Holding Hands
In elementary school, I can remember whining to the teacher when someone kept poking me or kicking me or incessantly bumping me with an elbow… and I can remember this happening to a whole lot of other kids, too… and it always produced the same kind of effect: a hand shoots into the air, waves down the teacher, and then, “Mrs. So-and-so… Jerk-boy won’t stop touching me.”
Right. Well. Apparently this phenomenon is not left alone for children. Apparently it remains a problem even among adults. In fact, it’s an area of considerable concern among Catholics.
You see, unbenknownst to me, it’s a relatively knew liturgical practice for congregations to join hands during the Our Father (aka the Lord’s Prayer) which is prayed at every Mass. Prior to this practice, people pretty much never as much looked at their neighbor in Mass. Not even to shake hands during the Sign of Peace. Again, a new revelation and surprise to me.
So, instead of everyone adopting the new practice, a lot of people have started whining (surprise, surprise… I’m not really surprised, just find it interesting… and I have my opinion… on with the show!!). It’s amazing to see the extent some of these people brag to not hold hands. Astounding. “I sneeze in my hand just prior to the prayer,” says one. “I just refuse to give it up,” says another. Some people are more charitable, “If someone comes reaching, I’ll give in” or “I adopt an ‘when in Rome…’ attitude.”
…but woe be it to him – such as me or Jason – who would come along and say, “Ya know… I kinda like it. I mean, the Mass is a communal celebration, a communal meal. Why must community be left to singing and the fact that we all go through the same motions? Why can’t I (and the whole parish for that matter) actually join with my neighbor in an act of visible prayer similar Sign of the Cross?”
The way I look at it, the Our Father is a communal prayer. I understand that Jesus says, around the same time that He gives us this prayer, that we are to pray in private… but I don’t think Mass counts as a public exhibition of my prayerful piety: I’m surrounded by a bunch of people doing the same thing. Not only are they doing the same thing, but they are (suppose to be) doing it for the same reason. So why not join hands as an outward sign of the very thing we are preparing for inwardly – namely, being one Body through the consumption of the flesh and blood of our Lord.
Some don’t like it because they’re now distracted from the prayer. Some people don’t like it because they don’t know whose hand it is they are holding (Lord help them if they are Eucharistic ministers). Some people don’t like it because it’s icky. All of those reasons pretty much look selfish in my book – it’s essentially saying “My neighbor just plain ain’t worth it.”
The first objection is pretty much the only one worth consideration… and my consideratoin goes like this: the whole Mass, you’re praying, listening, responding all in your happy isolation. I do not see it unreasonable for a little variety in your prayerfulness in having to join visibly with the community in a single prayer that doesn’t last more than a minute. As a matter of fact, I think it’s good for you. That’s right. Farty Marty to your left is your brother, you’ve got love him regardless of his oderous magnificence, you’ve got love him while loving God foremost, and this is one way you can show that’s true. It’s the small things that show the truth. This is a small thing. Such a small thing that I imagine with time, it’ll probably lose some of its meaning to you through routine and repition. What else is new. That doesn’t discredit the idea. Otherwise, a lot would be discredited today. And it means a lot. It meant a lot to me when I started to attend Mass as a Fundy Protestant.
I won’t be heart broken if the bishops get their act together and decide to squash the practice… but I imagine I would be disappointed. It is such a beautiful sign.
Thus concludes my friendly rant. Inspired by Him, some stuff tangential to what this guy said, this guy, too, … and I think that’s it.
How ludicrous? A communal time, and you don’t want to join in with the other penitents? :sigh:
It’s been a tempest in a teacup for a while. You’ve known the argument has existed because your wife and I have talked about it on numerous occasions.
The guy who followed up after me on Jimmy’s blog had the first somewhat logical argument for the practice that I’ve ever heard. But even he admits that the rubrics don’t require the practice one way or another.
The biggest problem here is that people think that the way that they worship is the only true way to worship… We all forget Paul’s ‘be all things to all people’ or ‘don’t let your freedom wound these litle ones’.
–Jason
I’ve known about the Orans thing for a while… I thought that whole idea was silly, personally: a congregation of people holding out their hands but not holding? weird. In my mind the best options are to be holding or not, but I didn’t know it was such a brewing controversy among the laity: I had only heard (or at least imagined what I heard as a) debate as though it were between clergy and laity.
Personally, I thought Fr. S’s arguments were, respectfully, bunk. I think his dichotomizing offering our hands to God first and neighbor second is misplaced. I think I’ve spelled out my reasons sufficiently above.
Read what I said about his argument again… It’s the “first SOMEWHAT logical argument”. I also believe that he’s making a false dichotomy. But I can at least respect him and his logic more than “I sneeze in my hands before the Our Father to avoid this”.
I’ll tread lightly here, as one “outside the fold,” but this seems to me to be a fairly innocent way of expressing incarnationally that we are the body of Christ. But if it truly makes some people uncomfortable, perhaps it should be presented as voluntary. No one would argue that it is something required in worship, would they?
What you’ve said is pretty much true, Sage… except the counter-argument is being made albeit passively agressively: the rubrics don’t call for holding hands therefore anyone holding hands is wrong, Wrong, WRONG!!!
If the GIRM were to call for holding hands, one of two things would happen: nay-sayers would start holding hands (even if they feel uncomfortable) oooorrrrr the population of Norvus Ordo conspiracy theorists (aka people who don’t like Vatican II) would grow slightly larger.
I have a “when in Rome…” attitude… so, if I see a hand hanging out towards me, I latch on.