Going Left: Crosses, Catholics, and the Crawleys of Downton Abbey
One day some years ago at work, I was listening to an entertaining story from one of my co-workers, a thirty-something woman of Greek and Palestinian descent.
As she described a past experience walking through a sketchy inner-city neighborhood surrounded by some colorful locals, she illustrated her inner trepidation at the time with a "Dear God, help me" and the Sign of the Cross.
When she crossed herself while telling the story, I noticed that she did it in the style of the Eastern Orthodox Church: holding her index and middle fingers and thumb of her right hand pressed together, touching her forehead, then heart, then the right shoulder, and ending with the left shoulder.
If you've ever watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you might remember seeing it, and the characters who did it also out of shock and horror ("It's like...she don't want to get married!"):
It's always interesting for me to see the Sign of the Cross made that way, because for us Roman Catholics, it's the opposite: with an open right hand facing towards us (or with the two fingers and thumb pressed together, as I do), touch the forehead, then heart, then left shoulder, and end with the right shoulder.
Whichever way you do it, it is a simple but beautiful reminder of the Holy Trinity, the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in Whose name and into Whose family we have been baptized. It begins and ends our moments of prayer, and can often be a prayer in and of itself. In moments of relief, fear, or frustration, it can bring our interior gaze back where it should be fixed first and reminds us of Who is ultimately in control when life gets crazy - as crazy as the aforementioned big fat Greek wedding.
As my coworker continued her story, I was thinking and noticing the difference between the two styles of crossing oneself, noticing how East and West mirrored each other - one going left, the other going right - and I was reminded of something I had heard previously on an episode of Downton Abbey:
(SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T WATCHED AND STILL WANTS TO!!!)
In Episode 6 of Season 3, it is the autumn of 1920. Lady Sybil, the youngest Crawley daughter, has recently died from complications following the birth of her daughter. Tom Branson, Sybil's Irish husband and the Crawley family's former chauffeur, shocks them at dinner one evening when he makes a two-fold announcement:
First, he wants to name his baby daughter Sybil, after her late mother.
Second, even more shockingly, he wants his daughter to be baptized and raised a Roman Catholic.
Following a moment of stunned silence around a table full of Anglicans, in a house that hadn't seen a Catholic Crawley since the English Reformation, Sybil's father Robert looks at Tom incredulously and exclaims, "A left-footer?!"
Um, a what?
If Robert's choice of words confuses you, you're not alone. It was a term I had never heard, either, especially not in reference to Catholicism.
Right after this particular episode aired in 2013, Matthew Schmitz wrote an article to explain the odd expression. In sum, according to his primary source, the term "left-footer" came about in reference to mainland Irish farmers, who were predominantly Catholic, digging into their land with a particular kind of long-handled digging spade that had a foot-rest on one side of the shaft, as opposed to their Protestant neighbors in Northern Ireland who worked with a newer style of spade that sported foot-rests on both sides of the shaft. Each group dug in by applying pressure from one foot, and each group used the foot opposite of the one favored by the other. Eventually, the saying had it that the Catholics "dug with the wrong foot" - the wrong foot generally considered to be the left foot - and the term "left-footer" became a derogatory slur referring to someone who was Catholic.
Digging with the left foot, crossing themselves by touching the left shoulder before the right...those crazy Catholics, always doing things differently.
Well, yeah. That's the idea.
When we are true to the core beliefs of the Catholic Christian faith, we dig in and stick by them, no matter how ridiculous we might look or sound to other people of other beliefs. As the world moves further and further in a direction that does not honor Christ or His teachings or His will, we strive ever more in the opposite direction, moving toward Him, seeking to stay close to Him, loving Him and following Him without fear.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love." (1 John 4:18)
Do I still care what people think and feel like a weirdo and feel like I have to be private about my faith and feel awkward talking about it? You bet I do.
Is my love for Jesus and love for my neighbor perfect? Not by a long shot.
But I'm working on it, because building my relationship with Him, learning how to love as He loves, and finding and living out His true purpose for me in this life are more important than anyone else's opinions.
The beauty and truth I have found in the Catholic faith is comfort and consolation on the journey. It is the drum that keeps me in rhythm with the Lord of the Dance. It may look like I'm out of step with the world, leading with the wrong foot, going left when everyone else is going right; but in the words of MercyMe, when it comes to following Jesus:
No matter what may come
Gotta move to a different drum
No matter what life brings
Gotta move, gotta move to a different beat
As she described a past experience walking through a sketchy inner-city neighborhood surrounded by some colorful locals, she illustrated her inner trepidation at the time with a "Dear God, help me" and the Sign of the Cross.
When she crossed herself while telling the story, I noticed that she did it in the style of the Eastern Orthodox Church: holding her index and middle fingers and thumb of her right hand pressed together, touching her forehead, then heart, then the right shoulder, and ending with the left shoulder.
If you've ever watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you might remember seeing it, and the characters who did it also out of shock and horror ("It's like...she don't want to get married!"):
(Courtesy of http://www.amillionthingstolove.com/2012/02/its-like-she-dont-want-to-get-married.html)
It's always interesting for me to see the Sign of the Cross made that way, because for us Roman Catholics, it's the opposite: with an open right hand facing towards us (or with the two fingers and thumb pressed together, as I do), touch the forehead, then heart, then left shoulder, and end with the right shoulder.
Whichever way you do it, it is a simple but beautiful reminder of the Holy Trinity, the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in Whose name and into Whose family we have been baptized. It begins and ends our moments of prayer, and can often be a prayer in and of itself. In moments of relief, fear, or frustration, it can bring our interior gaze back where it should be fixed first and reminds us of Who is ultimately in control when life gets crazy - as crazy as the aforementioned big fat Greek wedding.
As my coworker continued her story, I was thinking and noticing the difference between the two styles of crossing oneself, noticing how East and West mirrored each other - one going left, the other going right - and I was reminded of something I had heard previously on an episode of Downton Abbey:
(SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T WATCHED AND STILL WANTS TO!!!)
In Episode 6 of Season 3, it is the autumn of 1920. Lady Sybil, the youngest Crawley daughter, has recently died from complications following the birth of her daughter. Tom Branson, Sybil's Irish husband and the Crawley family's former chauffeur, shocks them at dinner one evening when he makes a two-fold announcement:
First, he wants to name his baby daughter Sybil, after her late mother.
Second, even more shockingly, he wants his daughter to be baptized and raised a Roman Catholic.
Following a moment of stunned silence around a table full of Anglicans, in a house that hadn't seen a Catholic Crawley since the English Reformation, Sybil's father Robert looks at Tom incredulously and exclaims, "A left-footer?!"
Um, a what?
If Robert's choice of words confuses you, you're not alone. It was a term I had never heard, either, especially not in reference to Catholicism.
Right after this particular episode aired in 2013, Matthew Schmitz wrote an article to explain the odd expression. In sum, according to his primary source, the term "left-footer" came about in reference to mainland Irish farmers, who were predominantly Catholic, digging into their land with a particular kind of long-handled digging spade that had a foot-rest on one side of the shaft, as opposed to their Protestant neighbors in Northern Ireland who worked with a newer style of spade that sported foot-rests on both sides of the shaft. Each group dug in by applying pressure from one foot, and each group used the foot opposite of the one favored by the other. Eventually, the saying had it that the Catholics "dug with the wrong foot" - the wrong foot generally considered to be the left foot - and the term "left-footer" became a derogatory slur referring to someone who was Catholic.
Digging with the left foot, crossing themselves by touching the left shoulder before the right...those crazy Catholics, always doing things differently.
Well, yeah. That's the idea.
When we are true to the core beliefs of the Catholic Christian faith, we dig in and stick by them, no matter how ridiculous we might look or sound to other people of other beliefs. As the world moves further and further in a direction that does not honor Christ or His teachings or His will, we strive ever more in the opposite direction, moving toward Him, seeking to stay close to Him, loving Him and following Him without fear.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love." (1 John 4:18)
Do I still care what people think and feel like a weirdo and feel like I have to be private about my faith and feel awkward talking about it? You bet I do.
Is my love for Jesus and love for my neighbor perfect? Not by a long shot.
But I'm working on it, because building my relationship with Him, learning how to love as He loves, and finding and living out His true purpose for me in this life are more important than anyone else's opinions.
The beauty and truth I have found in the Catholic faith is comfort and consolation on the journey. It is the drum that keeps me in rhythm with the Lord of the Dance. It may look like I'm out of step with the world, leading with the wrong foot, going left when everyone else is going right; but in the words of MercyMe, when it comes to following Jesus:
No matter what may come
Gotta move to a different drum
No matter what life brings
Gotta move, gotta move to a different beat
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