At work the other week, I had trouble with a section of the machine I was operating. It was an electrical problem and Harold, the master electrician was just walking by. Now, I get along well with Harold. We joke and have short conversations as time at work allows. He is also an avowed Jehovah Witness and makes no bones about it, even keeping copies of the Watch Tower on his desk though not annoyingly pushing his faith on others.
As he walked by, I snagged him and asked him if he had a bit of time to look at my machine. He did and began to take the unit apart. At one point, in order to get to a few screws, he had to kneel down and promptly said, "Kneeling would be easy for you being a Catholic huh? We don't have to kneel to pray like you Catholics." I did not expect to hear this comment and I felt shackled in how to respond.
I knew I had read verses in scripture about people kneeling down in prayer, but at the moment, my mind went blank. Even if I did remember some, I am not as agile in remembering chapter and verse as protestants are. I do admire them for that. I wish I would be able to rattle off a verse here and there whenever I needed to. Even if I mentioned a vague reference to kneeling in the Bible, I learned from past experience, you better know your book, chapter and verse otherwise a person can run rings around you!
So I responded that I also do not always kneel when I pray. I have prayed many times while walking, sitting in the car, or in bed at night before going to sleep. I told him that our posture says a lot about how we present ourselves to God in prayer, and in kneeling, we are submitting to God that he is the creator of all and I, a mere creature of his, kneel in humility before him. I'm not sure of his response, but it wasn't an attack. He finished what he was doing, got the unit to work again and continued on his way.
I learned something that day. I may not know all the answers at the time a question is asked of me, or even knowing the answer, I may not be able to recite chapter and verse, but that does not mean I cannot go home, look it up and go back with answer. I plan on doing this with Harold.
I knew there were references to kneeling in prayer, and so I looked up the ones I knew for sure, and as a result, I cross referenced those verses and came up with others. Gotta love computers! I even have a plan on how to approach Harold on this, the next time our paths cross at work. I can imagine my starting a conversation in this manner:
"Hey Harold! You know the other week where you mentioned that you didn't have to kneel to pray? Well, do you think it's not biblical or that Catholics feel that is the only way to pray? Well, I knew I had read about that in the Bible and I have several passages I want you to read about kneeling in prayer. Did you know that Peter, Paul AND Jesus knelt in prayer? And not just them, there are several other references to kneeling also! I guess Catholics are in pretty good company as far as praying on our knees huh? I figure...if it's good enough for them, well then....it's good enough for us!"
Next time I am confronted with a faith question out of the blue concerning how Catholics worship, I am not going to panic if I don't have a ready answer. I won't fail the test if I don't have the answer at hand, but only if I DON'T have an answer at all!
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