I cried at
my wedding. After we exchanged the vows, I sat down next to Bill on the altar
and the tears started. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those dainty women criers
who can get a bit misty and then dab neatly at the mascara under their eyes.
No. When I cry, my face scrunches up, my nose runs and my shoulders shake. A
wedding guest told me later that she had thought something might be really
wrong, like I didn’t want to marry Bill after all. But that wasn’t it. Sitting
next to my brand-new husband on the altar, the enormity of the sacrament hit
me. I had just promised to live my entire life with this one person—promise so
big and so long that the church made the promise into a sacrament. Within the
vows I recognized the sub-promises—promises about parenthood, good times, bad
times, health and sickness. Within the vows I recognized I had made a promise
not just about Bill, but about me and how I would spend my life. Within the
vows I heard the whisper that God would be with us in all those times; that God
had led us to this moment, and would be in all the moments that would follow.
And so I wept—both overwhelmed with the hugeness of what we were undertaking
and overwhelmed that God was part of it.
The
word sacrament is defined as a visible sign of God’s grace. I’ve noticed that
in the years since our wedding, I cry more easily when either I receive a
sacrament or witness someone else receiving one. I don’t really like crying in
public, and I wish my tears weren’t so quick to come, but I have come to view
my reaction to sacraments as natural. In the presence of God’s grace, I cry. I
liken it to my fall allergies. In the presence of ragweed, I sneeze. It’s
really not all that different. Both the crying and the sneezing are a physical
reaction to something I know is real; something I can feel is real, but
something I cannot see.
Recently,
our family went to Reconciliation. As I told the priest my sins, I began to
cry. Jamie, who I was holding as I received the sacrament, looked alarmed.
“Don’t be afraid of that man,” she said, wrapping her arms more tightly around
my neck as we walked back to the pew when I was done.
I
was still wiping away my tears as I sat down next to eleven-year-old Jacob.
Jacob has often seen me cry in church and wasn’t too surprised, but he did
glance around to see who else was looking.
“Mom,
people are going to think you robbed a bank or something,” he whispered.
It wasn’t the place to explain to Jacob that I
wasn’t crying because my sins were so bad — I really don’t have time for the
real glamorous or complicated sins-- but
rather because in the moment of Reconciliation, I feel the grace of God. I feel
God’s grace as I explain to the priest what I’ve done to separate myself from God,
and I feel God’s grace in the absolution that follows. I feel God’s grace in
the clean slate.
I
cry at baptisms—both those of our children and those of children of friends and
family. Nowhere but baptism would anyone talk to new parents of their child’s
eventual death, but baptism takes it on. Baptism reaches past adorable sleepers
and ingenious baby gadgets to a place where we are reminded of the inherent
dignity of human life. God’s grace in baptism is the affirmation of the child
as a profound gift — the child as God’s instrument.
Thankfully,
I don’t cry at every Eucharist, just at select ones. Perhaps if I were truly
present to each Eucharist I would cry at each. Often, though, Eucharist is the
exact time of Mass that three-year-old Jamie and five-year-old T are drawing to
the end of their quiet reserves. The fruit snacks were gobbled during the
homily; pictures colored during the petitions; books flipped through during the
offertory. By the time of the Eucharistic prayer, I’m just trying to keep the
girls quiet and still so that those in the pew behind me can pray. The times I
can remember crying at the Eucharist are times I’ve gone to church without the
kids. Looking back at those moments, often my tears were tears of thanks —
thanks for the strength that the Eucharist provides. And maybe a little bit of
thanks to be at church without small children.
I’ve
never been to an ordination, and even though I was seventeen when I was
confirmed, I don’t think I quite realized the significance of the sacrament
enough to cry. If my children choose to be confirmed, I’ll no doubt cry at
theirs, and maybe I’ll try to teach them enough about what they’re receiving to
get them to cry as well. Jamie received the anointing of the sick once, and I
did cry at that, but that might have been as much worry for her health as it
was awe of the sacrament.
I
told a friend once of my embarrassment over all these sacramental tears. She,
too, is quick to cry, and I was thinking that perhaps together we could think
of a way to stop our public weeping, or at least contain it. But she gently
redirected my thoughts.
“In the face of God, we can’t help but cry,”
she said. “Be thankful for your tears. Be thankful that the grace is real. When
you stop crying, that’s when you need to wonder what is wrong.”
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