Day 37
See the Good
Reflection By: Andrea Visione

The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Matthew 7:2

Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. Matthew 7:5

I struggle to pay attention in mass some days. My mind takes me to my troubles, my to-do list, my inner conversations I have about the things going on around me in mass, rather than the mass itself. The fidgeting toddler, the older person who appears to be asleep, the person whose name I should know, but I can't quite place it.

Funny, one my most fulfilling masses occurred when I was lost in my own thoughts and troubles. The woman in the pew ahead of me took the hand of her young son, and like a sheep being led, I took the hand of the strangers to either side of me. The action perked me back up, and I tuned back into mass. It took me at least a minute to realize my horror: the mass was not yet at Our Lord's Prayer and no one else was holding hands. I was holding the hands of these two strange women in error. In a Seinfeld moment, I wrestled with what I should do. Drop their hands? Would it be considered a slight? Keep holding their hands? I heard someone in the pew behind me say something like, "See, I don't do that kind of stuff." My cheeks burned in embarrassment.

I was frozen and kept hold of the stranger's hands for lack of a better plan. What seemed like an eternity later, the Lord's Prayer began. Afterward, we dropped hands. At the sign of peace, I apologized, telling each woman that I had been lost in my own thoughts. Each woman smiled. Each woman was gracious. Each understood.

Would I have been so gracious if the roles were reversed? Or would I have cast a judgment of the stranger who took hold of my hand when they were not supposed to? I am humbled by my answer. I remember leaving mass being thankful for the open hearts of those parishioners and their simple act of kindness to me! I am changed because of their simple Christian goodness.