In Costa Rica I served in a small village name Vigía. It’s a very quaint and safe town which meant that my team and I were quickly immersed into their community. After a couple of weeks we met the majority of the village, so we were able to walk around freely. One of the cool things about our small village is that there are two churches there— like there are so many disciples that there needs to be two churches in this tiny village. How cool is that?
A couple of weeks ago I was really sad about not being able to go to Mass, so I started researching Mass times. After some googling I learned that the other church in Vigía is a Catholic Church! Its literally a four minute walk away. When I learned this I was ecstatic, and I immediately grabbed my mask and ran down to the other church to try and figure out when they had Mass.
As I turned the corner I noticed that the Church was having a service, so I slowly walked up to the doors. I noticed that the Mass just started. I made the quick decision to jump into the service. I walked through the doors and noticed that the Church was full, but the women in the last pew nicely moved over so that I had a place to sit. As soon as my butt hit the wooden church pew I saw the casket.
My head started swirling.
I was trying to figure out what was going on. As I looked around nobody was crying and nobody was dressed in black. Maybe the box in the aisle was just a Costa Rican decoration?
Deep down I knew that wasn’t the case. As I looked at the people I was sitting with I noticed that there were children in their school uniforms. They missed school to attend this Mass. It had to funeral.
I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just leave because they literally moved over and made a spot for me in the pew.
I decided that I would leave after I received the Eucharist. That way I could slip out before they started any service for the recently departed. And that’s exactly what I did. I went up and received the Eucharist and then walked straight out of the Church. This was the first (and hopefully only) time I’ve ever “Communion and dash”ed.
I literally ran back to the rest of my team to tell them what happened, and we all laughed about how I accidentally attended a funeral.
About an hour later we were sitting in the front driveway of the church we were staying at, and we start to see a couple groups of people walking down the path. I immediately recognized them from the funeral service. They all waved at us and I thought it was hilarious that I actually saw them again.
In Costa Rica, the Lord taught me a lot about how to laugh at myself. Often times I take myself too seriously and I make things heavier than they need to be. Typically, accidentally attending a funeral would be something that would make me want to shrink inside myself. Honestly, a year ago I probably wouldn’t have told anyone about my experience because I would be too embarrassed. I think Christ is trying to teach me that life doesn’t have to be so serious all the time. He likes to laugh with us. I know that Christ was laughing with me and will continue to laugh with me as I make silly mistakes.
xoxo
claudzilla
Very funny and a strong message. Thanks for sharing.
I love how integrated into the community y’all are and how willing you were to step into the situation at hand! What a story!
It tickles me that you’re learning to laugh at yourself at a young age. I used to be absolutely mortified when I did silly things like that.
Now, I enjoy a hearty laugh at myself when that happens. It’s so much more fun! Most recent reason to laugh at ourselves: We were in Wisconsin for a wedding and I was checked in for my flight home Tuesday. I was trying to figure out where to pick up our vehicle. Did we leave it at the bus park and ride? Was it at the airport short term parking? Where was it???? Then I finally remembered that we drove to Wisconsin and the truck was in the parking lot of the hotel we were at.