Summer in church

We are on a pilgrimage throughout life that leads to a joy and fulfillment that this world cannot bring.

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger

Hot town, summer in the city

Back of my neck gettin’ dirty and gritty

Been down, isn’t it a pity?

Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city

All around people lookin’ half dead

Walkin’ on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

“When I go to church, I like to suffer!” Words after Mass from Father Rollie (Roland Ghirlando), a beloved priest from Malta who graced me as a friend the many years we worked together at the Brooklyn diocesan Tribunal. He had a humor that was gentle, yet disarming, a way of doing and saying things that were light-hearted yet deep and profoundly human. The incident I am recalling was his return to the rectory one torrid Sunday morning from the “upper church” as we called that venue, which seemed then not different from the torture chambers of hell. It was during one of those summer-in-the-city heat waves.

“Hot town, summer in the city …” Remember those lyrics (posted above) from the song popularized by “The Lovin’ Spoonful?” Yeah, I’m dating myself here. Sometimes the lyrics of those ’60s’ beats come back to me. Our recent heat spell and all of the summery activity the Fourth of July invokes, makes us long for anything that will keep us cool and comfortable even if those of us so fortunate may plan on making the most of the sun’s rays. We want to rejoice but at the same time relax. I guess Father Rollie was thinking that Mass in the upper church was not a very comfortable experience. He was wringing with sweat as he barged through the back door of the rectory that morning, breathless, likely heading to the fridge for a glass of iced tea. Yet it was all worth it. Keeping the faith. First things first.

The lyrics of the iconic song were not really about summer heat, however, but having a good time in the cool of the night. As it proceeds, the band envision an evening with a date, something to look forward to after pounding the steamy pavement all day. Those of us who make the sacrifice to get to Mass when it’s really hot and cumbersome just to get there — I remember the days when there was no AC, not even at home — also have in our minds the sense of peace and renewal that comes from hearing God’s Word and remembering the love of Jesus, poured out for us on the Cross. Mass always brings Calvary into the present, where we must endure our own crosses.

I don’t expect we always think of it, but there is something in every generous gift or sacrifice that not only requires some pain and loss of comfort on our part, but also makes us more human and, therefore, holy. In his joyful humanity, I found Father Rollie a holy man, as with the life and example of so many saints who we know spent time in uncomfortable situations. The Curé of Ars (St. John Vianney) whose presence in the confessional, without fans or AC during the hot season, comes to mind. The first Jesuit martyrs leaving the comforts of their French culture to bring Jesus to the indigenous people who walked the ground we inhabit today. Maximilian Kolbe in that godawful cell in Auschwitz. So many saints suffered to bear witness to God’s love at great personal cost, eventually of their lives.

Isn’t that just what Christians do? We don’t seek uncomfortable and difficult situations. Neither are we deterred by them. Our main goal is heaven and to bring others to the joy of knowing we all have a home there.  We are on a pilgrimage throughout life that leads to a joy and fulfillment that this world cannot bring, as Jesus promised (cf. Mt 6:19-21). Even in the process of seeking very laudable earthly goals, like entering an athletic competition or even cooking a meal for friends, a certain investment of time, patience and elbow grease is required. Good health does not come only from our DNA. We need to exercise, sleep and be mindful of what we eat. A certain sacrificial discipline is required.

We Christians are all baptized and can certainly count on the grace of that holy bath to have cleansed and sanctified us. But all of us kick up our share of mud along the road and, without some laundering along the way, will not be very fresh and fragrant companions for one another on our pilgrimage. Father Rollie once referred to the confessional as a (spiritual) “washing machine.” Not exactly reverent, but not wrong either. We do need to keep our spiritual lives in order, especially during the summer. That is what the sacramental life of the Church is for.

So we take the time and make the sacrifice of going to church, even over the summer. When I was in minor seminary our formators advised us that “there is no vacation from vocation,” warning of just those night dalliances that we might dream of on the hot days (of summer and temptation?) and that our songsters depicted in their composition. When we are under pressure, feeling uncomfortable, not sure of our way, we are all that much more vulnerable to temptation, to seek immediate relief in temporal vanities from long-range challenges, forgetting that, as the proverb says, “there is many a slip between cup and lip.”

Friends in the 12-step programs — great schools for Christian living! — bear witness to the ups and downs of the road to recovery. It is a wonderful thing to celebrate years of sobriety. Anyone who has struggled with addiction knows both the joy and the gratitude that accompany that “long and winding road” the Beatles sang of. There may be a slip or relapse that threatens to send the survivor into depression, even the brink of despair. But a relapse is often part of the longer journey which must continue. Its path is ultimately to the door of God’s merciful love, the door of heaven itself, open to all of us while we live.

We are all on that “long and winding road,” which sometimes is blind and not always easy, but we just keep moving forward. This is the Way of the Cross, the only throne that Jesus ever rested on. The only Mass that Jesus ever celebrated was on a cross. The ritual that sanctifies was the total outpouring of all he is. Uncomfortable, yes, but redeeming

 @AlbanyDiocese.