No.3: The Mass – I agree with Mr. West that the liturgy is the primary Catholic experience of God & of the Body of Christ. I agree that the vast number of Catholics do not get much out of the liturgy (i.e., “it’s boring”), because they come ignorant, ill-prepared, & with the wrong expectations of what’s wrong with the liturgy is in our heads & hearts. However, it is not true that every expression of the liturgy we encounter is a true one. The Church is not silent on the matter. While she permits a great many options, she has pastorally taught for decades what is the proper way to celebrate Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Why? Because when properly celebrated, the dignity, beauty, & solemnity of the Roman Rite is compelling to people & facilitates the necessary spiritual dispositions for an encounter with the mystery of God.
Fathers, if you are in the habit of opening Mass with, “Hi! How is everybody doing today?” or even “Good Morning” instead of, “In nomine Patris...”, er, “In the name of…” then you are not fulfilling your responsibility to lead your people in worship of God, to raise their hearts & minds up to the heavenly. In mixing the sacred with the profane, you are sending mixed signals to your flock & sowing confusion. I can’t imagine a pastor that is worried that his parishioners show up for Mass too early, that church decorum is observed too well, that people are too attentive to the readings, that their devotion to Christ in the Eucharist is too great. Isn’t it rather the casualness & profane-ity of the masses at Mass & the resulting lack of receptivity that grieves our pastors? The “world” doesn’t take God, his Christ, or the Mass seriously at all. Don’t let it have a voice in the sacred liturgy by lending it yours. Do the Red, Say the Black, & everything will be fine.
As for the people, this is simple: dress appropriately, observe the fast, arrive on time, pay attention, follow along with what’s being said, read, sung, chanted, & prayed, give your share to the collection basket, & receive the Eucharist reverently if you possess the necessary dispositions to do so. You are in the presence of God: you are in the Upper Room, you are in the garden, you are at the trial, you are at the foot of the cross, you are at the empty tomb. You should take this seriously, because the liturgy speaks of the ultimate things of what it means to be a human being. Beware of shallow notions of “full, conscience, & active participation.” Your actuosa participatio should be primarily interior. To paraphrase St. Pope Pius X, when you carefully follow the actions on the altar & join your prayers to those of the priest, then you have prayed holy Mass.
Mr. West’s idea of being open to the one thing God is trying to say to you is a good one, whether you write it down or not. Even when it’s obscured by clumsy human action, the presence of Christ Jesus subsists in every part & action of the Mass. It is he as the Head joined to his Body that offers worship to God the Father. This is why you have to actually come to Mass & not just stay home & say prayers by yourself. We are called to physical unity as the assembled Body of Christ, just as we are called to physical union with Christ individually in the Eucharist (which you have to be present at Mass to receive). Of course, Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is quite special, but he is also really present in the proclaiming of the Scriptures, especially the Gospel, where Jesus addresses us anew in his own words, calling us to further conversion & showing us the way to Kingdom of God.
If you don’t get much out of Mass, maybe that’s because we’re not primarily there to receive anything. We are there first because God is God, & thus worthy of worship. Everything else flows from the sheer magnanimous generosity of God. If you leave Mass & go back to your normal life without a shadow of change, the problem isn’t with God or religion or the Mass, it’s with you. You have put an obstacle in the path of the Holy Spirit, which is how God works in your world, both exterior & interior. Examine your conscience & motivations, then go back to the top of the paragraph & start again. We all have a fearsome power over God – we can either welcome him, usually involving a measure of humility & suffering, or we can turn him away. He cannot compel your heart. Hopefully, we all have another whole week to work on it.
Fathers, if you are in the habit of opening Mass with, “Hi! How is everybody doing today?” or even “Good Morning” instead of, “In nomine Patris...”, er, “In the name of…” then you are not fulfilling your responsibility to lead your people in worship of God, to raise their hearts & minds up to the heavenly. In mixing the sacred with the profane, you are sending mixed signals to your flock & sowing confusion. I can’t imagine a pastor that is worried that his parishioners show up for Mass too early, that church decorum is observed too well, that people are too attentive to the readings, that their devotion to Christ in the Eucharist is too great. Isn’t it rather the casualness & profane-ity of the masses at Mass & the resulting lack of receptivity that grieves our pastors? The “world” doesn’t take God, his Christ, or the Mass seriously at all. Don’t let it have a voice in the sacred liturgy by lending it yours. Do the Red, Say the Black, & everything will be fine.
As for the people, this is simple: dress appropriately, observe the fast, arrive on time, pay attention, follow along with what’s being said, read, sung, chanted, & prayed, give your share to the collection basket, & receive the Eucharist reverently if you possess the necessary dispositions to do so. You are in the presence of God: you are in the Upper Room, you are in the garden, you are at the trial, you are at the foot of the cross, you are at the empty tomb. You should take this seriously, because the liturgy speaks of the ultimate things of what it means to be a human being. Beware of shallow notions of “full, conscience, & active participation.” Your actuosa participatio should be primarily interior. To paraphrase St. Pope Pius X, when you carefully follow the actions on the altar & join your prayers to those of the priest, then you have prayed holy Mass.
Mr. West’s idea of being open to the one thing God is trying to say to you is a good one, whether you write it down or not. Even when it’s obscured by clumsy human action, the presence of Christ Jesus subsists in every part & action of the Mass. It is he as the Head joined to his Body that offers worship to God the Father. This is why you have to actually come to Mass & not just stay home & say prayers by yourself. We are called to physical unity as the assembled Body of Christ, just as we are called to physical union with Christ individually in the Eucharist (which you have to be present at Mass to receive). Of course, Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is quite special, but he is also really present in the proclaiming of the Scriptures, especially the Gospel, where Jesus addresses us anew in his own words, calling us to further conversion & showing us the way to Kingdom of God.
If you don’t get much out of Mass, maybe that’s because we’re not primarily there to receive anything. We are there first because God is God, & thus worthy of worship. Everything else flows from the sheer magnanimous generosity of God. If you leave Mass & go back to your normal life without a shadow of change, the problem isn’t with God or religion or the Mass, it’s with you. You have put an obstacle in the path of the Holy Spirit, which is how God works in your world, both exterior & interior. Examine your conscience & motivations, then go back to the top of the paragraph & start again. We all have a fearsome power over God – we can either welcome him, usually involving a measure of humility & suffering, or we can turn him away. He cannot compel your heart. Hopefully, we all have another whole week to work on it.
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