Monday, July 8, 2013

A Visit to the Church


                                          
Last  Saturday my son went to Mass with his girlfriend (just to make her happy, he said). This certainly is an improvement in respect to a few years ago! Back then he was sort of obsessed with the problem of faith. I remember that he chose religion as the subject of an essay for his writing class. The students were supposed to write about “an interesting adventure”, and he made up an afternoon  at Mass with me. 
Now, what kind of an adventure was that for a twenty year old boy? Furthermore, it never happened!
He started by asking me to describe to him the interior of the church, which by the way is located right across the street from our home.
“What’s the problem?” I said. “Can’t you go and take a peak inside?”

“Can’t you do what I’m asking you to do, just for once?” he retorted.

So I wrote for him a brief description on a piece of paper.

“This isn’t good enough,” he commented. “Can’t you do any better?”

“Listen, it’s Sunday and in one hour I’m going to Mass. Why don’t you come with me just for five minutes?”

“Maybe. Let’s go for a walk first.”

Along the way, he apparently pulled himself together enough to step into the “dreadful” church with me.

“How do you like it?” I asked him once inside.

“Kind of creepy,” he answered, scribbling in his note book.                                                                                                          
“Maybe you should stay for Mass. How are you going to write about it if you don’t know what’s going to happen?”

“I’ll manage. Bye bye!”

And he shot himself in the open air like a lightning.  Perhaps he thought that the walls of that  church would close on him and never set him free again!