Lace, Velvet, & Gold

This very intriguing entry at McNamara's blog, sounds surprisingly like founding father John Adams may have walked into Mass at St. Therese in Clinton at 1:30pm on any weekend :

This afternoon, led by Curiosity and good Company I strolled away to… Mother Church, or rather Grandmother Church, I mean the Romish Chappell. Heard a good, short, moral Essay upon the Duty of Parents to their Children, founded in justice and Charity, to take care of their Interests temporal and spiritual. This Afternoons Entertainment was to me, most awfull and affecting. The poor Wretches, fingering their Beads, chanting Latin, not a Word of which they understood, their Pater Nosters and Ave Maria's. Their holy Water-their Crossing themselves perpetually-their Bowing to the Name of Jesus, their wherever they hear it-their Bowings, and Kneelings, and Genuflections before the Altar. The Dress of the Priest was rich with Lace-his Pulpit was Velvet and Gold. The Altar Piece was very rich-little Images and Crucifixes about-Wax Candles lighted up. But how shall I describe the Picture of our Saviour in a Frame of Marble over the Altar at full Length upon the Cross, in the Agonies, and the Blood dropping and streaming from his Wounds. The Musick consisting of an organ, and a Choir of singers, went all the Afternoon, excepting sermon Time, and the Assembly chanted-most sweetly and exquisitely. Here is every Thing which can lay hold of the Sight Eye, Ear, and Imagination. Every Thing which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.

Luther didn't "break the spell", of course; he merely replaced the wonderful "spell" of Christ's Bride with the spell of man whose magic formula reads, "You shall be like gods."

One also has to note Adam's elitism, his disdain for the hoi poloi who understand not a word of what they pray(!). The Gospel is for everyone, including the simple & ignorant. Would that I had but a simple faith!

Would he have writen the same if he had walked into a Mass in the typical suburban parish today (or even some cathedrals!)? He was clearly moved by the lovely chanted hymns & the painting of Christ's Passion in the altar piece. Why was this art considered "true, good, & beautiful" then, but somehow undesirable now? Perhaps we've undervalued the power of litugical beauty & been too eager to jetison the external expressions of our faith in favor of some nebulous concepts of aesthetic "simplicity" or "purity" currently in vogue that are really foreign to the Faith. Often today, bare utiliarianism has become dogma in regard to the liturgy. However, Puritanism & Catholicism really can not be reconciled.

Thanks, Mr. Adams. All in all, it makes me proud to be a Papist!