A Big Man

"...and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." II Cor. 13:14c

I've mentioned before, my wife is Roman Catholic, I am United Methodist. We support both faith groups. Last Sunday our family agreed to attend the Catholic service. We arrived early enough that I was able to secure my favorite seating spot. Just moments before the service began, a lady we had never seen before entered with her three daughters and sat directly in front of us. About ten minutes into the service her husband arrived. The family slid over and he sat in the seat directly in front of me. He was huge! And
now my perfectly full view of the altar became a close-up view of a white dress shirt nearly as wide and tall as I could see! The Catholic Christians kneel quite a bit during their worship service (Mass). Temporarily this parish is in a makeshift facility which has a very hard tile floor, so the priest has told the congregation to stand at the usual points where they normally kneel. So, the congregation stands quite a bit during the service.

When we were standing, this guy's hugeness essentially blocked my entire view of the altar area. I thought, "Great, I can tell what I'm going to get out of this worship service has been severely decreased thanks to this giant stranger!"

If you're unfamiliar with the Roman Catholic service, I need to tell you that they celebrate Holy Communion at every service. The ritual of the
priest preparing the Bread and the Cup is very lengthy. And typically the congregation kneels during the entire time. As the priest began the
Communion preparation everyone stood---except this guy. After a moment, he knelt. He was one of only two people in the over three hundred persons
present who knelt. Although I was focusing upon the Communion preparation (honest, I really was), I have to admit I began to wonder how long his
knees could endure that very hard floor. When the preparation was finally completed, the priest directed the congregation to exchange the sign of
peace with one another, the traditional completion of the preparation. As this man stood towering in front of me, he turned, extended his hand, and I noticed his eyes were very red. He shook my hand firmly but gently and in a sincere but powerful voice, offered me peace.

The congregation always processes to the altar to receive the Bread and Cup individually. As we file back to our seats, we usually re-enter the row in reverse order, thus sitting in a different seat than we had been. This put me at an angle from the giant visitor rather than directly behind him. As we sat waiting for the rest of the congregation to receive Communion, I couldn't help but notice this man knelt again, his hands were folded in prayer so tightly his knuckles were white and hands slightly vibrating. As the Communion ended and the priest directed us to rise for the closing, I saw him nonchalantly trying to wipe tears from his eyes.

I don't know who he was or what he was struggling with. But I know as I walked out I thought to myself, "I definitely got a lot out of this worship service. I've been reminded that the power of the Lord is within people. I was reminded that Christ's love isn't within us unless it comes through us to others." And, I walked away realizing this was a big, big man...if you know what I mean.

author ~ Steve Herbert