he should use. When he got to the church for evening Mass today, he discovered that the Feast of Christ the King is next week, not this week. Since he had nothing else prepared, he read the gospel for next week this afternoon. He said the people who were trying to follow the reading in the book in the pews gave up in frustration.
This priest has an extraordinary sense of humor, which is why I think we can be such good friends. At the end of Mass he told the congregation he had a confession to make. He told them what had happened (he hadn’t bothered to double check me on the Feast of Christ the King), but he told them his mistake didn’t get them out of coming to Mass next weekend. Apparently the congregation roared with laughter. There are definitely worse ways of ending Mass.
ED
