'The bigger sacrifice'

I remember an old, dreadful joke about a young man who noticed that his new wife, whenever she prepared Sunday roast beef, used to cut off some of the meat at either end. He asked why, and she responded, 'my mother always did.' So, he asked his mother-in-law the same question, and received the identical response. Finally, he asked his wife's grandmother, who said, "the pan was too small."

Silly as that may seem, I saw much of the same in the religious realm! No one remembered (if indeed, they ever knew) the reasons for customs (usually unofficial, but all too often enshrined in the practise of religious Orders.) Either they continued in them because grandma always chopped off the end of the joint, or they gave them new and distorted meanings.

I would imagine that, in 1900, a devout mother may have gone to Mass each Sunday at dawn either because she had to stoke the fires and prepare the beef, or perhaps because, in the days of non-communicating High Mass, only early risers had a chance to receive communion. In 1940, by which time mum's devotion was legendary in the family, her daughter went to early Mass because her mother had. By 1970, her granddaughter, worried that her own children might not be religious, would have been off to the first Mass because "it's a bigger sacrifice to have to get up at 5:00." (Her own kids, of course, would be likely to never go to church at all once they moved from their mother's house... though one of them might be going to all night vigils today because he is not aware that the world always has been dreadful and has been convinced it was wonderful thirty years ago and has fallen apart.) Notice that Christ's sacrifice has taken second place to one's own...

I can remember the days when there were large enough congregations at very early Masses, but wonder why this was so esteemed. With the exception of police and hospital employees who had to go to work, and a few elderly insomniacs, those at 6:00 Mass usually were those who had been out all night.

Certainly, there is sacrifice involved in any life, but it is beyond me why it was considered 'holy' to manufacture this. Why do we fear that God is waiting with the cane if we have enjoyment in life? That is hardly a position I take - I'll take enjoyment anywhere that I can - but I knew many with the other approach.

The fear of 'wasting time' had a miserable effect - because the fear was not of sin, but of anything pleasant. Social contacts, relaxation, and just about everything in the category were to be 'sacrificed' - it was as if anything that was not sheer work was a distraction. Time we spent with others was treated as inherently negative!