What is your “Calgon Moment”?
Today I attended mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church in Carmel, IN. And today, I was blessed with such a close moment with Christ. The gospel of today was one of my favorites and referenced Matthew 11:28-30 which states: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
In the homily, Fr. Richard Doerr talked about our relationship with God and how we get caught up in the “rat race” of life with so many problems and issues to deal with that we sometimes need a “Calgon Take Me Away Moment” – a moment where we say to the world “STOP” and throw away the world problems and we chill in a bubble bath and all would be well (this was what the Calgon commercial promised in the late 1970’s). Fr. Richard went on to say that nowadays, there is so much temptation in this world that our Calgon moment, our ”chill” from the worldly pressures moves us into vices, sins, over indulgences.
Yet rarely do we come and rest at the feet of the One who died for us all.
That struck me in my walk as there have been many times in the stresses of my life that I fall back into the arms of the world and it’s ways and not the arms of Jesus Christ. And then, during mass, I experienced a close moment. During communion, a wonderful family that I have known for awhile came up to Fr. Doerr to receive communion. They were the last people to receive communion and it was so beautiful to all of them lined up to receive Christ. Anyway, as the final two family members were in line to receive communion, Fr. Doerr gave communion to the second-to-the-last family member and then turned around and went back to the altar forgetting that there was still one little girl was waiting patiently to receive communion. He did not notice her and went about his way putting the extra hosts back in the tabernacle and getting ready for the final prayer. Yet here she was, still standing in the front of the church, arms open as in disbelief, anxiety building, even trying to raise her hand as if to catch the attention of Fr. Richard- but to no avail. Communion was over. So she walked back to the pews and sat with her whole family, looking very dejected, despondant and downcast, and through the corner of my eye, I saw her hugging her sister and I could see that tears were welling up inside of her.
After mass had ended, I quickly went back to the vestibule where Fr. Richard was and told him of the littlest communicant that did not receive communion. Immediately, he asked the Deacon/Seminarian to go out with me and to find her and give her communion. As we approached the family which was now in the Narthex, my heart broke as I saw the little girl now with her mother, face buried in her dress, holding her tight as if for dear life. It was a sad day for her. And then I spoke with the mom and told her that Deacon/Seminarian could give her daughter communion. Her mother asked her daughter if she would like to receive communion and her daughter with some glimmer of hope in her eyes, unburied herself from her mother and nodded, “Yes”.
And then the little girl received Christ.
The little girl came back a completely different person – the joy back in her heart, the peace flowing through her, her mass complete. It was amazing to see such a transformation… and then the Scripture passage of the Gospel and Fr. Richard’s homily hit me:
Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.
In this life, we will never find peace and solace unless we give ourselves to Christ, rest in His love, His mercy and His grace, receiving Him, body, blood soul and divinity, just like this little girl did. He will never abandon us, reject us, leave us. It is usually us that does the walking away. Yet today, I was very encouraged, through the faith and belief of a little child running to Jesus, wanting to receive Him. And in that moment, the the Gospel became a living fountain of God’s grace.
Mass is offered every day, communion is offered at mass, there is usually a church with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament close by. Christ is just waiting for us, to give us rest, to allow us to “chill” from the world’s pressures and stresses. So what are you doing about it?
What is your “Calgon Moment”?