Having been isolated at times, by my family, due to my criticism of the deviations and creativity that is often found in our current Novus Ordo Mass, I have learned to suck it up. Realizing that some of my remarks could be overly critical, I have attempted to not comment, unless there are four infractions or obvious deviations on what I might expect as Catholic theology during a Mass. Four disputable points is kind of like a liturgical tetris: it just drops.
This Sunday, my wife, and I attended Holy Mass at the 8:00 am, at a Roman rite Catholic Church in Maryland. It was the celebration of Ascension Thursday, but they don’t do that any more in this diocese. It used to be a “Holy Day of Obligation”, but now some dioceses celebrate it on Thursday, and some on the following Sunday. My wife and I had done the readings for Ascension Thursday, on Thursday, so we were prepared. So much for the universal, "catholic", Catholic church? That’s one!
At the homily, the priest started with a joke. Don’t you love it, when the celebrant has a need to just tell a joke. It had nothing to do with his message. It was just his attempt to try out for Comedy Central. That’s two!
During his homily, he announced that anyone who came to church this morning was assured to go to Heaven. He dug up a scriptural quote to build his case based on an assurance that anyone at Mass, loved God. Not a word about our free will to sin, much less discussing that presumption, presumption that we are assured heaven, is one of the two unforgivable sins against the Holy Spirit. That’s three.
Finally, as the celebrant was preparing to conclude the Liturgy, he hesitated before giving the final blessing. The Pastor came forward to address those in attendance. He instructed the ushers to give out papers and pencils, and requested that we write down how many people in our group attended the service, and what our racial classification would be. Luckily my wife grabbed the paper, before I could get a hold of it. That’s four, and that’s Liturgical Tetris
It certainly was not the Catholic Mass I was raised on, but at least they are getting an idea on the racial make-up of heaven.
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