Clowns to the Left, Mimes to the Right, Here I Am....Stuck in the Middle Pew

(H/t to Orthometer Blog for the photo)

The photo directly above is from a Catholic Church in Switzerland that recently employed a women mime to give the homily. I wouldn't be surprised if she was hearing a small voice from the tabernacle saying " Not in my Church, you don't! " Thankfully, our parish would never be host to such liturgical abuse. (Thank you Father R. and Monsignor H. for your commitment to orthodoxy)

In my previous life as a non-Catholic Christian, our church once had "Clown Communion." Our clown ministry* at the time had requested that they be allowed to pray over and distribute the bread and grape juice one Sunday. At the time, I was far from being Catholic but had the sense to know that something wasn't quite right about it. I believe it was my Catholic childhood kicking in here that made me realize just how wrong this was. Even then, I respected the Lord's Table and knew that there was something more to it. Having clowns to "bless" and distribute the elements just didn't seem right and if the truth be told, I suspect there were many ex-Catholics there that day that had similar feelings, but I will never know.

Prodigal Daughter (my wife) was sitting next to me in tears. I thought she was being touched by the Holy Spirit! (Boy was my discernment in the toilet that day) Little did I know she had been drawn back to the Catholic Church specifically because God opened her eyes to see that Christ was truly present in the validly consecrated elements in the Catholic Mass! Years later, and after I converted, she told me how she felt that the clown communion was making a mockery of the precious Body and Blood of Christ. To be sure, they had no intention of mocking communion because they were godly Christian folks, but this was a clear example of what happens when you try to re-invent the wheel, liturgically.

The Methodist church we later attended again caused her much pain when she saw the vacuum cleaner brought out after the service to suck up the crumbs of the "blessed" bread. Theoretically, Prodigal shouldn't have been so upset since these events were just communal sharing of bread and grape juice and not a partaking of the Eucharist (due to the lack of apostolic succession). But, it was the palpable sense of how far we had departed from what she believed to be true that drove her to tears. My wife longed to receive His body and His blood and these communion services were a continuing source of pain for her that she silently endured for 5 years before God opened my eyes and brought me home.

"Man should tremble, the world should vibrate, all Heaven should be deeply moved when the Son of God appears on the altar in the hands of the priest." (St. Francis 13th Century)

*I want to explain here that I am not anti-Clown, and have no small respect for clown ministry outside of the Divine Liturgy. I must admit though, I am uncomfortable talking to people when they are dressed like clowns, see here.