When I was a kid, an incident like that would have made me want to crawl under the bed and stay there until, well, my current age. A sure sign of maturity is that it isn't like that now. Not that I don't kick myself for old mistakes -- I most certainly do, usually when I awaken in the middle of the night -- but silly things like forgetting to XYZ before leaving the house? Not so much.
It's unclear whether my exposure was even visible. I had been wearing a drapey shirt (a shent, I guess), and I was wearing black undies rather than white (which I might have been, as I do own a couple of pairs of classic tighties). That is to say, the black shorts may have been hard to notice even if they were not covered by my shirttails.
No one said anything. I think the deacon gave me a look, but he's a retired cop so he probably gives everyone that look anyway.
Besides, it'd be far from the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen in church. I've seen a lector who accidently started reading the Gospel (the priest or deacon has to do that); I've seen people drop the Host (big no-no); I've seen a nun and a priest trying to get the symbolic robe on a newly baptized adult and working at cross-purposes until it looked like they were taking a hostage; and of course -- an all-time classic -- I heard a lector introduce a reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippines. Wherever there are people, there can be embarrassing stuff. A little flagging fly ain't much of anything.
Really, I've seen far more embarrassing things per capita everywhere else. Schools, clubs, bars, offices, public transportation, supermarkets, press conferences -- pound for pound, these have far more embarrassing incidents than church. It's just the reverence in church that makes them stand out more.
Anyway, Advent is here, and that's nice. I feel like I'm well behind my neighbors. They all seem to have completed all their decorations by last Thursday. But I'm not going to rush myself in getting the job done. That's how you wind up hanging off the roof by a string of lights. Talk about embarrassing!
When I was in 6th grade I was at a Catholic boys school and we had High Mass every day before lunch.
ReplyDeleteOne time, I went for communion and the priest fumbled the host and dropped it on the floor in front of me.
So he asked me to remain kneeling to mark the spot until he could perform the proper ceremony for sanctifying everything after the mass was over. So I dutifully stayed there through the rest of the mass and while the rest of the 500-odd boys at the school filed out and went to lunch.
The fame / notoriety that fell up on me for that incident was almost worth being late for lunch and facing the prospect that the little school canteen would sell out of Hostess products before I was able to get there.