Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The Devil Wants the Church to Be "Relevant"

The last time I found myself in the unfortunate situation of attending a LifeTeen Mass, it made me so damn mad I felt I couldn't receive Holy Communion.  The music (average age of the band: well over 30) was as sophomoric as it was objectively sacrilegious, and a football stadium atmosphere prevailed inside the Church.  And as if all that weren't bad enough, (a) the celebrant was the bishop, and (b) he was singing along with the tunes.

I can already hear the howls of protest.  It's no use trying to inform me that rock music at Mass "can be reverent," and "brings the kids into church" and "draws them closer to Christ."     Secular music is not fit for worship, period.  There was a time, still within living memory, when the consensus on drums and steel guitars inside a Catholic church would have been that they're simply sacrilegious.  And before you start getting on my case about "rash-judging" the souls of those who like and participate in rock concert Masses, go back and notice that I called the music at the Mass I got stuck at "objectively sacrilegious," thereby giving the band and the organizers the benefit of the doubt.  Persons who are poorly formed in their faith cannot be expected to know any better, especially when they have priests and bishops setting a bad example.

As to what it is exactly that kids are being "drawn to" by rock bands in church, surely that calls for closer examination.  Authentic Christianity has never been about manipulating people's emotions: quite the opposite.  We read over and over again in the great spiritual works that good feelings during prayer and worship are gifts that God gives to beginners for their encouragement; but sooner or later He withdraws them, to test whether we love Him for Himself or because He gives us candy.  We know from the saints that prayer is often arduous work, devoid of sensible consolations; otherwise, how could we gain any merit by persevering?

But this rock band stuff makes the candy an end in itself.  Mass becomes all about what we are getting out of it, with little or no serious thought for whether we are giving God the worship that is His due.  (Question: if the band isn't even good enough for a garage -- let alone a recording contract -- why is it good enough for the Creator of the Universe?)  Rock band Masses are in direct opposition to the Gospel injunction to seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and then all these other things will be added unto us.  It sends the message that we're not really engaged in authentic prayer and worship unless it makes us feel good, and that if God's not giving us candy, then we must not be right with Him.  So, then, when the non-stop gratification of the senses ceases, so does Mass attendance.    

Finally, the Church is not supposed to be "relevant" in the sense the world means "relevant."  The world defines "relevance" as going along with the Zeitgeist.  But the Church is decidedly and emphatically counter-cultural.  Her Founder, after all, commands us to love our enemies, turn the other cheek and not lay up to ourselves treasures on earth.  And Christ warned us that the world will hate us because it hated Him first.  Yet the same people who prattle on and on about how Jesus was a "revolutionary" and "shook up the Establishment" have striven might and main for decades to bring the Church into lockstep with this same world.

The Catholic Church has the Truth in its fullness.  Truth is always relevant.  Truth needs neither frill nor dressing: people hunger for it on their own without the artificial stimulants.  People hunger for something higher, and beautiful, because that is what we were made for: we're not supposed to be satisfied with lying in our own personal gutter.  The devil, on the other hand, wants the Church and her worship to be "relevant" in the worldly sense, because "relevance" distracts us from Truth.  And the devil is all about lowering expectations to the point they're already met, because that keeps us from striving for the perfection we're called to.  When are we going to figure this out?    

12 comments:

  1. This is brilliant. ROFL. I took my son to a LifeTeen Mass in Ventura CA a long time ago. What a mistake. Not only were we the only ones not in jeans on a Sunday, but the average age of the Mass goers was 60. We walked out at the homily (sic) and found another Mass.

    I could not believe how tacky it was...and in 2007.

    Time warp.

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  2. Thank you, Supertradmum. I once saw a LifeTeen band that looked like a bunch of Rolling Stones rejects surrounded by a bunch of clueless teenagers in miniskirts. I doubt that there are very many LifeTeen band guys under 30. And once when I stumbled into a LifeTeen Mass, they had the first 5 pews roped off for the kids -- only about 3 or 4 kids occupied those pews. I suspect by and large the kids do not like being condescended to.

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  3. THANK YOU!!!!!!! I loathe the Life Teen nonsense and could not go to communion when I attended one. Life Teen is a bunch of hooey wrapped up in "feelings" and not the teachings of the Church- (you can imagine how my opinion went over in my former parish, which is big in the edge, core and life team c***) Now I know that I am not alone!

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  4. Oh, Agnes...you are far, far, FAR from alone on that stuff!

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  5. Excellent post all the way around, Anita! I have never been to a LifeTeen Mass (thanks be to God!), but I hear about the importance of making the Mass "relevant" to the kids all the time (take the water park Mass about to happen in the Diocese of Honolulu for example). The most interesting point I see in your post and in the comments is that it's not TEENS who are going to the LifeTeen Masses!

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  6. Thank you, Jay!

    (Ahem) Water park Mass???????????

    I guess it had to happen sooner or later. The liberals always go in for self-parody.

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  7. Thank you!! Very well said! I've seen several Catholic programs become wrapped up in "feelings". It's so sad. We must pray.

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  8. Oh, Anita! Your prose, as always, is beautiful. Equally wonderful, in a teeth-grating, roadside accident, awful kind of way is this video. Where ever did you find it??

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  9. M., somehow the really RELEVANT stuff manages to find us.

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  10. Your blog post is harshly condemning a ministry that has globally impacted and evangelized tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of teenagers. I have always known Lifeteen International to provide resources for excellent catechesis, outstanding training events for youth minister development, and life changing conferences and camps for young people during the summer months. I recently saw this blog by Randy Raus, President of Life Teen, with very encouraging information for vocations being positively impacted by the Lifeteen programs in local parishes. http://catholicyouthministry.com/life-teen-leading-teens-to-priestly-vocations/

    Your language is judgemental and condescending, and the disclaimer you give at the end of your second paragraph doesn't excuse you for making fun of a group of musicians serving a parish community. Declaring that they are poorly formed in their faith implies that you have firsthand knowledge of their formation.

    It sounds to me that your Bishop was participating with the hymns, which is what we are all called to do at Mass, right? The video you attached to demonstrate your frustration was actually done by a megachurch in Atlanta GA for fun, and is unlike any Lifeteen mass I have ever attended. I am curious as to whether or not you are as uncharitable in your words to well intentioned choirs and organists who struggle with their skills. Are they exempt from ridicule?

    Maybe it's time to stop judging people inside our churches, and time to start evangelizing people outside our churches. I'd even bet that if we stopped ridiculing musicians over the age of 30 (not sure why that keeps coming up, honestly), we'd have more time to feed the poor, visit the aging (over 30?) musicians in nursing homes, build habitat homes for families in need. You know, the corporal works of mercy. I learned about those in catechism class, and then had many opportunities to live them out serving in our Lifeteen program. Let's be charitable and encouraging to one another, and gentle in our teaching and learning. The only One with all the answers is the One we serve.

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  11. Your blog post is harshly condemning a ministry that has globally impacted and evangelized tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of teenagers.

    I have been a lot harsher than that on LifeTeen: see here. LifeTeen was founded by a priest who was excommunicated for engaging in active ministry while under suspension, holding "non-denominational" services, and disobeying his bishop's cease and desist order; he was afterward dismissed from the clerical state based on the results of a diocesan investigation into allegations of sex abuse. The lay co-founder of LifeTeen was also implicated in the abuse allegations. Should the fruits of a bad tree go unexamined? By the way, I don't reserve all my harshness for organizations that produce rock band liturgies: I have also been hard on the SSPX.

    Your language is judgemental and condescending, and the disclaimer you give at the end of your second paragraph doesn't excuse you for making fun of a group of musicians serving a parish community. Declaring that they are poorly formed in their faith implies that you have firsthand knowledge of their formation.

    (1) I may not get to judge people's souls, but I do get to judge their actions. (2) Recording my impressions are not the same thing as engaging in mockery. (3) I don't need first-hand knowledge of someone's formation to determine whether he is poorly formed. I can tell by his behavior. If you behave inappropriately at Mass, that is a sign that you have no sense of the occasion.

    It sounds to me that your Bishop was participating with the hymns, which is what we are all called to do at Mass, right?

    Actually, the replacement of the proper texts of the Mass with hymns is not supposed to be happening as a matter of course. And few subjects are more sorely lacking in sound catechesis than that of actual participation in the Mass. It is not necessary to be physically active to participate. In fact, an excess of physical activity destroys the interior recollection and receptivity that is supposed to be at the heart of actual participation. So does secular music. That is why, until the insanity of the '60s broke upon the Church, it was not permitted at Mass. To be continued...

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  12. Continued from Part I...



    The video you attached to demonstrate your frustration was actually done by a megachurch in Atlanta GA for fun, and is unlike any Lifeteen mass I have ever attended.

    There you have a point. The music in the video is better than any I have heard at LifeTeen Masses.

    I am curious as to whether or not you are as uncharitable in your words to well intentioned choirs and organists who struggle with their skills. Are they exempt from ridicule?

    When someone is publicly making an ass of himself, is it charitable to let him go on believing in his own magnificence?

    Maybe it's time to stop judging people inside our churches, and time to start evangelizing people outside our churches.

    How are we going to do that without the traditional Catholic worship that has been displaced by aberrations like LifeTeen Masses? People within the Church no longer realize that the Mass and the Sacrifice of Calvary are identical. Some people outside the Church are hard-pressed to see the difference between where they are now and where we want them to be.

    I'd even bet that if we stopped ridiculing musicians over the age of 30 (not sure why that keeps coming up, honestly), we'd have more time to feed the poor, visit the aging (over 30?) musicians in nursing homes, build habitat homes for families in need. You know, the corporal works of mercy. I learned about those in catechism class, and then had many opportunities to live them out serving in our Lifeteen program. Let's be charitable and encouraging to one another, and gentle in our teaching and learning. The only One with all the answers is the One we serve.

    Actually, I only mentioned the over-30 thing once, for the purpose of questioning who is really being catered to by LifeTeen liturgies. It is wonderful that you learned the corporal works of mercy, but did you also learn the spiritual works of mercy:

    1. Instruct the ignorant.
    2. Counsel the doubtful.
    3. Admonish the sinner.
    4. Bear wrongs patiently.
    5. Forgive offenses willingly.
    6. Comfort the afflicted.
    7. Pray for the living and the dead.

    Did you also learn in LifeTeen that the Mass is a Sacrifice, and that it is the unbloody representation of the Sacrifice of Calvary -- that, in fact, it and Calvary are one and the same? Did LifeTeen teach you that at Mass, you are truly at the foot of the Cross, no less than if you had been bodily on Golgotha, outside Jerusalem in 33 A.D., with the dying Savior and Mary and John and the Magdalene visibly present to you? Did LifeTeen imbue you with a sense of the mystery we encounter at Mass? Did they teach you that at Mass heaven and earth meet, and all the angels and saints are present there? I rather suspect that none of that ever gets mentioned at LifeTeen; otherwise, no one would have the heart to pluck a steel guitar string or beat a drum at such a moment.

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