You know what attracts people to church? Church.
Think about all the thousands out there like Jimmy Fallon, fallen away Catholics who life brings back to the door of the Church. All those thousands who turn away again because church isn’t Church anymore. And if the Church can’t stay the same, remain separate, and remain special, what is the point of it all.
In an interview with NPR, (ht New Advent), Fallon said this…
GROSS: Do you still go to church?
Mr. FALLON: I don’t go to – I tried to go back. When I was out in L.A. and I was kind of struggling for a bit. I went to church for a while, but it’s kind of, it’s gotten gigantic now for me. It’s like too… There’s a band. There’s a band there now, and you got to, you have to hold hands with people through the whole Mass now, and I don’t like doing that. You know, I mean, it used to be the shaking hands piece was the only time you touched each other.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
Mr. FALLON: Now, I’m holding hand – now I’m lifting people. Like Simba.
(Laughter)
Mr. FALLON: I’m holding them (Singing) ha nah hey nah ho.
(Speaking) I’m doing too much. I don’t want – there’s Frisbees being thrown, there’s beach balls going around, people waving lighters, and I go, ‘This is too much for me.’ I want the old way. I want to hang out with the, you know, with the nuns, you know, that was my favorite type of Mass, and the grotto, and just like straight up, just Mass Mass.
We had smells and bells for over a thousand years for good reason. How many people ever darkened the door of a church, heard a guitar or tambourine, and said to themselves “I need to find out what this is all about?” Not many I would suspect. There is nothing otherworldly about guitars and tambourines during quasi self-help seminars.
How many do we lose the opportunity to reach by our desperate attempts to be so much in this world, that we fail to resemble or remind of the greater spiritual realities?
I think we should invite Mr. Fallon to mass somewhere where we are not the main attraction.
A lot more thees and thous will reach a lot more these and those.
December 6, 2011 at 4:08 am
I read this earlier over at The Crescat! Amazing, isn't it? Loved your last line, by the way.
December 6, 2011 at 5:02 am
I am an evangelical Bible teacher (not clergy). In 33 years of teaching the Bible to adults, I have had several hundred ex-Catholics in our group. Exactly one of them changed because of doctrine. Exactly none changed because of yells, bells and smells, or lack thereof. The rest are the result of our people reaching out to others in Christian fellowship – the love of God in human form.
With all my heart I wish I could get the Catholic church to do likewise – for every one Catholic I get to teach there have got to be a hundred who just float on by. For those parish churches or groups that do the same, God bless you and keep up the good work.
December 6, 2011 at 6:11 am
I know Mr. Anonymous and that is what is so sad about protestants, because you have abandoned sound doctrine and rather rely on the error sentimentalism now you have Christians running around with not Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior but their "personalized" Lord and Savior.
You see without sound doctrine you have turned Jesus Christ God incarnate in to "Buddy Christ."
December 6, 2011 at 6:40 am
One of the things that irritates me is when someone says "I know Mr. Anonymous" If you'll please reply with my name, I will confirm or deny.
December 6, 2011 at 7:13 am
I felt like Fallon for a long time. Thank God for the return of the Traditional Latin Mass. It gave me and others new life, and taught me more in 5 years about my faith than 30 years of feminized, happy, clappy hand holding sundays which avoided every serious topic of the faith.
December 6, 2011 at 11:20 am
Mr Anonymous,
When I read the comment from Giovanni A. Cattaneo, I assumed he meant "I know what you mean, Mr Anonymous" and not "I know Mr Anonymous personally".
December 6, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Anonymous, for all those Catholics that sadly didn't understand there faith, many because of the lack of catechesis in the past decades, there are also quite a few "Bible-Only" schooled former protestants like me (Southern Baptist) who thought that the Bible never made sense on it's own, that, upon hearing Catholic teaching thought: Oh, that's it! Now everything makes sense! And who, through careful study made the decision to enter into the Church Christ founded with Peter.
With all my heart I wish you could embrace the words that Jesus said in John 6 (it's not a hard teaching if it's symbolic, is it?) and know Him in the Eucharist. He's waiting for you. Prayers that you seek Him out!
December 6, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Actually, some Catholics—Belloc, for one—preferred the Low Mass to the High. He once said that a major advantage of being Catholic (over being Anglican) is having the option, since the Low didn't usually have a sermon. He also mentioned a French town he was in where they used the Low Mass on Corpus Christi, thusly: "The Mass was Low, and short. They are a Christian people."
December 6, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Ah, but there's a difference between a reverently done "Low Mass" and people grabbing you, swaying, holding hands and dancing around. Believe me, I know, I've just escaped the former. I love to see a reverently done NO Mass. Unfortunately too often it's hijacked by people who seek to improve on this beautiful gift that Christ gave us.
December 6, 2011 at 3:44 pm
But a Low mass of Belloc's day didn't mean low as in… well, swaying and dancing and all that nonsense (though it does seem pretty low). A High Latin mass is pretty much like our English masses, only in Latin with a few more prayers and blessings and such. A Low mass is like our English mass… only totally silent o_o. Well, the priest is speaking, but super quietly except for the readings. I guess if one was used to it one might prefer it, as Belloc did, but the first time I went I was expecting a High Latin Mass and was absolutly lost. Those around me were reverant, however, and knew when to kneel and what page of the English translation sheets we were on and whatnot. There were less smells and bells, but the liturgy was still basically the same.
I think that's the main point. In a traditional liturgy— in any language— you know where you stand, but if you add a bunch of dancing and unnecessary gestures, people not only get lost in what it's all supposed to mean, they get lost as to what is actually going on and which part of the mass they are actually in.
December 6, 2011 at 4:30 pm
I think we need both the smells and bells and what I think Anonymous of 12:02 AM was getting at, which is LOVE. Love is what drew people to the church in 33 AD and what draws them to the Church still (acts 2: 42-47). Love of God and love of others is the key. Liturgy is central to that: it should give us a sense (pathetic as the attempt truly is) of the glory and majesty of God, and remind us that One so great loves us so much that He came as a baby, relying on His mother and foster father for care, and he suffered death for our sakes. In exchange, He requires that we love Him above all and others as ourselves. What draws people to the Church is the joy with which we live and the love that we have for one another. That's what makes people think: I want what he's got! Solid teaching, centered in God-focused liturgy keeps us here.
December 6, 2011 at 4:55 pm
This is a bit of a story so bear with me:
Some years ago I was a student at one of the London University colleges and helped organize a Mass with the Catholic Student's Union which was then presided over by a cardinal (whom I shall not name). After putting the feelers out as to what direction the liturgy was to take, musicians, servers and organizers planned a Mass that was solemn, orthodox and beautiful with bells and smells, and chant. No happy clappy hymns, no guitars or dancing middle aged ladies. The cathedral was full to capacity and all who were involved in the planning were already talking about the following years Mass.
Afterwards, there was a lunch with the then cardinal, who had presided at the Mass which had been held in front of a young congregation who had been consulted on the liturgy and had been enthusiastically singing the chant. The cardinal then piped up to everyone's utter amazement that if the Church wanted to attract more young people through its doors it should have more folk Masses!
Not only where we unsure of what he had been seeing and hearing at the Mass he had been presiding at only a few hours earlier, but not one one person who was involved in its planning volunteered to assist at the next year's jamboree. The Mass was progressively dumbed down and I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen now.
The cardinal retired but was subsequently appointed to the congregation responsible for the appointment of bishops. We have subsequently seen the appointment of more men in gray suits to the English hierarchy with a love of all things folksy.
I don't practice any more…it all just got too depressing.
Robert. UK.
December 6, 2011 at 5:13 pm
One of the joys of moving to my current parish is that our pastor insisted on beautiful Masses that follow the rubrics and he hired a liturgist who makes sure that's what we get. Technically, the Mass is the Mass, and so if I'm traveling and end up in a Kum-by-ya Mass I survive, but if I can get back home in time for the God-centered Masses of my own parish I roll out of bed and put the pedal to the metal.
December 6, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Last Sunday was a power-point liturgy. No bouncing ball, but it's hard to overcome watching the wall instead of seeking the Presence on the Altar. Even the presider had his eyes focused on the wall over the front door. Unnerving. Didn't hold hands, cause I don't do that. Just hold on to my missal and look forward or inward.
December 6, 2011 at 5:56 pm
The New Mass drives people away from the Church? Who'dda thunk it? It's not like we have overwhelmingly clear statistics from the last forty years to prove it or anything. But don't worry, the new lipstick… er… translation… will solve everything!
December 6, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Unfortunately, a lot of this has to do with the great influence the Charismatic Renewal started by Pope Paul VI in the late 60's. I myself had a negative experience with this group in the late 1980's where in a local parish church "healing service" these folks used folding chairs rather than kneelers, and so forth. The problem with it to me it is nothing but Catholics who want to act, pray and worship like Protestants.
December 6, 2011 at 10:51 pm
How radical a traditionalist can GFvonB be, if he's not insisting on the original Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom?
The New Mass, properly done, doesn't drive anyone from anything. Did you know the hand-holding is not a part of the rubrics?
I'm curious to know, do you think that the straw man talks back to you?
December 7, 2011 at 12:08 am
I understand exactly what Fallon means. The focus is not on worshipping God. It is on handholding hugging and kissing each other making a big hypocritical show of our great LOOOOVVVE for each other. And we can do that just like those fellowshipping Protestants, can't we? The folk group with their clackers, tambourine and guitar just make it more groovy and "modern". And when the folksinger-guitar player riffs off on extra licks when people think they are supposed to start singing that just makes it more "creative" and folky. Too bad. It was a great Church and it has been dumbed down and Protestantized, secularized and feminized.
December 7, 2011 at 12:42 am
If you are a true Catholic, the only answer to the question of what really attracts people to Church better be "Thanksgiving to God"!! Granted, what goes on can either add or subtract from that ability, but we call the mass Eucharist, a word coming from the Greek for thanksgiving. If our heart is set on thanksgiving, then we will endure the trappings which do not effect the efficacy of the Eucharist itself.
December 7, 2011 at 12:54 am
I go to Church because Jesus is present at Mass.
I have "enjoyed" liturgies that were solemn and liturgies that were very Charismatic. I do not go to Church for the fellowship, although having a body of people familiar with each other is certainly preferable, as a social being, to a gathering of strangers.
When I visit my children in North Carolina via the long drive from New York, I try to stop by the Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Raleigh. I go there to spend some time with the Lord. I need to do this more often as my local parish has perpetual adoration.
Karl