The Sign of Peace

Going to church is one of my strongest points; it is like a daily tonic for me and one of my most favourite things to do. I love the solemnity of the Mass, the consecration and the chanting during consecration. Nothing makes my Sunday like a priest who can really chant the Eucharistic prayers especially in Latin, oh! It makes me experience heaven on earth!
Another thing that gives me joy is hearing the mass being celebrated in my local language, it is always nostalgic for me and sends me down memory lane when I would trek to Catechism classes with other children. The Lenten hymns are my best; they usually put me in a place of worship and help me to understand what Christ had to go through for my sake.
I used to think that it was no biggy for Christ, after all, He was God and so was built to endure any kind of pain, and it shouldn’t matter. But I grew older and understood that he was fully man and endured all that He did as a man with same feelings as the ordinary man and this makes me love and respect God more.
It is my belief that everyone should really have a relationship with God, no matter the person’s lifestyle. We, as human beings fall into all sorts of temptations all the time, but the way forward is to keep holding on to God and ignore the righteous judges all around us.
I have had people tell me that I wear a lot of trousers; a man actually called me aside on my first day of joining a prayer group in church and said to me, “Why do you people disrespect God? The Bible made it clear that a woman should not wear a man’s clothes and vice versa, you are clearly disobeying God” I just listened to him attentively; I said thanks afterwards and quietly walked away. Now when I see the sort of trousers this same man’s daughters wear to daily masses, I shake my head. What makes it worse is that they are well endowed yet they wear very tight trousers and short tops that expose their corpulent behinds.
Another young lady in the same group approached me and said exactly the same thing, she sounded so angry, I responded, “but I wear trousers to church only on weekdays?” (I shouldn’t have bothered) and she said “Mass is Mass”. She won me there, but this was a woman who was always very unpleasant to people. She never put on trousers but she was so unfriendly and judgemental, was she better than me? I do not think so. (Yes I can be judgmental too)
People are quick to judge other people by their appearances, I was recently made the leader of a popular group in my parish, and people have actually said to me that my style of dressing should change. “No more trousers for you or very flashy clothes, you are now working for God” My response to them is, “I’d always worked for God, He knows that I am the way that I am and he called me regardless”. Like I always say “He chose me to shame the strong” That is not to say that I do not understand the responsibility before me to be at my best behaviour always.
You may see me as weak or fragile, you may see me as humble poor or arrogant rich or you may even see me as a sinner but God sees me as His perfect creation, He calls me “Daughter” and you have no right to judge me!
The earlier we learn that living in the church, sitting in the front, knowing all the doctrines or quoting the bible is no guarantee for heaven, the better for us. I have heard people call some others “Sunday Sunday medicine”. He may come only on Sundays but lives a holy and noble life during the week. He is at peace with neighbours, gives alms and thinks positively of others. Of course he is better than you who attends the morning mass daily, belong to ten societies or serves as a worker in church yet have not spoken to your neighbour in over one year. You receive communion every day, yet when you get to your office in the ministry, no proposal gets to the boss if the owners of the proposals do not “SEE” you.
I once challenged myself to preach in a public transport, as soon as I started, the old man in the car hushed me and said I should cover my hair first before speaking to them and after my preaching, he went on to speak on my jeans trousers indirectly. I wonder if he would be bold enough to cast the first stone. Mscheew.
There is a part of Mass that I am sceptical about, “The Sign of Peace”, this is the part where we are expected to shake as many people as possible before the next prayer commences.
Whenever the time comes, my mind runs riot, I am not sure if the man beside me had just held his “thing” to pee by the roadside on his way to church or even at home but forgot to wash his hands before driving out. It doesn’t help when I remember that they still have to shake off the rest of the urine which sometimes end up on the hand or wrist.
Sometimes I act like I do not see the man beside, behind or in front of me. I’m not sure if this is okay, but I hope God sees that I now make an effort to shake everyone including the person who puts his hand over his mouth and gives a deep cough, the type of cough that is accompanied by phlegm. That was the good thing about the Ebola period, the handshake thing stopped for a while and people waved cheerfully at each other. (Lol) Well, I usually just go with the flow and shake hands with faith but when the person sitting next to me digs his nose, I flee!! It must be a sin to dip your finger in the nose and still want to shake your fellow human being with same hand.
Meanwhile, it is not about shaking others, but also about other shaking me, and some people may also have a few reasons why they wouldn’t want to shake me. One thick madam once gave me two fingers to shake during the sign of peace in a certain Catholic church for the rich and the famous. I had to look at myself to see if my clothes were torn.

Now, is it a sin to avoid shaking someone during the sign of peace? My late mum dreaded shaking anyone who had sweaty palms, it irritated her so much. I have also come across a man who will never shake anyone during the sign of peace; his large family will also not shake anyone.  

As much as I love this gesture of the Catholic Church, sometimes I just can’t help myself.