She Did Not

As we were on our way to mass today, (late as usual,) something reminded me of a story that happened about two years ago, at our parish in Wagoner.

There was going to be a pot luck lunch after mass that day, and Michelle and I had a meal in the parish oven. The kitchen was adjacent to the chapel where mass was being said, and the walls allowed us to hear everything that went on in church. But of course it also worked the other way around; people could hear things going on in the kitchen from the church.

We caught each others eye in the middle of Mass and we both went back to check it. We snuck into the kitchen and quietly pulled the casserole out of the oven. I seem to remember there being some debate as to whether it was done or not, or about timing it to be finished when Mass was over. The latter would involve changing the oven temperature, and putting a timer on.

But Michelle was still not sure if it should go back in, so she quickly dipped her finger in the cheezy mess and stuck it in her mouth.
"Michelle!" I said in a gasping whisper, "You didn't receive Communion yet!"
She looked at me with her finger still in her mouth and a wide-eyed expression of shock and realization. Then she started panicking and scraping her tongue trying to get any flavor our of her mouth.

At this point we were both laughing hysterically, but trying to be as quiet as we could, because of Mass and the people might hear us. And in the midst of these attempted-to-be-constrained fits of laughter our choir director came in through the door. We tried to explain ourselves -- she seemed disinterested-- but of course, the more we tried to explain ourselves the deeper in we dug.

But all things considered, it turned out to be a fabulous lunch (if I do say so myself,) and a very memorable experience. Not to mention, I have little doubt that God was laughing with us too, (even if our choir director didn't.)