Why you probably usually misunderstand me
I have come to realize that few things in life are actually important. The liturgy is important. Family is important. Beyond that, most everything is transitory and a joke. For years, I took myself and everything I said and did far too seriously. I regret that.
So when I’m preaching or presiding at mass, I’m deadly serious. If you’re among the congregation gathered for Divine Service, I expect you to be too. If I’m hearing confession, I’m serious. If I’m baptizing someone, or saying the commendation of the dying, or officiating at a funeral, I’m serious.
Otherwise, I’m probably joking. I like to laugh, and for too long I suppressed it. I almost never tell a joke during a sermon. I may say something funny, but it will be for a serious purpose. But the rest of the time, there’s plenty of things to poke fun of, both in myself and in our crazy world. Now I’m a terrible joke-teller – can’t remember ‘em, get nervous trying to deliver the lines at the right time. Since I can’t tell a joke, I use sarcasm, understatement, and hyperbole. So lighten up a bit, and don’t take it so seriously!
When I write something like “Real priests wear rose,” IT’S A JOKE. If you’ve been around this blog, or me, for any period of time, you know I’m a traditionalist. I think tradition is important. Really, really important. But I also believe that differences in fasting are not differences in faith. I think I read that somewhere. 
So, I’ve prepared this handy guide to help you, gentle reader, delve into the Esgetological mystery:
- If it’s a sermon … no joke
- If it’s an exegetical discussion of Holy Scripture, the Word of God … no joke
- If it’s a discussion of just about anything else … probably a joke. Assume that I’m just poking fun at myself and you, trying to remain sane in this dark world
Related posts:
- Real priests live in charity (or, Real priests wear rose, redux) Apparently, there was a heated discussion in the Lutheran blogosphere...
I thought “Real priests wear rose” was a joke. But then I’m a socially impaired engineer so I thought I missed something.
There seems to be a lot of baggage from both sides of that argument at Madre’s blog. It seems to me like there hasn’t been enough forgiving going on, and probably not enough confessing, either.
What i want to know,was there any viking purple under the rose?
Well, as Nick Nolte (another Omaha boy) said to Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs, Some of us citizens are with you all the way.
In addition to what Bethany has expressed, which I share, it amazes me how simple facts are just ignored in the matter. Namely three.
One, garments are generally best featured on a model. What’s the big deal there? Speculation as to the psychological or spiritual state of the model is more what one would expect from the sort of stuff in the racks by the grocery check-out.
Two, the chromatics of rose and pink are different, really, so the carrying on about “rose” being more affectation like the garment itself makes no sense.
Three, I sometimes wish some of those so afraid of swimming the Tiber would just swim the damn thing and find out what it is really like over there. In this case, rose vestments are no more than allowed local option even in the Roman church, in which I was batpised, raised, confirmed, and that before Vatican II. Judas at the Curia, if they only knew what to really be afraid of!
And Amen to “Why you probably usually misunderstand me”!! God bless me if we can’t have a little fun with the language while we write, and enjoy it when reading another’s writing. Life can’t be so grim as to not admit of that.
Can’t WAIT for Advent. Think I’ll come right off the top rope with a flying elbow smash about blue vestments faster than you can say Gera-Speed.
(Maybe that’s before your time, Pastor — remember the wrestling shows from the Calhoun Beach Hotel Saturdays on WTCN to get you to go to the Minneapolis Auditorium and pay for the big show? Wally Karbo, Marty O’Neill, Vern Gagne, Big Tiny Mills, Larry “Pretty Boy” Hennig, Hard Boiled Haggerty, and God’s sign of my later move to Omaha, Mad Dog Vachon? Oh hell yes!)
"violently worded posts" is a mischaracterization of what was said. If you are going to mischaracterize someone's words, mischaracterize on the side of charity. I'm glad Pr. Esget has a sense of humor about it, and did not seem to take great offense at what seemed to me to be a mostly harmless call to ensure our motives in performing our ceremonies are in the right place: that is, on the Word and Sacrament, not on the ceremony and beauty itself.