The Incident (02/243/2026)

When I was at Mass on Saturday evening, I was signed up to be the lector. So, I sat in the second row on the side of the ambo or lectern. And when it was time, I did what I was supposed to do without incident. After the prayers of the faithful, when I sat down, I thanked the LORD prematurely for helping me serve without incident. I didn’t realize that the incident was yet to come.

When it came time for communion, the priest looked out, waiting for an extra-ordinary minister of the eucharist to come forward to help distribute communion. And no one came forward. I wasn’t signed up for that, but I am commissioned to do it. I looked all around me and behind me, still no one came forward. So, I stood up, walked to the hand sanitizer, gave it a pump and as I turned toward the altar, rubbing the sanitizer into my hands, I saw a man come forward. So, thinking I’d jumped the gun, I tried to seamlessly turn around and head back to my seat without drawing additional attention to myself.

But as I headed back to my pew, the couple in the third pew were trying to motion to me to go back. I didn’t understand. I kept heading back. When I got to the pew, the man leaned forward and said, Father wants you to go back. So, I turned and with a rather full blush then, walked back to the sanctuary step and the priest. Turns out that the man who had come forward was volunteering to hold the paten, not to distribute communion. I apologized quietly for the delay, and we all took our places, and communion began.

Life can be like that, don’t you know. It’s not because any of us want it to work that way, it just does sometimes. It can be lack of planning, it can be lack of communication, it can be lack of clarity. Bottom line, incidents can happen. There is an absence of malice but that isn’t synonymous with and absence of embarrassment. When I finally settled back into my second pew following communion, I was glad I was sitting in the second pew. If I took my time getting my coat on, I figured, most people would have left.

That would be the second time I was wrong that day. I found myself encountering others and they were quite talkative. A couple kidded me about my “church dance.” One told me thanks for reading. One told me how kind it was of me to step up at communion. One just wanted to check on me and how I was doing overall.

After several minutes of conversation outside church, I made my way to the car. As I got into the driver’s seat, I reminded myself of the old saying in our home – that I could somehow screw up a one can milk route. And I chuckled. Yep, I still have the gift.

But getting back to life and how we can miss other’s cues or mishandle situations or misread situations, I thought about that all the way home and then again on the porch as I reflected on my day. I realized two things: be more present so I don’t misread situations or people and if there is no harm, no malice, get over it – set it down – and keep on keeping on. As a wise woman once told me, “It’s all about perspective. If you have a situation but it doesn’t result in blood, flood, or fire, call it a success.”

As we continue our journeys of faith, hope and love, let us take our lives seriously but at the same time allow room for unexpected. Let us ask if in the end the LORD and others were served and be willing to put all the rest aside. Let us realize that perfect this side of the sod is a high bar and be willing to give others and ourselves a bit of slack. And let us never end a day without thanking the LORD for getting us through no matter how messy it was along the way.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.