Week 2: St. Cyprians

Let Us Do The Time Warp.

I was so nervous.  I woke up around five a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.  I had arranged to go Catholic Mass this time, with Mercy's family.  This made it a lot easier, since I wanted to be on my best behavior and avoid offending these people who I care about and respect. 

The scary thing was walking into that den of suspension, where accumulated failed propositions still sit, banished from most of their previous domains.  The House of God used to be thought to actually contain some substance called god, and the communion ceremony used to be considered a substantial communion, like a warp key that took you to another dimension.  The soul was thought to move around, do things.

Like our immortal soul, god, the angels and the devil were all thought to have effects on this world, observable effects that we could record and discuss. 

The liturgy, the rosary, the candles, and the exorcism where all technologies used to deal with what was then the known world of the invisible. 

Then, as we know, the microscope, the telescope, the x-rays, and the satellites revealed none of this and we were left with a whole new world. 

Thus, we have all this stuff now about how it's all faith, a noble tradition, a separate magesterium, and untouchable by puny science. 

But, on occasion, we step back into that ancient world, the museum of theories now known to be absurd. 

And in this Museum of Absurdities we are asked to give our lives to the great Belief.  To believe in the Belief that guided European civilization into it's glorious phase of world domination and beyond. 

A Step Up From Last Week. 

But rather than contemplating a possible belief in god, most of the time I was trying to hold back insane, spasmodic giggles.  A couple of times I was touched, and, overall, I was impressed. 

What was most impressive was simply the production of the whole event.  My childhood attendance of Sunday Mass left with me memories of big cold rooms, a lot of esthetically questionable emerald green apparel, odd plaids and other patterns, hard pews, a droning voice heard all around me, joking with my brothers, and my mother and grandmother pinching me to stay awake. 

But St. Cyprian's puts effort into it.  They got a choir, with a great sound system, a lady on stage who was singing in counterpart to the choir, and she was singing good, and she was pretty.

I thought this was only for protestant Churches.  The song was done well (except for one parishioner who was having a hard time finding the note she had apparently left at home), but what they were singing about made no sense.

They were singing about 'when you hear the voice of god....' and I think the idea was 'when you hear the voice of god...' just go with it!  And when you hear it that means it's the real deal, and that means that the voice you hear is that of the Catholic god.

But the common experience many of us have of that internal sense of something we call god, or our ancestors, or the spirits, doesn't tell us much of anything. 

The internal experience we associate with religious experience doesn't say "Corinthians is mistranslated." "The book of Mormon is fifty-percent true."  "Jesus was the son of God." 

There is no voice inside anyone's head sending propositions about the invisible world only accessible by belief (faith), because the voices are coming from your mind, and that invisible world is your mind! 

All stupid jokes about insanity aside, we all hear sounds or voices in our mind at different times.  The brain reproduces auditory phenomena just as it reproduces visual phenomena. 

 The Good Stuff He Said, The Good Stuff We Did.


But it was a clear step up from last week.  Not just in the production, but also in the activities and the guy dong the sermon. 

Last time, I just sat there, and everybody was just sitting.  But this time, we did all kinds of moves.   We stood up, then sat down again, then kneeled, then sat down, then stood up.  We turned to the left, to the right, to the front and back, and side to side. 

I learned the value of this when I was teaching kids in China.  The more you move in tune with the lesson, the more likely you are to absorb what's being taught. 

And, even better than that, there were at least two times when we were all asked to stand up and interact with each other, first we said hi, and then we shook hands and said "Peace be with you."!  That's so nice.  There's like three hundred people in the Church, all being friendly with each other. 

Solidarity, friendship, and intimacy require commonality of experience and identity.  The context of the mass is great in that it gives all of us an excuse to let down the barriers that generally leave us emotionally and cognitively isolated. 

Helping us all feel relaxed was the attitude of Fr. Souza.  He was informal and came relaxed, even adding some passable jokes that aroused laughter in the audience. 

Better than that, he made some good points, before he strayed off into nonsense.  

He told us that giving up things for lent helps us to understand those of our loved ones who are going through struggles with addiction.  No kidding.  I have constantly compared my experience of loved one's addiction issues with my own compulsive behaviors.  Giving up those things I feel I can't give up, like yoghurt, carrying books around with me everywhere, always having lectures/podcasts/novels playing in my ear, always giving vent to the issues that drive me crazy when I hear other people mentioning them, gives me a sense of liberation and lets me feel at peace with myself. 

He told us of a saying, that worry is like a rocking chair, it's something to do, but it gets you nowhere!  That's like what I was always tell Emma, that we have to put our worry energy into planning energy, otherwise we'll get nothing done and just have more to worry about. 

Yucky Stuff
 
But most of the mass was focused on passages from the bible, that told us not to trust in people, but to trust in the lord.  (who just happens to be only accessible through people, hee hee.)  And told us that we are blessed if we hope in the lord.  And you're blessed if you're poor, but not exactly cursed if you're rich. 

What He Should Have Said

It would take effort to make the following message into a song, but blessed be ye who tries.  When you hear the voice of god, analyze it.  Sit with the experience and allow your mind to become aware of it. 

There is no reason any voice in your mind need be right or wrong.  First, and above all else, we need understanding.  

What a great jump it is to go from internal experience to thousands of prepackaged propositions concerning absolutely everything essential to our lives. 

When you hear the voice of god, calling you talking to you.  Accept first that you are having this experience, and accept that this is, initially, all you know.  Allow your memories and the rest of your mind to connect with and around this experience. 

Don't sustain fear or love of the experience, sustain only your awareness of it.  Beyond that, I want to tell you nothing else to do with the voice of god.  If you actually hear voices telling you to do things or believe things, then you ought to critique them harshly, doubt them, and contrast them with the evidence of the people and world around you. 

Whether or not you practice lent, you ought to consider the practice of giving things up. 

The things you feel you cannot give up, become tied into your identity, and restrain you.  Learning to cut off  the binds that link you to those petty desires can help you to form a freer and more peaceful identity. 

Freedom and peace are not separate, negative conditions.  They are positive values fulfilled through solidarity with other humans.  Learn to trust in others.  

I don't mean learn who you can never doubt, or learn who you can obey.  I mean learn how and when you can trust others.  The more you understand this about the people around you, the more you can achieve a greater identity through the relationships you form. 

When you can trust others, and they can trust you, you establish security.   This is something done in union with others.  Communion, community, and the solidarity of humanity coincides with our individuality.  Just as differentiation and integration are essential to knowing, so are they are also essential to our living. 

The End, no procession of new Catholics, no wafers and wine, no coffee and donuts.  I'm fat and out of shape, give me some tea and toast (just thinking of that makes me so hungry for a garlic onion bagel with lots of cream cheese!!!!)

Peace be with you.