This afternoon I was in the Adoration chapel at my parish, spending a wee bit o' time in prayer, when some movement on the floor caught my attention. I peered at it for awhile, trying to determine what it was - an elderly box elder bug? No; as it got closer, I saw that it was a spider exploring the area under the pews.
Uh oh. I looked up at Jesus, then back at the floor. Where was it going? I didn't want it crawling on me...or anyone else, either. The chapel was beginning to fill, slowly, as people arrived for Confessions and Mass.
I looked back at the floor and saw that the creepy creature had moved into the aisle. It was close enough to me..I could stand up and step on it, but I wondered if that would be right. Even though I'm terrified of spiders and knew I'd continue to be distracted as long as I saw the thing, I didn't know if I could kill in cold blood right there before Our Lord's True Presence.
So it was, as I had my interior debate, that I was watching the spider as it wandered the aisle, and I glanced periodically up towards the altar, wondering about the morality of murdering a spider in the chapel - a spider which had not yet actively threatened my personal space.
Then a man left the confessional and as he passed before the Blessed Sacrament, he paused and turned to bow, and in so doing, unknowingly stepped on and squished the spider.
Thank you, Jesus!
7 comments:
LOL!
I'm glad I'm not alone. I always think twice about swatting the bug in church that would be crushed any other time.
Many years ago I asked someone about the propriety of killing a somewhat angry wasp buzzing around a small chapel. She told me that, since Thomas Aquinas had said that it was appropriate to kill a bird flying around in a church and disrupting the Mass/Office being celebrated there, she thought that swatting a wasp was probably acceptable. Much as I respect and admire St Thomas, I'm not convinced he was right about killing birds. I think the Desert Fathers or the Anglo-Saxon saints might have coaxed a bird down by preaching to it. I'm not so sure about spiders, though...
Oh, I dunno, Mark. I think the Bible says something about not suffering a spider in which to live... ;-P
Birds...I know of a priest and maintenance director who coaxed a hummingbird out of an Ohio parish, then fed it and gave it water until it could fly away on its own...
I had a similar experience a few years ago. I was alone in the Adoration chapel of our church, when a movement near my feet caught my attention. Looking closer, I saw a small centipede. I certainly wasn't going to be able to pray in the presence of the centipede, but neither was I going to kill it in front of Jesus. I puzzled for a while, then got a piece of paper, lured the critter onto the paper, and took it outside and let it go in the grass.
Wonder what makes me think I can kill a centipede at home, and Jesus won't see me do it? But I guarantee, if I see a centipede at home, it's gonna die!
Funny story!
Dawn ~ I have a holy terror especially of centipedes. I would have leapt to my feet in desperation,, jumped up and down on it screaming "DIE! DIE! DIE!" then when satisfied would have bowed to the Blessed Sacrament and returned quietly to prayer.
You are a far more gentle (and rational) person than I am!
And yeah, I see one anywhere it's gonna die...if I can catch it....
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