The Churches: Shaking at mass -- yet again

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Shaking at mass -- yet again

Speaking once more of shaking hands for peace at Mass, Reader Margaret chimes in on my reference to mass as a place to get the habit of feeling good about each other, attributed by implication to contemporary lit-niks, the folks who led our liturgical redo of the 70s and since then:

Alas, Church is NOT the place to feel good about each other. All of us who remember the old Mass know that the Mass is not about sentimentalism. It is the reenactment of Calvary, Christ's sacrifice reenacted on the altar. The new post-Vatican II Mass has hijacked its meaning and turned it into something that is about us and our relationship with each other. The true Mass, the pre-Vatican II Mass, is about our relationship with God. It is about us adoring God, thanking Him, being sorry for our sins, and asking for His grace and mercy.

The problem is that

modern Catholics do not know the Catholic Faith. They haven't studied it, it isn't taught from the pulpits, and they believe that the sentimental pablum they're being fed every Sunday IS the Faith. The post Vatican II Church is a counterfeit.

The same goes for the contemporary mass, which she also considers "counterfeit." On it she blames bad things that have happened -- "the pedophile scandal, lack of attendance at Mass, loss of belief in the True Presence in the Eucharist, loss of vocations, etc., etc."

If I do not go so far as to why we have our problems, I nonetheless appreciate her emphasis on mass as mystery with God at its center. Liturgical reformers decided they had a wonderful organization going to waste -- preserving tradition when it could be used to inculcate and enforce innovation. What had grown had to be rooted out and replaced with something they had conceived, which they presented as restoration. Conceivably it was, but was it amenable to being transplanted?

They were like socialists who plan the enconomy because they know better than what has grown or evolved. On their gigantic head trip, they knew what should be and won the day, employing totalitarian methods. For instance, Vatican 2 permitted vernacular, but they required it. Big difference. One thing led to another, and we have liturgy lite, full of sentimentalism, as Margaret says. It's silly, contrived, distracting from what's central. Mass became more prayer breakfast than sacred event.

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Reaction from NJT:

I've never been to a Catholic service, but there is no question as to where the Bethel Baptist Church stands in Schaumburg. It is a church that believes the Bible is the word of God. There is no confusion as to what the Bible says or teaches. The church emphasizes morality and what is expected of its members. There is no mincing of words from the minister. I leave Sunday School and church every week uplifted in spirit and determined to face the new week in a way that will be pleasing to all I meet and pleasing to God.

That's quite a testimony. There's more:

Today's sermon was especially meaningful for me. I was feeling down this morning over [recent disappointments]. This sermon helped me to understand that I was permitting myself to become overwrought emotionally by worldly things (politics) and my relationship with God was suffering.

That preacher was on target. She concludes: