Rituals

Life is different these days when it comes to the ritualistic elements of our lives in society. I remember not long ago considering the ritual found in this town (and other places in the South) of stopping your car when a funeral procession passes. Cindy and I have lived in Griffin since 1984. Despite this, we still don't know a lot of people who live in this town, and they don't know us very well. Nevertheless, when a group of citizens of this town dress up in their Sunday's finest and get in their cars to form a line in honor of one of the citizens who has passed on to his or her reward, we stop what we are doing and sit in our cars on the side of the road or stop our walk down the street and stand or sit in silence as the procession passes us by. This is in honor of the person who has passed on, but also is done in honor of the people who are participating in the procession.

This exemplifies a connection between us which may not be apparent when we fail to acknowledge each other on the sidewalks or in the strip shopping centers and restaurants and athletic fields of Spalding County. But the important thing is that there is a connection, no matter how tenuous.

The depth of that connection is another matter. Stopping your car on the side of the road when a funeral procession passes by is a simple effort on your part. How much more would be involved in making a daily connection with the people of this community? How much more would be involved in participating in the funeral and going to the graveside service? Who do we do this for? How often do we do this?

This past week, former Congressman Jack Flynt passed away and his funeral was held in the sanctuary of the First Methodist Church in Griffin. First Methodist Church is a large church with a large sanctuary. If a large group of Methodists were there, the sanctuary would be full. Jack was a congressman from this area for twentysix years. He also served in the state legislature, as a district attorney, and served in the military during World War II. If you had all the people he served as a politician or public servant you would have to fill the large meadow in front of the church with the overflow. He was a lawyer for many years. If you had the fellow lawyers, like myself, who served the public with him in this state and county and city, you would have many lawyers present.

And yet the place was not full. Does our failure to honor someone who was possibly the most important person in this community for a quarter of a century or more tell us something about the depth of connection you now find in this community? Is the end of the connectedness in this small town?

I think the level of ritualistic behavior is weaker today than it was before. Perhaps the truth is that we continue to exhibit ritualistic behavior. The difference is the connectiveness of the behavior in the overall society.

I think we all exhibit ritual in our lives. This ritual may be extremely individualistic or group-centered. The basic element of ritual is a behavior or set of actions which is habitual and symbolizes or exemplifies a higher set of beliefs. It can be as individualistic as the person who exhibits the ritual or as universal as the group who practice it.

However, the beauty of ritual lies in its ability to bind us together with each other and with different generations and times. The symbolic act effectuates community. A ritual which is individualistic is counter-productive and dry. It binds us to no one. There is no sense of community and the higher order to which it points is as individualistic as the person who practices the ritual.

The problem we have today is that no one seems to practice ritual communally or consistently. Even those who practice ritual don't practice as universally or consistently as before. We are slaves to our individual rights and actions and rituals which point to no one else but ourselves. The beauty of the community created by ritual is absent and we have lost the sense of communion.

This finds no greater example than in the church. The church began as a place of community and communal support. But in this country, the church is as individualistic as the culture. We create and recreate the church over and over again. We find it hard to bind ourselves together and constantly look for elements which point out the differences between us. This is not the basic tenent of the church of Jesus Christ.

This is where we fail. We should join together to commune with God and with each other. Ritual provides a way to exhibit our love for God and our communion with each other. This is so essential, yet lost so often in modern America. I mourn for the loss of communion in America and I mourn the loss of ritual in America.

Wednesday is the Fourth of July. There are many rituals associated with Independence Day. They should aim us toward a contemplation of our connection to each other and to the patriots who went before and took the steps to bind us together as a country. We should continue those rituals to represent the ideals of the Fourth of July as explained in the Declaration of Independence. Take the time this Wednesday to exhibit those rituals to show those ideals and that sense of community created in 1776 and hopefully present in today and the future.