As Tough as Favre

The old woman arrived at the pew five minutes after Mass started.  God didn’t mind; she walked so slowly that it may have taken the five minutes just to get from the entrance to her seat.  She was closer to 90 than 80, hunched over, and it was obvious that getting to church was a physical struggle that took a tremendous amount of her energy.  An initial reaction to a person in her condition is pity.  However as the Mass went on, the woman participated fully, even partially kneeling during the Consecration.  My feelings of pity turned to admiration for the toughness and courage that this woman showed that Sunday at St. Dominic’s.  There’s no telling how much effort it took for her to get to church that day.   Was she driven?  Perhaps not, since she sat alone.  Did she take a bus or the metro and then walk several blocks in winter cold?   However she got there, it was clear that the effort was great.  As my admiration grew, she became a role model for dealing with the final chapter of life.  She was expending what had to be an exhausting effort that morning, but it was worth it to her to join in the celebration of Mass for another Sunday.  Rather than acquiescing to the pain of old age, this lady was giving life’s inevitability a good punch in the mouth.  Brett Favre is the symbol of toughness in American sports.  This lady was just as tough as Brett.

St. Dominic’s is an inner city Catholic Church in southwest DC.  It is an anachronistic island surrounded on three sides by the glass, steel, and concrete of government office buildings, and by an expressway on the fourth.  The church outlived the neighborhood that once surrounded it, but it still stands as a beautiful reminder of the past and a place of worship for its eclectic congregation.  The small, ethnically diverse choir (Asian, Hispanic, Black, White) reflected the congregation that they led in song.  No one lives very near St. Dominic’s so everyone who attends Mass there really wants to be there.  Like most inner city Catholic churches, the congregation is a mix of semi-locals, street people, the well to do who drive in from more upscale neighborhoods, visitors, and the elderly.  These churches seem to be just hanging on.  No doubt they are subsidized by the larger diocese, but they are primarily funded and staffed by people who are unwilling to let them go.

 Like the old lady, St. Dominic’s has stood tough against changing times.  It provides a sanctuary in a sterile neighborhood for those who need it.  It keeps on with its mission despite the odds.  Eventually life will win, but for now I salute a tough old woman and her church.