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24. června 2006

Boring celebrations

Then, of course, it is necessary to get dressed up, perhaps a little bit more smartly than usual. But there is a ladder in your tights, or you can't find your black socks, let alone your tie. And then, when you arrive at the party (by car and of course late), you are already expecting a boring time, because you can't imagine surviving the party otherwise. After ten minutes you are so exhausted that when you get home you just can't understand how you managed to survive the evening. And perhaps not everyone we know is worth such bother. It could be worth considering whether we are actually going to get real pleasure out of such a situation, and according to what criteria we might actually choose to attend. When I had a look around this Easter, I was struck by how few of the people around me were actually taking any real pleasure in Our Lord (or in themselves) on his day of glory. Clear symptoms of boredom during this celebration were visible in most of those people, even in those from whom I would never have expected it. They were saying that the service had started too late, was excessively long ("we only ever have three readings, that should be enough...who on earth had that idea?") and relatively boring (because "once again, it was just the same as last year".."doing nothing is more tiring that doing something" "unlike the others, I don't like listening to the same texts year after year, it tires me out"). What would the first community of Christians in Jerusalem, who gave us the basis for our liturgy, say to this? (I'd rather not think about what the grumblers around me would say to them ...). Most likely those early Christians would say nothing, because they would avoid us in accordance with Saint Peter's advice to give heathens a wide berth. Perhaps we should look to them and reflect upon what it was that made their observance so sincere. Presumably this was mainly because they did not that feel compelled to observe: "Christ sacrificed His life for you, sacrifice for Him at least a little time." Observance because of a feeling of compulsion is pointless. A feeling of duty cannot lead to true observance, which is based on sincere love and faith. So the congregant attending for example the Easter vigil because he feels a duty to do so, or is in the habit of doing so, or for some other hollow reason, and is bored there, is in a position very similar to the party-guest mentioned at the beginning of his article. With perhaps one difference: you will not offend the subject of that celebration with your lack of interest, as unlike Jesus he or she is incapable of seeing into the hearts of his guests. To conclude, I would like to apologise to all those who provided me with the material for my comments, and the above quotations, and who did not give me permission to use them. But in the face of certain things I cannot be silent, even if I do remain aware of my own shortcomings, although these are of a different character.

Pavel Šmolík

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• Velikonoční vigilie 2012
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