Cerebral Enough for You?

There is no small urgency to mounting a significant challenge to a wrongly and broadly held presumption that contemporary liturgy’s essential content is cerebral. It is when we are caught up in the faulty logic of presuming that contemporary worship is a catechetical content waiting to be embellished that we come up with all of the abuse and distortion of the last 40 years “in these or similar words” (substitutions for Psalms, use of all manner of puppets, pop music taped or otherwise, dance or aerobic gesturing, etc.). In a lot of ways we’ve painted ourselves into the proverbial corner and there is nowhere to go from here. The Mass as we find it on paper is not a basic premise for a catechetical event just waiting to be planned by a well-meaning committee. Lots of people are speaking will all kinds of enthusiasm about the rich treasure trove of the new Roman Missal for the English speaking world. Please, God, let it be so!

          The tragedy in all we experience to date, because of planning committees and the creativity imposed upon us, consists not only in the loss of any sense of good taste or reserve. Indeed it provokes a faith crisis at least among the young, who find the whole setup all too human and on the basis of the evidence presented begin to wonder what God really has to do with an operation which seems all too creative, a fabrication in a sense. One wonders at times whether Father isn’t suffering from the same crisis of faith as he too finds himself caught up in the charade. Maybe Father needs a “lifeline” to save him from the “logic” of the last forty years. Maybe he sees no way out; maybe he has despaired of anything better. I do not think what I am saying is farfetched. Take just the one example of a priest’s availability to those who seek the sacraments today!

Before all of the advances in technology, recourse to the telephone was rare and certainly prioritized such that if you needed Father for a sick call you phoned the rectory and he answered… and he came. If you didn’t have a phone, you sent the neighbor with a car to go and fetch Father for the person in need... and he came. Today Father hides from non-prioritized, spontaneous and unthinking use of the phone; he does so with answering machines and all sorts of other technology which perhaps restore priorities and the privacy which in the old days resulted from ordinary folks not daring to reach for the phone without a life and death reason. Today in lots of parishes we have a situation where the maze is so perfect that a loved one is no longer confessed, anointed and accompanied by the Lord of Life for that last journey. Does this trouble Father at all or is he having doubts about the operation as well? I had a bishop complain to me that he has never been able to reach one of his priests directly by telephone: the secretary or housekeeper takes the call and at Father’s convenience Father may or may not return the bishop’s call… Just think how much harder it must be for a lay person seeking him without the willingness to be subjected to the scrutiny of Mrs. So and So!

Without the habit of regular confession, all that remains for most Catholics is that weekly hour of power, which can be reshaped at will, it would seem, and used for all sorts of things, with “experts” taking to the pulpit in conformity with a logic inspired by truly entertaining shows on your friendly, not-so-local, devotional, cable channel. Mass becomes Sunday school, if I can simplify the expression a bit, and there is no doubt that the rupture with our liturgical past does indeed exist and is in fact complete.

          A film of a Low Mass celebrated at the high altar of St. Peter’s by Pope Pius XII in 1942 is making the rounds of the blogosphere these days. One is struck by the presence of what looks like an omni-directional radio microphone on the altar. The Basilica is packed and the Square is filled to overflowing with people as well. A sea of humanity, baptized humanity, stands or kneels before the Throne of God, not entertained by orchestra or choir, not even seeing anything on jumbo video screens, in touch (perhaps?) acoustically thanks to that microphone and minimal contact with the same Latin text they know so well from Sunday Mass in their parishes. What indeed is Mass really about? It would be most hard to attribute its intellectual or cerebral content to the words alone.

          A younger priest friend of mine, who has never celebrated Mass in Latin, shared with me his despair over the possibility of correcting or eliminating the liberties which priests take with the vernacular, rendering it discursive, casual and really a fabricated thing. Personally, I am not without hope because of my experience with the changes to my own mindset and ars celebrandi which oriented worship has brought me. Turning together to the Lord (ad Orientem) with those who gather in my chapel for Mass, from the Preparation of the Gifts until it is time for the Prayer after Communion, makes a positive difference in the way I preside and, I would dare say, it frees people to pray to the Lord together and directly, without the scrutiny of Father’s unwanted eye contact. I would urge priests to “turn to the Lord”; it might rekindle the faith or fan that spark into a blaze.

          The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass needs to be returned to its “pedestal” if you will. The “have-mass-kit-will-travel” mentality does not help matters. There are folks who have the stipend to command the baptism of a grandchild on their patio and make it easier to move right into the catered reception. Is this not a diminution of the sacrament? I know of folk who have managed by hook or by crook to get Father to come to their home to celebrate mass on their wedding anniversary each year. The mass becomes too little as Father bends to including all the special rights of holding hands or whatever which are dear to them as a couple from their college days. Do birthdays over a certain age need to get marked with a mass in the home before a supper with family and friends or as a prelude to some great holiday event? Can this be done just so without diminishing the Sacrifice itself?

          The Holy Father has infinite patience in these matters and I guess I should too. There are times, however, when I wonder if it isn’t time to call out the fire brigade…

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Reverence

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
3-4 February 2007
Holy Cross Parish – Hutchinson, KS
Homily

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him…
I saw the Lord seated on a high throne… I said: “What a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of hosts.”

You almost have to be a little older than I am to remember a time when the experience of Simon Peter before Jesus and the fear which filled Isaiah the Prophet in his vision of the Lord Almighty were the common experience of good Catholic people. A good half century and more ago people approached the Lord with fear and trembling. Altar servers never touched sacred vessels, like the chalice or paten, with their bare hands. Daily Communion was something extraordinary and most people, who received Communion on Sunday morning, did so after having fasted from midnight and only if they had gone to confession on Saturday afternoon or evening or maybe that same Sunday morning.
Fear and trembling: are they part of the Catholic experience, yes or no? Or maybe it would be better to put it in other terms and to ask: Isn’t honest soul-searching something believers must do? And what man or woman, who knows himself or herself deep down inside, does not hesitate to approach God in Jesus Christ?
Don’t get me wrong! The fear and trembling we are talking about here is not born of dread but of love. Its corollary would be the radical sort of respect which should reign among the members of a truly loving family.
“What a wretched state I am in!” “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
I’m making a plea today for more reverence in the house of God, when receiving Him in Holy Communion and in living out each day, in the only place where we can possibly live it out, namely before His Face. More reverence: you and I cannot hide from God or escape His glance any more than Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they had sinned. The Psalmist sings: “where can I hide from your face, from your presence where can I flee?” A lack of reverence, turning our backs, well, how can we? How can we ignore the Lord of Life, who loves us and redeemed us in Christ?
I haven’t reached the end of my thought development here and there are, I suspect, some grown-ups in particular out there, who are nervous or upset or maybe even objecting to what I am saying, thinking to themselves: well, that can’t be right! Why aren’t things today the way they were over 50 years ago if not because we know better today and have a better handle on things than our parents, grandparents and great grandparents? Progress is progress, right? It’s not that we have gone astray as a Church or fallen into some kind of error, is it? No, but the point is that there are at least two extremes which can take us off the beam when we interpret or apply in our own lives the words “Oh Lord, I am not worthy”.
a) The one extreme, if you’d believe the media, is represented by those folks out there who are looking for the “ultimate rush”: bungee jumping, skydiving, flat lining, substance abuse, intimacy with another person without any commitment and without any respect for what God has decreed in terms of the proper use of our sexuality… and so it goes.
The chase after the ultimate anything other than God and fulfilling His will in our lives is an illusion. St. Paul would say, don’t kid yourself, let the truth, which or who is God living and true, take your breath away and be happy. As odd and silly as it may sound, be lifted up, be entertained, if you will, by God! Evel Knevel, Houdini and all their modern day daredevil and magician counterparts, Las Vegas and the Cirque du Soleil may entertain and even sometimes mystify, but they have no more to offer us ultimately than the old Romans’ “bread and circus” which had the advantage of being offered free of charge. Too often today we pay for entertainment or pleasures which don’t satisfy for long and may even leave a hang-over. All such comes home to roost when we walk through the doors of God’s house and speak an “Oh Lord, I am not worthy”, which has suffered all sorts of collateral damage all week long.
b) While such a chase is darkness, so also is the other extreme, where we find ourselves sitting in the shadow of death and not even trying, cold or lukewarm you might say, rationalizing away our sins and failings. How many folks are there who excuse themselves from confession on a regular basis (in some cases on any basis at all!) claiming that since they are bound to fall again, it’s better not to be hypocritical? Such are the folks, who have thrown in the towel in a sense, making it clear enough by their words and actions to both God and neighbor, that you’ve got to take me as I am – love me or leave me in my mediocrity.
So far, I guess, what I’ve said could have been preached 50 years ago too. I say this full well knowing that back then church-going and faith life were more regimented and there was less room maybe for stepping openly out of line. The temptation, the sin or failing back then however was essentially the same: no reverence, no awe, no awareness to compare with that of Isaiah, in his vision of the Lord Almighty, or with that of Peter, down on his knees in the boat, recognizing Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed, the Holy One of God. In case my clarification didn’t register the first time, I’ll repeat myself: The fear and trembling we are talking about here is not born of dread but of love.
If we were to live every waking and sleeping moment in the presence of the Living God, what a difference it would make! The ultimate discourse about quality of life is not about giving up because it’s a hopeless chase, nor about contenting ourselves (brainlessly, godlessly, really) with appearances and moments. The bottom line of a message to be taken home for further reflection on this our day of rest is a foundational one, one which makes all the difference in the world. If you place yourself in God’s presence, really, you are going to be awed. The message is an exhortation: Don’t run away! Finding yourself before the King, the Lord of Hosts, finding yourself before Jesus, true God and true Man, cry out for help! Let an angel purify your lips with a burning coal from the altar, as Isaiah did, and then respond to God’s call.
What I am saying applies to the life of every Christian, but it is at the heart of the whole vocational crisis in many parts of our world today as well. Why aren’t there more young women entering the convent today? Why aren’t more young men going to the seminary? Because they’re off to the circus, so to speak, they’re chasing after passing pleasures, or with a very sad face, they say they’re “not worthy”. They continue to sit in the darkness instead of crying for help. Worse, in some cases, they come and challenge the Lord and His Church to take them as they are, not admitting that they themselves are unworthy and in need of change.
I ask you to take time today to reflect on the “Lord, I am not worthy” and its meaning for you in your life. I ask you to pray for the continued renewal of the Sacrament of Penance in the life of the Church. I ask you to pray for vocations. The Lord does not leave his flock untended. He called Isaiah and he called Peter. They responded turning their lives over to Him completely. Good Catholic families, happy Catholic marriages (until death do us part) are carried by this sense of devotion, wonder and awe: husband or wife for each other, parents for their children, children for their parents.