INTRODUCTION

    Imagine it's your wedding day. You're in your tuxedo preparing for the big moment. Suddenly you see your fiancé being led down the aisle by her father, and he's wearing a pair of cut off shorts, tennis shoes and a tank top t-shirt. What does that make you think? That this is a special occasion for him?

    You're at a funeral of a dear and beloved friend. As you look around you notice that some of those in the church are wearing clothes appropriate for the beach. Or what if you were attending a memorial dinner and you saw someone show up unshaven, with clothes that he wore while working on his garden? Do think they really care about the person in the funeral or memorialized at the dinner? Obviously not. There's a saying I recall my mother using. It's mind over matter. I don't mind, you don't matter. Are we living by that motto? I don't mind, God doesn't matter?

    "Then He said to His servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the King came in to look at the guests, He saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and He said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the King said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth'" (Matthew 8-13).

    This parable speaks to us on a variety of issues, but one I note here is that the person in question didn't seem to care enough about the king, the wedding, or anything, to dress appropriately for it. He just didn't care. It wasn't that he had a good excuse because when asked he was silent, he had no excuse. From our actions, even to what we wear, I have to wonder, do we really care?

    "Clothes, furthermore, are a sign of respect to others. If one is invited to a picnic, then one is happy to oblige the hosts by showing up in something that fits the mood of the party. On the other hand, just to go casual when one is invited to dinner shortchanges the dignity of the hosts. After all, hospitality is an ancient virtue; it should be honored with a degree of reverence." (Just Come Casual by Anne Husted Burleigh; CRISIS, October 1989)

    Clothes are only one aspect of this sign of indifference. Marcus Grodi, while he was still a Protestant minister, noted a Catholic friend of his bow slightly as they passed a church. He was intrigued! This, after all, was just another building, a place where Christians came together to worship, nothing more. Some would make the sign of the cross, others would tip their hat, etc. Why? Because a Catholic church was more than just a building where Catholics gathered for service, but where Christ was, where the Mass was said, and Christ was really and truly present in His Eucharistic Body.

    Or maybe you've noticed people pass in front of the Tabernacle as though it was just a piece of the interior decoration (if you can find the Tabernacle inside the main part of the church, odds are it's located off the beaten path in a room which is sometimes no more than a closet). Once, we'd see priests, religious, and laity genuflecting or bowing profoundly before It as they passed by. After all, this is where Christ is, really and truly present.

    Possibly you've noticed, and been guilty of, chatting with your neighbor, sister, brother, wife or mother. Consider what you would think if, while you were exchanging wedding vows, you overheard people chatting about what they were going to do after the wedding, or complaining about the décor, the music, etc. In Verdun France, there's a large mausoleum where the bodies of the dead are laid. They ask for, and strenuously enforce, the silence that is due them, out of reverence for them. Is the Mass less a place of reverence?

    After all, the Mass is the sacrifice of the cross. "The Eucharist is a true sacrifice, not just a commemorative meal, as "Bible Christians" insist. The first Christians knew that it was a sacrifice and proclaimed this in their writings. They recognized the sacrificial character of Jesus' instruction, "Do this in remembrance of Me" ("Touto poieite tan eman anamnasin"; Luke 22:19, 1 Cor. 11:24-25) which is better translated "Offer this as My memorial offering" (The Sacrifice of the Mass from the Catholic Liturgical Library).

    This is telling, since it's the "Bible Christians", that is, the Protestant churches, which view it as simply a 'commemorative meal' and not a sacrifice. But this isn't what we know it to be, as taught to us from the very beginning. "Assemble on the Lord's day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until they have been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matthew 5:23-24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, 'Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations' [Mal. 1:11, 14]" (Didache 14 [A.D. 70])

    "Make certain, therefore, that you all observe one common Eucharist; for there is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and but one cup of union with his Blood, and one single altar of sacrifice--even as there is also but one bishop, with his clergy and my own fellow servitors, the deacons. This will ensure that all your doings are in full accord with the will of God" (Ignatius of Antioch Letter to the Philadelphians 4 [A.D. 110]).

    "If Christ Jesus, our Lord and God, is Himself the High Priest of God the Father; and if He offered Himself as a sacrifice to the Father; and if He commanded that this be done in commemoration of Himself, then certainly the priest, who imitates that which Christ did, truly functions in place of Christ" (Cyprian of Carthage; Letters 63:14 [A.D. 253]).

    "For when he says in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, 'There is no good for a man except that he should eat and drink' [Eccl. 2:24], what can he be more credibly understood to say [prophetically] than what belongs to the participation of this table which the Mediator of the New Testament himself, the priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with his own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of what was to come. . . . Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body is offered and is served up to the partakers of it" (Augustine; The City of God 17:20 [A.D. 419]).

    But the Mass isn't the only aspect of the Church which seems to be falling from a sense of reverence, so too are many of the devotions we once used to remind us of His love for us and our obligation to follow His will. "Today, when reportedly only about one of three Catholics in the United States attends obligatory Sunday Mass, it seems almost beyond belief that within recent memory great numbers would also gather in church in the evening on Wednesday and Fridays or other weekdays, and often on Sunday afternoons, for regular and seasonal devotions. Has something better replaced devotions?…. Not long ago, when they were common, these weekday congregational prayers were most thickly clustered in the Marian months of May and October and the liturgical season of Lent. The format for May and October was standard and familiar: an opening Marian hymn; recitation of the rosary; the Loreto litany; a brief period of silent prayer or another hymn in preparation for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; adoration of the Host in the monstrance; a closing hymn. The Friday Lenten devotions were the Stations of the Cross, again followed by Benediction. Various ethnic groups had their distinctive practices as well …. In addition to these May, October, and Lenten devotions, there were those held less regularly. At varying times of the year, parishes would hold "Forty Hours" devotions, focusing on Eucharistic adoration, with the climax a solemn procession and the sonorous chanting of the Litany of the Saints by dozens of priests convened from the surrounding area. There were also the occasional special novenas (a nine-day cycle of Masses and prayers), often centered on a parish's patron saint and also involving the now all-but-abandoned litanies and processions, as well as Eucharistic adoration. In June, the Feast of the Sacred Heart was similarly commemorated. All these devotions, albeit as much popular as liturgical in nature, were led by a priest, either the pastor, assistant pastor, or a visitor. He was accompanied by acolytes and by thurifers with thuribles (that means incense-bearers bearing incense, for younger readers). An organist and at least part of the Sunday choir provided music and led the singing. Devotions, while never obligatory like Sunday Mass, were taken seriously as forms of public prayer. And they were a serious source of, a reinforcement of, and education in Catholic spirituality. Why have they now been reduced to a remnant in those places where they exist at all?" (The Suppression of Popular Devotions in Today's Catholic Church by Noel J. Augustyn ; New Oxford Review, May 1998)

    What happened? Have we 'grown up' and outgrown these 'childish' antics? Why has the Mass gone from being a 'sacrifice' to a celebratory meal? Two things, in my opinion, have occurred. One is a misinterpretation of 'ecumenism', an attempt to unify all Christians. From this misinterpretation, we think that to be more 'ecumenical' means becoming more Protestant, ending the Church teaching that 'outside the Church there is no salvation'. They tell us that the Second Vatican Council called us to this, but it didn't.

    "The RESTORATION OF UNITY among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only. However, many Christian communions present themselves to men as the true inheritors of Jesus Christ; all indeed profess to be followers of the Lord but differ in mind and go their different ways, as if Christ Himself were divided. Such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature….. Even in the beginnings of this one and only Church of God there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly condemned. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions made their appearance and quite large communities came to be separated from full communion with the Catholic Church-for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame. The children who are born into these Communities and who grow up believing in Christ cannot be accused of the sin involved in the separation, and the Catholic Church embraces upon them as brothers, with respect and affection. For men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect. The differences that exist in varying degrees between them and the Catholic Church-whether in doctrine and sometimes in discipline, or concerning the structure of the Church-do indeed create many obstacles, sometimes serious ones, to full ecclesiastical communion. The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome these obstacles. But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ's body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church.

    "It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.

    Nevertheless, our separated brethren, whether considered as individuals or as Communities and Churches, are not blessed with that unity which Jesus Christ wished to bestow on all those who through Him were born again into one body, and with Him quickened to newness of life-that unity which the Holy Scriptures and the ancient Tradition of the Church proclaim. For it is only through Christ's Catholic Church, which is 'the all-embracing means of salvation,' that they can benefit fully from the means of salvation. We believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, in order to establish the one Body of Christ on earth to which all should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God." (Decree on Ecumenism; Vatican Council II; UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO: Forward & Chapter I Catholic Principles on Ecumenism, #3)

    Nowhere is it said that we are to be more Protestant, or discard Catholic teaching and practice, in order to be more like other Christian churches. In fact, it clearly states that they are deficient in some aspects. What then was the means of ecumenism the Church sought?

    "The term 'ecumenical movement' indicates the initiatives and activities planned and undertaken, according to the various needs of the Church and as opportunities offer, to promote Christian unity. These are: first, every effort to avoid expressions, judgments and actions which do not represent the condition of our separated brethren with truth and fairness and so make mutual relations with them more difficult; then, 'dialogue' between competent experts from different Churches and Communities. At these meetings, which are organized in a religious spirit, each explains the teaching of his Communion in greater depth and brings out clearly its distinctive features. In such dialogue, everyone gains a truer knowledge and more just appreciation of the teaching and religious life of both Communions. In addition, the way is prepared for cooperation between them in the duties for the common good of humanity which are demanded by every Christian conscience; and, wherever this is allowed, there is prayer in common. Finally, all are led to examine their own faithfulness to Christ's will for the Church and accordingly to undertake with vigor the task of renewal and reform." (IBID)

    In short, you don't say a Lutheran, or a Baptist, is going to hell because they aren't Catholic. Nor be ashamed of Catholic practices and beliefs, but rather, know and understand them as the treasures they are. Be ready to explain them. Not in a manner of saying we're right and they're wrong, but why the Church believes as we do.

    However, this misinterpretation of ecumenism has led to many abuses. From the Mass as a sacrifice to a celebratory meal, we see the need to 'entertain' the guests, the congregation. A switch from the worship of God to the worship of community. Also, if what one believes matters little (according to the prophets of the false ecumenism) then any belief is ok, making ourselves the center of truth instead of God and His Church. And from this, we get the attitude that we just don't care. Nothing matters as long as we're happy, by whatever means we find useful. But again, this diverts us from the truth.

    "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15) Love of God means caring about Him, His commandments, and His Church. If we don't love Him, then we simply don't care, or worse, we're in opposition to Him. And that shows in our actions, dress, etc. "To those who would assert that a restoration of devotional life would be a regression in Catholic intellectual sophistication or a blow against ecumenism, an apt response is the motto of John Paul II and the title of a popular post-Vatican II hymn: 'Be Not Afraid.' The fear that devotions will supplant official worship or that the laity cannot distinguish between the two is baseless, and the notion that devotions are an obstacle to Christian unity is simply nonsense. God's people should be encouraged to pray and sing and process publicly, led by their bishops, priests, and deacons. The glory of the Church's customs should be celebrated, not suppressed." (The Suppression of Popular Devotions in Today's Catholic Church by Noel J. Augustyn ; New Oxford Review, May 1998)

    We may find that we discover that we in fact do care. We may well see Mass attendance increase with people wearing their 'Sunday best' and seeing that every aspect of their private and public lives are signs of 'caring' about God and our faith. I mind, God matters.

Pax Christi,

July 26-27, 2000
volume 11, no. 126
Pat Ludwa's VIEW FROM THE PEW

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