- Feb 5, 2002
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Okay, okay, maybe it’s partly the reverence. But hear me out.
In all of these endless conversations about the Mass in the current day, “reverence” would probably win the Word Cloud competition.
They just want a reverent Mass!
Celebrated properly, the Mass of Paul VI can be plenty reverent!
Give us reverence!
Well, I think “reverence” as an interpretive lens falls short. I don’t think it quite gets to the core of the problem.
It’s not the reverence.
It’s the ego.
Because the ego lies at the heart of the “irreverence” – no matter what form that “irreverence” takes – and we obliged to note that a full-on Latin Mass in whatever form can be “irreverent,” too – although the potential for irreverence there has built in boundaries: Latin, strict rubrics.
But let’s look at the Mass of Paul VI – the Ordinary Form, the Mass most of us attend.
I’m going to suggest that the core of what drives people crazy (in a bad way) about the celebration of this Mass is the always-present-fear that when you open the door and sit down in that pew, you are never quite sure if what’s about to happen might involve you being subject to surprise attacks and being held hostage by someone’s ego.
You go to Mass with your hopes, joys and fears. You’re there carrying sadness and grief, questions, doubts and gratitude and peace. You’re bringing it all to God in the context of worship, worship that you trust will link you, assuredly to Christ – to Jesus, the Bread of Life, to His redeeming sacrifice. That in this moment, you’ll be joined to the Communion of Saints, you’ll get a taste of the peace that’s promised to the faithful after this strange, frustrating life on earth is over.
And what do you get?
Who knows. From week to week, from place to place, who knows.
Continued below.
It’s not the reverence; It’s the ego
In all of these endless conversations about the Mass in the current day, “reverence” would probably win the Word Cloud competition.
They just want a reverent Mass!
Celebrated properly, the Mass of Paul VI can be plenty reverent!
Give us reverence!
Well, I think “reverence” as an interpretive lens falls short. I don’t think it quite gets to the core of the problem.
It’s not the reverence.
It’s the ego.
Because the ego lies at the heart of the “irreverence” – no matter what form that “irreverence” takes – and we obliged to note that a full-on Latin Mass in whatever form can be “irreverent,” too – although the potential for irreverence there has built in boundaries: Latin, strict rubrics.
But let’s look at the Mass of Paul VI – the Ordinary Form, the Mass most of us attend.
I’m going to suggest that the core of what drives people crazy (in a bad way) about the celebration of this Mass is the always-present-fear that when you open the door and sit down in that pew, you are never quite sure if what’s about to happen might involve you being subject to surprise attacks and being held hostage by someone’s ego.
You go to Mass with your hopes, joys and fears. You’re there carrying sadness and grief, questions, doubts and gratitude and peace. You’re bringing it all to God in the context of worship, worship that you trust will link you, assuredly to Christ – to Jesus, the Bread of Life, to His redeeming sacrifice. That in this moment, you’ll be joined to the Communion of Saints, you’ll get a taste of the peace that’s promised to the faithful after this strange, frustrating life on earth is over.
And what do you get?
Who knows. From week to week, from place to place, who knows.
Continued below.
It’s not the reverence; It’s the ego
