M
maxk
Guest
Melman:
Fear of cooties must not be explained away as “obedience to clear standards” when they don’t exist.
I don’t hold hands, but if some lonely soul or teenager offers his hand, I will hold it. Too many people have left the Church because they never feel welcomed for me to feel right about refusing someone’s offered hand. Believe it or not, people leave the faith because of small little rebukes like people are describing here (ie pretending to sneeze into your hand in order to discourage someone’s gesture).
And what, pray tell, are the ‘clear standards’ regarding holding someone’s offered hand at the Our Father? There are none. There is a standard that a priest may not leave the sanctuary or hold hands with altar servers etc. He may not force the congregation to hold hands. But, there is no rule forbidding or even discouraging accepting someone else’s hand.To many, “Charity” does not include tolerating abuses in the mass and the Eucharist, which is after all “the source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324). The Church lays out clear standards and rituals, and we are expected to obey them in a spirit of obedience. Disobedience must not be explained away as “differences in the way others worship”.
Fear of cooties must not be explained away as “obedience to clear standards” when they don’t exist.
I don’t hold hands, but if some lonely soul or teenager offers his hand, I will hold it. Too many people have left the Church because they never feel welcomed for me to feel right about refusing someone’s offered hand. Believe it or not, people leave the faith because of small little rebukes like people are describing here (ie pretending to sneeze into your hand in order to discourage someone’s gesture).