I found my mind wandering at Church the other day thinking about something during the part of Mass when the congregation says the prayer before Holy Communion: Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. These are the words straight from our buddies Matt (8:8) and Luke (7:6), where the Centurion spoke to Jesus and we recite them every Sunday as we prepare ourselves to receive Him in the Eucharist.
While we were praying this prayer aloud, I caught myself saying another prayer: Lord, I am certainly not worthy enough to have you enter under my roof – although I have a nice apartment that’s typically tidy and have a fridge full of healthy snacks and home brews – I surely am not even cool enough to be in the same vicinity as you, but only say those simple words and hopefully, hopefully, my soul shall be healed.
It came to me during that portion of Mass that it would be so cool to have the big guy come down and chill with me for the day in my apartment. We could catch a game, drink some wine (heard he knows quite the party trick that folks still talk about today) and share some laughs. We could discuss things like the meaning of life, faith, love and maybe even have him help me pick numbers for next week’s lotto or help choose players for next year’s fantasy football team. I’d ask him things like, why He let my Grandma die while I was so little and my brother die so young? I’d ask Him why he hates Cleveland sports and why He was nonexistent in my middle school years; why I didn’t know Him better in the toughest years of my life? I’d demand answers to how he could allow events like last week’s tragedy take place. And I'd have to ask him the ever so popular icebreaker question, if he could meet one person, dead or alive, who would He choose (cuz he can't say himself, like nine out of ten people)? If he came into Casa de Lofy, I would totally tweet about who I was hanging out with, I’d update Facebook minute by minute, and of course, see if he’d wingman me downtown for the night. The list goes on…
All joking aside, as I prayed this in Mass it made me think of two questions. First, what would I do if he did enter under my roof (see above for my thoughts), and secondly, who is worthy?
The answer is no one. No one is worthy of such an experience. But we should try are darnedest to become so. Striving to become so pure, so disciplined and become more Christlike in all that we do. And maybe, just maybe, one Sunday, when we pray aloud our prayer, we will be able to say: Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof - and I know this, but I am striving to be more like you: Courageous, loving and compassionate - but only say the word - and I hope one day you'll say those words, oh how I do - my soul shall be healed.
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