Wake Me Up for the Parousia

Happy New Year

It's been a while since I've been here, that's for sure.  I have been busy.  I am still trying to figure out why I'm sick, to try to get myself back into 'fighting trim' as a member of the Church Militant.

Or is it the Church Somnolent?

My faithful followers, and my other friends, will know that I have a 'thing' for liturgy...at one time I described it as a passion.  The past few years have pretty much eliminated the possiblity of my name and 'passion' occurring in the same sentence.  It is hard to get excited about things.  But I'm trying.

I think it's getting better.  Every so often I get flickers of my old self.  Well, my old liturgical zealot self.  Something gets me moving.

Something like listening to people complain about the choir.  Warning...do NOT complain about the choir in my presence!  It is not healthy.

Our esteemed choir leader decided that we should learn to chant the Our Father, according to the Mass setting we've been using for Ordinary Time for several years now.  It's a nice setting, and very easy to learn, as these things go.  She had the support of both Father and the choir in doing this.

But people will talk.  They will grouse and moan.  And they will try to pass opinion off as valid criticism.  Cries of "Liturgically Incorrect" were summarily dealt with.  Education had the effect of silencing most

Life has been made difficult for at least a couple of people in this process.  And that couple of people really have far better things to be doing with their time than trying to entertain those who will not be entertained except by being catered to.

Why DO people do this?  Why does one suppose his taste in anything should be imposed on many, when the many are not doing anything wrong?

The Church needs people to be involved and dedicated and devout.  The Church does NOT need people trying to run the 'show' when they are governed more by their personal thoughts and desires than by the Church's teachings.

The Church does not need people who are there to be entertained.  Hmm.  Perhaps it is this type of Churchgoer who inspired the idea that "religion is the opiate of the masses" (Karl Marx).  Does this mean the Mass is an opiate?  Hah.  There's that "Church Somnolent" thing again.

No.  As was said by Pius XII and many after him, we are called to full active and conscious participation in liturgy.  Nothing sleepy about that.  Nothing sleep-inducing about that, except perhaps the peace that one may come to because of that participation.

So, anyway...this has pulled me out of hibernation.

Good liturgy...resistance is futile.

God Bless

Keeping Christ in Christmas

Hi Folks!

Happy Ordinary Time!

Now that the Christmas Season is over, I have time to think a bit more about it.

A priest friend of mine related a story that happened to him one Advent. Shortly before Christmas Eve, he received a call from an older woman, asking if he celebrated Midnight Mass. He said he did not, but celebrated an earlier Mass, as a nearby parish celebrated Midnight Mass.

She told him that she was an old-fashioned Catholic, and really thought that Midnight Mass should be celebrated everywhere.

He asked her where she regularly attended Mass, and she replied that she didn't regularly attend Mass.

Uh-huh. So just how does she call herself an "old-fashioned" Catholic, when attending Sunday Mass is one of the basics?

This made me think of the catchy phrase "Keep Christ in Christmas", which I believe is promoted by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization I greatly admire.

I think that in the struggle to recognize Christ as "The Reason for the Season" as another phrase goes, some fall into the trap of ONLY keeping Christ in Christmas, and at no other time of the year...except maybe Easter.

This is not a sustainable relationship with Christ or His Church.

To be Christians, we must not only recognize that Christ came...as we do at Christmas when we envision the Manger and listen to readings from Luke's gospel, but we must remember that He will also come again at the end of time (parousia).

Will He recognize those who think they know Him? Do 'they' really know Him, when they do not regularly recieve Him, in the Word, or in the Flesh?

Reading Scripture on ones own, while an admirable practice,  does not suffice. We need to also read Scripture through the lense of the Church. As it says in Acts 8:31; "How can I understand if no one explains it to me?"

To read scripture only through ones own interpretation, or through another person's interpretation leads to the embarassment which all Christians should feel at the disunity of Christian denominations.

So where do we find Christ, if not only in Christmas?  In the hearts of believing Christians.  In the Word (Holy Scripture). In the Eucharist, where we have Christ; Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  And finally in the validly ordained Priest or Bishop when he celebrates the Mass where Christ comes to us in the Eucharist.

The Church Jesus founded becomes Him.  He remains at the head of the Church.  If you doubt this, remember the words spoken by Christ to Saul, on the road to Damascus "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  Saul, later to become St. Paul, was not persecuting Christ, to all appearances.  He was persecuting Christians.  Christ in His question to Saul, verified that we are Christ's Church, and therefore part of Himself.

Keep Christ in Christmas...but don't leave him there!