So I went to Mass this morning - and no this is not going to be me reflecting on the homily or the Scripture readings. I'm reflecting on the fact that about two thirds of the way through I realized that I was pretty much just phoning it in. I blanked on several lines in the Creed, and my mind was wandering more than usual. It happens to all humans, so if this kind of thing doesn't happen to you, you might be a robot ;^)
Anyway, I was thinking about how some of the more self-righteous Christians in some of the more self-righteous Christian denominations have a habit of criticizing the ancient or more liturgical communions for having reduced worship to "going through the motions," as though ritual and memorized prayers automatically become empty after the first time they're done.
And yet, here I was "going through the motions." (Don't worry I snapped out of it by the end, and in any case, I don't think it's necessarily a sin for your mind to wander - it all depends on what your mind wanders to! But I digress.) I had to admit, I was "going through the motions."
But it occurred to me, this is not the fault of the liturgy, and it doesn't happen every time, as if it's built into the ritual - this is on me. I wasn't fully invested, I wasn't hanging on every word of the prayers and the homily - in short, I wasn't "all in." So that's on me.
If you saw a ball player phoning it in, making a lot of errors, you wouldn't say, "Well once you have the same number of innings in every game, and follow the same set of rules every time, then it's inevitable that everyone will just phone it in." That would be ridiculous. And we could come up with an endless number of other analogies to make the same point. If you saw a ball player phoning it in, you would blame the player, not the game.
So if some of us Catholics do "go through the motions" sometimes (or admittedly, maybe a lot of Catholics, a lot of the time), that's not because there's something wrong with the ancient liturgy. But there are people who leave the Catholic Church (or Greek Orthodox, or whatever ancient tradition) for one of those auditorium churches because somebody told them that if they were only going through the motions it wasn't their fault (the subtext, of course, is that they weren't being entertained enough to keep their attention). Instead someone should have told them - that's on you - try harder next Sunday.
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
The problem with us men is that often we don't have the wisdom to be a father until we're a grandfather.
This may sounds like some ironic statement that makes you nod your head in agreement but shrug your shoulders in resignation, thinking, well there's nothing we can do about that. But the practical application of that is that it demonstrates how important it is for kids to grow up around their grandparents. But as in our culture the family becomes ever more fractured and spread out, that is harder and harder to do.
Lately I've been thinking that part of the problem is the whole concept of college. It used to be that everyone thought a person had to go to college to make a good living. Not only is that not the case (truck drivers make more money than I do) but now college has gone from useless to actually ruining our kids. But when I went to college, what you were supposed to do is figure out what career you wanted (as if anyone knows that at age 18) and then go away to the college ...
And don't forget, if you would like to read my latest novel:
The Sword and the Clover - just let me know by email.
I'm happy to send you the PDF version, even if you haven't been a monetary supporter of the community - all I ask is that you don't share it with anyone else.
My email address:
Keep in touch!
JIm
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