A Glorious Sunday

It's the first Sunday of the month. That means I've got to go help sell books at the Cathedral.. That has always been considered by me as a most pleasant duty. But today, I am particularly happy. When I opened my eyes, I opened them upon a cloudless blue sky above my windows at side of my bed. After the rains, the blue somehow became bluer. I like the color of the sky.  It gave me a good feeling.

I rather enjoy performing the monthly book selling service. I think it good that people have some kind of religion and should read up on their faith, irrespective of whether or not there really is a God or gods. Religion gives people some much needed hope for a better future and some consolation for current and past sufferings. But I got some personal reasons to like helping people to realize their dream. Selling books gives me the chance to meet quite a lot of fellow church goers, some of whom I know and many of whom I don't. People have a need to communicate with each other. I am one of such people. Church people are usually quite friendly and some of them are genuinely nice.

There is a Maryknoll sister from Ireland who always comes all the way from Happy Valley to help with the Holy Communion. She would always make it a point to drop by to say hello. She had selflessly devoted the greater part of her life to the welfare of the faithfuls in Hong Kong, for more than 30 years. I have a great deal of admiration for her. And there are many fellow lay church workers who help with serving Holy Communion, to man the enquiry counter, to help sell rosaries, statues, crucifixes, medallions, necklaces,  bracelets and all other kinds of religious or devotional artifacts and also members of the St. Joseph's society and the credit union and various other kinds of lay organizations. They would also come to say hello to me and I would always respond warmly. I think good people need to be encouraged. Occasionally, there would be visiting clerics  or foreign Catholics on a short visit to Hong Kong and who would like to find out how what we are doing in the church in Hong Kong and I would do my best to help them.

And then there is my favourite young friend, the chubby daughter of one of the Holy Communion servers who would come to sit with me because she thought it enormous fun to be able to help me count the money. She has been with me for some 6 years. She has a really beautiful pairs of small and sparkling dark eyes. Sometimes she would draw pictures to show me. At other times, she would use all kinds of tricks to attract my attention so that I would play games with her. When she was about 4, she would come to me and ask me to hold her and then swing her up into the air until her legs went far above her head when she would squeal with delight. She would also tell me what happened at her school or home which she found amusing. Now she is in Primary 5 and is growing into a fine young lady and would from time to come to share her candies with me.

Then finally, there is B, a former colleague in a different law firm where I worked many years ago and who has recently got baptized. We could exchange information about the legal profession and endless jokes about judges and fellow practioners and also our views on various newspaper headline stories. We had a very smooth symbiotic relationship. We would help one another seamlessly. She would man the booth whilst I attend the 9.30 English mass and then I would man the booth whilst she attends the 11.00 a,.m. mass and whilst I am selling books, she would put in the accounting entries and vice versa. Selling books would also give me an opportunty to practice my sales puff. Today, we had a spectacular success. We grossed a record $1,700 within the half hour before and the half hour after 11 a.m. mass!

Between masses, when there are hardly any buyers or browsers, I can always use the time to read or to translate poetry. It was a strangely quiet environment, in the open air, with the sky as my canopy and I can bask in the sunlight when it is not too hot, especially when it's a fine day. In addition, it affords a wonderful opportunity to observe human behavior in action: shy children fingering picture books they like and stealing glances at their parents, some braver ones pestering their parents to buy, parents giving all kinds of excuses for not wanting to buy, and still other children being pressed or pressured by their anxious parents to buy this book or that book, churchgoers waiting for others who have nothing better to do and pretending to be browsing just to while away their boredom, still others anxious to show off how many books on religious devotion they have bought and read already, and old ladies who haven't got any friends and who just come near to chat and telling me all kind of stories about which father(s) or which fellow church worker(s) did what kind of atrocious things, just to get a little attention which they fail to get from their families all grown and each with their preoccupations, often forgetting that they have told me their stories I do not know how many times before.

Some of my friends often ask me why holding the kind of agnostic views that I do and being half a buddhist, half a Taoist and an almost complete humanist, I still go to church. The reason is quite simple really. I enjoy going to church. I enjoy the feeling of sitting at a  bench in front of the pew and I enjoy that special kind of silence in the church before mass begins, and finally I enjoy listening to the hymns. Hymns are a very special kind of music. They are always slow, serene, rhythmic without agitating and they always end in high notes. They are so uplifting to hear. They sing of man's hopes, their longings, their aspirations for the realization of the highest human ideals and for the beauty of heavenly harmony. I like the polyphonic lines sung by different sections of the choirs, in waves and waves of sound, accompanied by the sound of the organ which always begins to emit its notes slightly ahead of the voice of the choir because it always takes a little time for the sound to come out from the tubes immediately after the relevant keys for the stops have been pressed. The organ has a very majestic sound. No other musical instrument can match the grandeur of its sonorous notes, especially when pressed hard, when their harmonics will blend in with the fundamental tones of the succeeding notes. It was a wonderful feeling to hear the sound of the organ reverberating in the emptiness of the huge space within the walls of the Cathedral eg. Bach's fugue, agnus dei, alleluia, pater nostra, gloria, kyrie eleison, ave maria's, Aamazing Grace, etc  . There is not a single great composer of before the 20th century who has not written hymns. At one time the church was the only organization rich enough to commission the new musical works from composers. Many of the songs written by Bach, by Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, etc are still being played by the organ or are sung. And then there are what has been called Gregorian chants which are some of the most beautiful music ever written by man.

I also enjoy the lights within the church. I like it when the sun shines through the high stained glass windows upon the altar or as they are reflected upon the shiny edges or surfaces of the dark colored pews,tracing their outlines, giving them a kind of lurid or out of this world color which somehow makes one think of something more sublime than the values of man. Perhaps that is what the German theologian Herinrich Ott talked about when he spoke of the sense of awe as the basis of all religious emotions. In short, I like the feeling of being in the presence of something or someone greater than myself and greater and more mighty than the greatest and mightiest of human beings.  I get this when I am sitting in the church thinking or reflecting on the furthest reaches of the human spirit or when I am listening to the beautiful hymns, especially certain of the beautiful hymns composed by the Taize singers.  

The best part of going to church is that there, during the mass, I can always observe all sorts of people. Some would read their Kung Kau Po or Sunday Examiner. Others would listen to the sermons, pray, kneel, sing as required. Young people would make use of the opportunity to exchange loving looks and young girls would giggle at volumes slightly above that called for by whatever it was that they heard from the sheepish young boys beside them. Little toddlers would lay their head upon their mom or their pop's shoulders sucking their fingers. Slightly older kids would play with their cars, rag dolls or other toys and some would draw and then when they're done, show them eagerly to their moms, their pops or brothers. Still other kids would play amongst themselves. Often they would drop their stuffs on the floor and then they would contort their tiny supple bodies amongst the legs of the adults and underside of the seats into impossible positions to retrieve them. Some of them would fight for a piece of paper or a toy and then you'd find anxious dads or moms or grandmas quickly but unsuccessfully shishing them up or otherwise givng them angry or disapproving looks and when they are out of control by crying aloud, their parents would sometimes have to literally carry them outside of the church in quick steps, with an apologetic or embarrassed or even angry or frustrated look on their faces. Some toddlers would talk aloud to themselves as they verbalize their thoughts and some would sing in their private language. But what I like best is the part of the mass after we have finished saying/singing  "Our Father" and offer each other the sign of peace,when everyone will nod to each other and some would go over to their friends and shake their hands, people particularly close, like chilldren and their parents or husband and wives would kiss each other and some partcilularly reserved people would just squeeze the shadow of a smile out from their rigid faces and give the most cursory nods which pass for a greeting the others, one on each side and consider their duty done! I like this because some who would otherwise look tense, serious, stuck up would suddenly burst into  warm smiles to show us that they are human after all! I also like that part of the mass when we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness for what we did or failed to do and of course, the receiving of the Holy Communion when we got a chance to be theoretically united to God and we got to make believe that God actually entered physically into our bodies with the melting of the wafer in our mouths and before that to tell God that we are unworthy to receive him into our bodies. Usually after the Holy Communicion, you feel that somehow, you are cleaner and more whole than before and you would resolve to keep yourself in that condition the rest of the week!  And occasionally, you might even get a good sermon!

I get so much from going to church on Sundays. How could I resist?