Looking for Alleluia

I grew up in the 1960's which was the period of time between the Old Church and the Vatican II Church. So I have seen Lent from both sides of the street. Early in my career at Saint Joseph and Saint Anne School, I was a good do-be.  I rose early enough to get to daily Mass to please God for my devotion to Him but more importantly to ingratiate myself to the good sisters of Saint Joseph who infested, ahh, I mean who taught us bright and willing baby boomers. We were all well trained and entered and exited the pews with military precision, each one of us genuflecting while the next child waited for his or her turn. After genuflecting we either moved to the end of the pew waiting for the sit-down signal or if we were exiting the pew we began moving towards the communion rail where we would kneel to receive communion or execute a smart about face, kid style, and make our way to the exit. There were a whole lot of other things the prudent student would observe.  First and foremost, of course, was the position of one's head. It was kept facing towards the altar. A kid's head facing left or right or God forbid facing backward was certainly not praying for the success of the mission of the Sisters of Saint Joseph or to pass that day's spelling test.  No! It was either preparing to talk or actually talking to one's neighbor.  The nun in charge of security immediately went to the offender and reminded him (it was never a girl) what he should be doing.  If the miscreant happened to be amongst the first three children in the row, the guard, I mean sister, might just assist the child by grabbing both of the kids ears and re-training his gaze onto the altar again.  The other thing the sisters insisted upon was good posture whilst kneeling. A boy with his butt resting on the seat of the pew while kneeling could expect quick rebuke and assistance from the sister who observed the sloppy posture. It was never a girl that would offend with sloppy posture because girls always did what was right, at least while sister was looking.  I think that the worst Catholic service to be at when you were a kid was the stations of the cross. I say this because first of all, they were so long!  Secondly, it was the closest thing at SJSA to a gym class because you knelt and stood and knelt and stood some more until you thought it would never end.  The only good thing about it was that we got out of school forty-five minutes early.  All eight grades participated in this ritual.  It was awe inspiring to see hundreds of kids silently participating in a troop movement that used all of the exits of the school, culminating with every grade silently in their places ready to go in five minutes.  I think the only boy that loved the stations of the cross was Jackie Gleason.  No, not the Jackie Gleason of the Honeymooners, this was a boy who did EVERYTHING perfectly. He walked with his hands out of his pockets. He had the straightest posture possible. He was always smiling. He ALWAYS got one-hundred on his spelling tests and he knew how to diagram sentences like a pro. He was forever volunteering for whatever would get him more brownie points. He always knelt straight and true and the sisters pointed out all of his good qualities when correcting a boy in need of correction. Needless to say, he was hated by all of the boys in class but was exempt from playground retribution because not even the worst bully in the school would want to bully a living saint, besides, he played all sports well. 

The thing that I remember about these pre-Vatican II days is how grim and solemn the mass and decorations were. I remember that we did not do much singing back then. Rather we had an organist with an adenoid issue slaughtering Gregorian chants that we could not understand. I remember thinking at the time that any minute an undertaker was going to be pushing in a casket and a funeral mass would be starting.  Back then, the word "Alleluia" was just another word in a foreign language and quite honestly I do not know if too many people noticed that it was missing.  I knew that the Gloria was missing because the mass was shorter and that was okay by me!

Vatican II came and went and during the Kumbaya period of the liturgy, I was taking my teenage sabbatical from church.  I guess that those early years of change were quite traumatic for some of the adult members of the Church back then. The quiet time where they could say their Rosaries now had become times where they were expected to participate, in English!  I can't get into how in some respects we went too far at that time and threw the baby out with the bathwater.  Imagine my surprise when I returned to the Church and found the priest facing the congregation, the old time choir that handled music was gone and we, the people, who were known now as "the people of God" participated in worship by raising our voices in song.   Can you imagine the first time I experienced the sign of peace?  I have to tell you, it was very hard for me to break years of discipline and turn around in the pew.

Okay, all of the above is the background to the subject of this post which is the word Alleluia.  I hope when you were at church this weekend you enjoyed singing the Alleluia before you heard the Gospel reading. It will be the last time you will hear the Gloria and the Alleluia until Lent is over.  Why is this?  The Gloria and the Alleluia are the songs of the angels in heaven and our singing them is a reminder that heaven has begun for us here on earth through the Church.  So, are we being punished?  No, the Church is not punishing us.  Rather, it is reminding us that while heaven begins on earth, we are still on a journey.  During Lent, we are to walk closer with the Lord in our life.  Over the next five weeks, we are called to think about our lives and how to bring ourselves closer to Christ and to more closely model His life in ours.  As the time goes on we want to shout Glory to God in the highest!  We want to let the Alleluia's ring out. But we can't and this longing increases as the time of Lent extends.  Then, on Easter, when we hear the joyful new proclaimed that Jesus has risen, our Alleluia's will be more heartfelt and more joyous than at any other time of the year.  So as the last alleluia fades from your ear, remember that when you complete your Lenten journey you will be able to praise God with the angels again.  

So, one more time for old time's sake let's sing, "Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!"