Who did you go to see?

When I was a child I enjoyed going to church not necessarily because I learnt anything (it’s too long ago for me to remember if I did) but because it was the one sure day in the week we dressed up. My mum will lay out our clothes with matching underwear and smart shoes (my love of fashion and matching clothes did not start today, na my mama born me). 

As a teenager, it was the thought of meeting up with friends and wondering if the guys had started to notice that I was budding in all the right places 😀😉. As a young adult it was time to catch up on gossip and of course to check people out and be checked out. No one was spared being checked out, not even the priests and ministers🤭

Talking about the mass itself, I enjoy music and have been in the choir off and on through the years. When the music was good I enjoyed it, when it was not I tuned off. Same thing with the homily. When it was good I enjoyed it, and even took notes. When it was not, I tuned off while wondering in my mind why the priest or minister did not prepare adequately or how he could be so boring 😴

I think some or all of the above statements may be familiar to some. The point here is that a good number of us go to church for every other reason except that which should be the main reason - to encounter Christ in the fellowship of the brethren, in the word and in the Eucharist. 

So who do you go to see?

Now I go for several reasons. I still enjoy dressing up to go to church, because I understand that God deserves that I approach his temple in my best, the same way we put on our best when dignitaries are visiting. Have you noticed how beautifully dressed are the guests at a wedding? Well the mass is the celebration of the wedding between Christ and her bride, the church. It deserves my Sunday best. 

I enjoy the music; singing along and dancing when it’s one I am particularly fond of or just listening if it’s not one i’m familiar with or perhaps don’t particularly like the tune of.

I have a little notepad I carry along with me for mass to take notes. Some days I write so much and fill up all the space I have, some other days I can’t seem to get anything from the homily and struggle to write one word. On such days I spend some more time going through the readings to get the key message. Like my parish deacon says, the homilist dishes the starter. To get the main course we need to do some self study.

The height of the celebration is during the liturgy of the Eucharist, same way the height of a wedding celebration is during the exchange of vows. If we did not listen to anything up to this time, this is the time to be entirely focused on our spouse, on Jesus, to prepare to receive him and to be one with him. It is the culmination of everything.

And when all of this is done, we leave church but take the experience into our day to day lives.

So who do you go to see in church?