I kicked myself for a long time once, over my thoughts and words, what I had done, and what I had failed to do.
I working out of town, and an evening Mass was offered near the theater, very close at hand, timing perfect to even pop in between matinee and evening shows, and I made it a habit to attend pretty much daily.
The daily Mass chapel was in the round, one could pretty much see every other person in attendance.
There was another member of the cast, stupid, selfish, slovenly and pretty nearly incompetent, whom I looked up from my pew one day to spot heading up to the sanctuary in the communion procession, and my first thought was, "Oh no, HE'S Catholic? How awfu --" and before the thought even finished forming itself in my mind I was deeply ashamed.
I had the germ of the same thought recently while watching the news - a millionaire professional buffoon, displaying his much celebrated intelligence and refinement, mouthed off on several subjects, disgracefully in regard to another famous person for one, and for another, as regards his relationship to God.
Asked if he ever seeks forgiveness for sins, he was all, meh, not so much.
"I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't. When I drink my little wine -- which is about the only wine I drink -- and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed."Your "little cracker", your "little wine..."
So yes, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, my first thought was, "Oh no, don't tell me HE'S Catholic? How awfu --"
As it turns out, he's not, but that doesn't mitigate the sin of my reaction - which, when you think about it, is also a sin by contemporary secular society's standards, where only intolerance is not to be tolerated, and the highest value is acceptance, and the greatest sin disapproving of other sin.
I guess I'm not as "welcoming" as I claim to be.
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