Prayer to God asking for the priest so there can be mass . . .

A bit of weekday drama.

“Dear God,” I prayed when the time came and went for priest to ring entry bell and enter the sanctuary for the start of mass.

“Father X,” I said, “Where are you? Student body of parish school here, all of them, and you not here?”

“Please, God, find him!”

(Moments later) “Dear God, you found him! Two small minutes of waiting and he’s here. On with the Holy Sacrifice.”

I turn to the Scripture of the day, which I read aloud to the assemblage, including the students. Doing so, I see what the reformers did as reflecting their penchant for bookkeeping.

The Acts of the Apostles passage, standing alone on the page, is minutes of a meeting! Egad, devotional material begone!

It’s instruction at expense of devotion. Punchline?

“The Apostles and the presbyters met together to see about this matter,” I read and the rest heard.

We the reader and listeners are happy to hear this. And not everything is for devotion. Not all is a holy and sanctifying punchline. But why did the bookkeepers not veer somewhat from their neatness routine, conceivably adding just enough of what follows to make us want to hear more?

Which would be this verse:

After much debate had taken place, Peter got up and said to them, “My brothers, you are well aware that from early days God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.”

Whetting listeners’ appetite for the next day’s reading.

Anyhow, the show must go on, in this case more than theatrical make-believe, but an event of earth-shaking significance, reenactment of the sacrifice of the cross.

Dear God, how can we ever thank you for that???