Blame the Adults

Just got home from mass. I wasnt expecting that the supposed to be anticipated mass that i'm going to attend was also a mass celebrated for the feast of the Sto. Nino. Unexpectedly too, tykes, toddlers and even babies were all over the church. Oh, there's a blessing of children during the feast of the Sto. Nino I just realized.

I am easily disturbed by wailings or by children playing during mass. The supposed to be solemn ceremony was also equipped with laughter and crying. To may dismay too, i was seated at the back of three little demons who were tasked to destroy my solemnity. Oh, i didnt let them affect me. It's their day all right... better give allowance to their nuisances. These children know not much about church etiquette. Nor do they realize the essence of solemnity when attending a mass. They arent even aware that they are disturbing other people's peace like mine.

To whom am i pissed off then? To the adults who came with them. When i was young, i couldnt remember a time that i was unruly in church. What with my parents' reminder that we should behave when we are in a church. What with my mom's tiger-look when we would create a little noise when the ceremony's on-going. The accompanying adults that these children had were as if oblivious to what was happening around them. Good for them i think. They were able to concentrate in the ceremony. Not any one of them was able to let those little demons behave for not anyone of them asked them or reprimanded to.

I am not the children's parent. I was just a mere churchgoer who would have wished that i had the solemnity i wanted. I didnt mind the children either. I tried to concetrate in the mass but the old man in front of me, who had a cast on his left arm, caught my attention. Maybe feeling the same way that i did, he lost his patience. I witnessed him pushing one the children who passed by in front of him. What's worst? During communion, the children happened to be seated to where he was originally sitting. They all scrambled when he came back. One unlucky kid however seem to have blocked his way and off went his right leg as if kicking a football, in a subtle way of course. If only i could take a shot of what he did, i could have showed the pic to Bantay Bata.

Tsk tsk...how can these children know what's right from wrong when the adults around them dont teach them how. How can these children grow up to the character that we would want them to have when the adults around them arent even good role models? I pity those kids. It's their day. The homily even taught adults on how to treat them and on how to raise them. Yet those adults in front of me did the contrary. Ok, i'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. They too might have been disturbed by those kids' unruliness that they didnt hear the homily well at all. But boy, oh boy, they should have known this way way long before.

Oh well, im just a mere doctor, not a guidance counselor. I just hope that the next time around, i'll be granted the solemnity that i wanted.