This happened a few years ago. It was a lazy morning, and I was struggling to stay awake during Mass. The First Reading was from 1 Samuel, the 24th chapter. G read, as my eyelids were closing:
When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheepfolds beside the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to answer the call of nature. . . ”
“The call of nature”! That brought me back to my senses. I mean, I know my scriptures and its distinctive mode of expression. The actual sentence was “Saul went in to relieve himself”! But G has taken it upon himself to censor the reading. I guess he thought that the bit about the king relieving himself was quite inappropriate. Had he chosen to read the passage as is, it would’ve gone unnoticed—I didn’t think anybody was actually listening, in the first place. But the colorful phrase that he substituted for the original wording did paint a very vivid picture that caught everyone’s attention.
That same week or month, I was tasked to say Mass in a certain parish. The first readings at that time were still from the Books of Samuel, featuring still the story of David, and—for that particular day—the seduction of Bathsheba was the theme. The sacristan told me that I should pick another reading, since schoolchildren were present. The reading, the sacristan added, was “inappropriate.” I was livid. I read the reading and, in the homily, explained the lesson of the story in terms that children could understand. Greed leads to trouble. Then I spoke to the adults. I do not believe in censorship—especially when the Word of God is involved. The sex and the violence in the Bible are not there to titillate and to provoke hatred—they are there to teach us lessons, lessons that—if learned well—would lead us to the path of righteousness.
I found myself in the superior’s office that night.