I returned to work after a short vacation. I got caught up on the very minimal emails and voicemails that awaited me; apparently other people decided to take a vacation too, which is good.
I decided to attend my usual Mass since most of the people I know go to that particular Mass. Right before the procession began, a very intoxicated man entered the church, spotted the presider and yelled, "Father! I'm moving away." I stepped away so they could talk and took my place in a pew near the back. All of a sudden I heard the man bellow from the rear of the church, "Please rise!" and surprisingly, everyone in the congregation dutifully did so, though this is not our tradition. After the procession made it to the front, the man walked to the front of the church and laid down in front of the altar. One of the readers encouraged him to get up and sit in a pew. He yelled various things during the Mass, walked around intermittently, would lie down on the floor occasionally, and after the homily, burst into a solo of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." The organist and the parish council chair also got up at different points to encourage him to settle down or leave.
I stood where I was the whole time, feeling like I was suspended in time, and certainly caught in a conundrum; should I notify the other priest in the house? Should I call the police? At what point do we consider him innocuous, and at what point do we consider him dangerous? There were some strong men around to coerce him to settle down, but should I be doing something? If so, what?
At the end of the Mass he came to the back and found me standing alone. He got very close to my face and asked how my freedom was. Then he pointed his two fingers at his eyes and then at mine, saying, "I'm watching you," and as I backed away, he said, "Are you afraid of me? Run away, go ahead and run..." I was not amused.
Everyone was very impressed with how the presider handled the situation, however. He let very little phase him during the Mass, and during the intercessions, he offered a special prayer for our friend who needed our prayers for his health and well-being, and who was moving away in the near future. So, although I felt very helpless, and I'm sure others in the church did too, at the very least we could pray for him.
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1 comments:
Yeesh. I feel for the guy, but that sounded like it was pretty unpleasant. We had a similar experience during Christmas 2006's Midnight Mass. Right during our closing hymn, a strange man barged in and paced up and down the centre aisle yelling obscenities. It was so distressing and difficult to realize that he was precisely the kind of broken person the gospels tell us to minister to. Odd how that works out, eh?
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