WHY IS MASS UNINTERESTING?

By William Most

Many, especially young people, are asking that question today. And there definitely is an answer.

There are three reasons for that: lack of spiritual sensitivity, lack of understanding of God, lack of understanding the theology of the Mass.

So we need to look at each:

1. The first, lack of spiritual sensitivity, is something very common today. It is not hard to diagnose the cause: so many have grown up with a false theology which is sometimes called the New Spirituality, though most often it goes without a name, but yet is almost breathed in in the early levels of school. The central idea is this: to give up any creature or pleasure, voluntarily, for a religious reason, does one no good spiritually. For those who follow this error commonly agree that we ought to make good use of things that God sends us, even trials. But to give up anything otherwise - that is not only no good, it is often harmful, they claim.

It is hard to imagine that even Screwtape himself could think up something more devilish. For, believe it or not, this attitude not only wrecks vocations to religious life, but also wrecks many marriages as well. What a track record!

The reason for saying it is harmful to give things up is this: the new spirituality people say that obedience is harmful. But obedience is, of course, one of the major ways of giving things up. They say that especially in the early years of life, a person needs to make decisions in order to mature psychologically. That is very true. But the objection would hold only if there were only a very few decisions to be made. Actually, there are so many. So one can cultivate two goals, namely, maturity by decision-making; yet at the same time, get the spiritual benefits of obedience in other matters.

It wrecks vocations in this way: Imagine a teenager deciding whether or not to enter some form of religious life. To do so, if done in the right way, involves giving up many things. But if he/she thinks that does no good -- why do it? And worse, obedience should be part of religious life and that, as we saw, the new spirituality people claim is positively harmful. That is not hard to answer: we have just done that.

Some time back, there was massive exodus of nuns from convents. Why? They came to believe the new spirituality. So they would be fools to stay, if they believe that. Or if they would stay, then they would try to remake their institute to match the new spirituality. Some have done just that, and have even gained power positions, and harass those who do not follow their way. Liberals are very illiberal with those who disagree with them.

Not strangely, these remade orders are losing vocations - for they are not really following the essential principles of the religious life, and so cannot attract those who would really want such things.

But the new spirituality is wrecking countless marriages as well. How does that happen? Marriage by its very nature must be a permanent commitment. If even one of the two parties is unable to make a permanent commitment, then there is no marriage, however many flowers and bridesmaids there may be.

The reason is this: So many grow up today breathing in the new spirituality. The result is that they do only what feels good, and only as long as it feels good. As soon as it no longer feels good, they stop. Of course, if someone has lived that way every day up to the time he/she walks up the aisle -- then that person is really incapable of a permanent commitment. And in due time that will show, and the marriage can be annulled. Rather, it never was marriage at all from the start, since at least one of the two was incapable of a permanent commitment.

The parties discover their error when the high tide of emotion simmers down to a normal level after marriage. Then they find out that male and female psychologies are enormously different. Even with an ideal couple, each one soon faint he/she has to give in most of the time to make it work. The psychologically immature children who grew up in new spirituality cannot make it work. (Paul VI said "marriage is a long path towards sanctification. That is true, for those who are really mature and who succeed in making the indispensable adjustments).

How does this new spirituality affect understanding the Mass? Very simple. To grow up living a life that is in a spirit opposite to that of Christ, who said: "If anyone will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me" -- to live that way is the opposite of the spirit of Christ. No wonder such a person is not in good condition to understand the Mass, the supreme offering of the obedient sufferings of Christ.

Vatican II gave us a real help towards seeing the folly of the new spirituality. In speaking of the three evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity and obedience, which are the core of religious life, it said that they "constantly stir up the fervor of love. " (LG #46). For those not in religious life what is needed: to begin to live the ideal of Christ, to make it a practice to get in at least a little self-imposed mortification frequently, perhaps one small thing daily, of the type St. Therese of Lisieux taught us to cultivate. For example if a letter from home arrived in the morning, she would not open it until evening. Or others who drive cars, can keep their eye on the road -- good for safety -- and not let themselves satisfy their curiosity by looking at things that turn up which one does not need to see. And there are countless of other little ways of following the cross. Those who do this will find their aptitude for all spiritual things growing. This does not mean that they will have ecstacies or be swimming in emotion. No, they may have hardly any emotion. But they will still understand the message of the Cross, and gladly live it, and find a deeper kind of satisfaction.

Generously fulfilling the duties of one's state in life, whatever it may be, is another way of cultivating mortification. St. Francis de Sales makes a surprising suggestion in a letter to a married woman. He says that her husband will be delighted if he sees that as her devotion grow, she is becoming more warm to him. She has really pledged that in the marriage vows. She must not think that spirituality calls for coldness in the matter.

This need for mortification reminds us of the words of St. Paul in Romans 8:17 where he said: "We are heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with Him, so we may also be glorified with Him." So many today are miles from that position. They want and try to get even constant entertainment now. As soon as they return to their quarters they turn on the TV or a stereo. While riding in the car, they also must have entertainment on the radio. And in everything, pleasure seeking is the rule. Really such attempts are self-defeating. For our bodies cannot respond at high pitch ford long periods: fatigue comes in, a natural defense, and our reactions are blunted. The result is that people who seek constant entertainment develop almost something like a callous, and do not really enjoy it; instead, it is apt to cause stress, No wonder they find little happiness. That comes only insofar as we are like Christ. We do not mean that we will be exempt from sufferings if we follow Him - rather the opposite. But there is a deeper satisfaction even here and now, which leads to happiness later beyond that which eye has seen or ear heard, and which has not even entered into the heart of man.

2. A second reason for lack of appreciation of the Mass is lack of appreciation of God Himself. There are as it were two poles in our relationship to God ("poles" mean centers around which things are grouped). One pole is that of love, closeness, warmth; the other, a sense of infinite majesty, greatness. If someone told me: "Joe Doaks who lives two blocks from here, loves you", my reaction would probably be: "Ho hum. Who is that? Why should I be interested". Similarly if we have little or no perception of the greatness of God, to hear that He loves us makes little impact.

St Teresa of Avila understood well these two poles. Even though she was privileged to often have marvelous mystical closeness to God, yet in her writings she regularly refers to Him as "His Majesty. " And an opening to many ancient Jewish prayers said; "Avinu, malkenu - Our Father, our King. "

The liturgy of the Mass in the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church is well designed to promote that sense of majesty; our western liturgy seems to have done everything possible to diminish respect: turn the altar around, no Communion rail, let even children with dirty hands touch the most sacred things. Primitive people, as anthropology shows, observe a sharp division between the ordinary, everyday things, and the sacred. We have lost it. In the Eastern rites, instead of a turned about altar, they have an iconostasis, an icon-screen between the people and the altar, which can be seen at all only if one is in line with the holy door and the altar. Most persons in the church hardly see the altar at all.

We greatly need to try to recover that sense of the sacred. One thing that would help is much meditation on some lines from the Fathers of the Church. For example, St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his <Life of Moses> said: "The true vision of the One we seek, the true seeing, consists in this: in not seeing. For the One Sought is beyond all knowledge." St. Augustine in his treatise <On Christian Doctrine> wrote: "He must not even be called inexpressible, for when we say that word, we say something."

There is of course a bit or exaggeration in these statements, but very little. To clarify, let us think of the time the young man came to Jesus and said: "Good master, what must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus at once said: "Why do you call me good? One is good, God." He did not mean to deny He was good, but He meant to say that if we use the word good twice, to apply to God and to apply to anyone else, the sense in the two cases is partly the same, but mostly different. In this way the great ancient philosopher Plotinus said: "God is beyond being."

Astronomy could help us too, to recapture some of the majesty of God, if we gather together some of the staggering figures about the universe, e. g. , that the nearest spiral galaxy is Andromeda, at a distance of 2. 2 million light years, and then realize that a light year is the distance light travels in one year at a speed of over 186, 000 miles per second - then we say to ourselves: "And yet He who made that, not with great planning, but by merely wiling it: Let it be - He loves me and permits me to call Him Father." The line in the Mass is very helpful here: "Jesus taught us to call God our Father, and so we have <the courage> to say. "

In a way it was easier for people in a primitive culture to feel their need of God than it is for us, who by our technology can accomplish things that would have dazzled the primitives. And yet, if we use our increased knowledge well, we are better off than the primitives. We know that in any speck of dirt, there are atoms, each with a nucleus, plus electrons in several energy levels, which used to be compared to planets in orbit around a sun. That power in a bit of dust is so great that if it were unleashed it would blow us all to pieces. Yet He who made that by merely willing it, tells us to have the courage to call Him Father.

Another way to help develop a sense of reverence is to act as if we had it. To make no preparation for Holy Communion, and then to leave at once after Mass - if not even earlier - expresses positive disrespect. Interior respect could hardly flourish in such an atmosphere. Pope John Paul II in his very first Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, pointed out that if a person does not really make a considerable effort, he will take a loss from receiving, not a gain. When St. Pius X urged frequent Communion, he had in mind the way people used to act in his day. They would commonly go to Confession the day before, then put on their very best clothes to receive. Now they seldom go to confession - such frequency as used to be the practice is not required, but at least more than many make now is good. And to come to Church dressed in a slovenly way, or wearing short shorts - this is to show we think little of the Divine Presence. And to at once sit, and then cross legs in a slouched position, again expresses no respect. Our interior attitudes tend to follow our exterior actions. So if we bring our exterior into line, we will find the interior improving.

Further, if we really believe in the Real Presence - and so many Catholics today do not believe it - we would be glad to come at times other than Mass for adoration. Wonderful spiritual fruits follow upon this practice.

It is to pay both our obligations and our love to so majestic a Father that we have the Mass.

Today with our wonderful technology it is easy to overlook our total dependence on God. If I made a model plane, and not only put together parts from a store, but even gathered and mined the raw materials, then I would say it is mine in a sense much greater than if I had bought it ready made. But God has made us out of nothing. On that count alone, we owe Him everything, we owe Him our obedience, which is also correctly called our love - we do not want to as it were hug Him, we obey, because He is so good, because that is good in itself, because that makes us open to receive what He so generously wants to give. He has pleasure in that. But yet, that obedience does Him no good. Even when we say, rightly, that God created for His own glory, we do not mean He is out to gain something - impossible. He, the Infinite, cannot gain anything, nor does He aim for it. It means instead that His glory is the natural result of His generosity to us.

Still further, if someone makes a robot, and puts a battery in it, it can run as long as the battery lasts, even if the maker goes away, even if the maker dies. But we are not like that. Our life is a moment to moment gift. If He were to withdraw the hand of His support, we would fall back into the nothing out of which we came. Every beat of the heart, every movement of our lungs, every thought, depends on His power at the beginning of the line of power transmission.

And we add of course, the fact that He redeemed us from the captivity of the evil one, at such enormous cost, means that on still another count we owe Him everything.

The Mass is the great means of paying our debts. First, we should, by meditation, come to realize we do have such debts.