I have just been preparing the Scripture readings scheduled for today, December 17th and I’m wondering how I’m going to get my tongue around the names of the ancestors of Christ as listed by St Matthew in the first seventeen verses of Chapter 1 of his Gospel. Hopefully, nobody will be a bit the wiser if I stumble over some (maybe, many) of them!!
All of this brings me back quite a few years to the Sunday mornings when we had Mass in Riverstown before the rationalisation of our prayer world. My predecessor wisely left the pleasure of these early Sunday mornings to me. En route I used pick up a few passengers, one of whom was most entertaining – he always had a story or two for me. Thankfully, he is very much with us still though not quite as active on his feet.
One Sunday, as soon as he got into the car, he announced that he had completed a reading of the Bible from cover to cover. Some achievement! He said he had enjoyed the experience, but “I’m going to tell you something”, he said, “there were some very strange boyos in that book”!
It is these “boyos” that I must try to try to pronounce at Mass this evening. There were a few women among them, and I gather their escapades were not always in the best taste either!
Another of my passengers (mainly interested in reaching for the “high ball”), sadly lost his life in an incident on the road some few years ago. Every time I pass the spot, I bless myself and commend him to the Lord.
He had many colourful views on the honourable members of the Bench, the custodians of the Law and assorted members of the hostelries scattered around the county and beyond and, presumably, the men of the cloth. May he rest in peace. I miss him.