"The Handshaking Scrum"

A blogger has a conversation with a seminarian about where we really are, and what's actually happening during Mass, and what might therefore be appropriate or inappropriate.

I’m going to mass just now for what seems like the first time....I put myself at the foot of the cross with mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and John. .... I kept having to get up, sit down, get up, kneel down, get up….. And I kept having to respond to the priest which was interrupting my concentration.

I felt Jesus very clearly during the consecration enter my heart, and I was not afraid of being at the foot of the cross with the others – His Mother etc. and also my parents and the rest of the congregation. I understand now that there is no separation between the church militant and the church triumphant during Mass. None at all...

…And then, as we were all standing there at the foot of the cross, contemplating this intimate declaration of love between God and mankind, alongside Christ’s grieving mother, someone taped me on the shoulder and with a big grin wanted to shake my hand...

It was totally out of place. I dropped to my knees instead. I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to give the sign of peace again....

If you believe the Mass is a re-enactment of the last supper the sign of peace is great! It totally fits into place with what the disciples would have been doing – chatting and socialising round the dinner table. Before today I was a hugger and a kisser at the sign of peace! But now I cannot think of a more inappropriate gesture at that’d point in the Mass. 

Note - I am reporting, not endorsing.

Because I beleive if you enter fully into the Mass that if you are in Christ's Presence at the foot of the Cross, or at the empty tomb, then SO ARE  MRS. & MR. FRANCIS X. PEWSITTER AND ALL THE LITTLE PEWSITTERS NEXT TO YOU.
And the priest, to whom you should respond, is, of course, alter Christus.

But I'm actually vert much in sympathy - because the way the Mass is often celebrated just don't make it easy, do it?