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 7, 2011 at 1:47 am
Actually Karl, fellowship is one of the intended goals. The second epliclesis in the Eucharistic prayers asks that the same Holy Spirit who changes the bread into wine may make those who receive it 'into the One Body, One Spirit of Christ". Certainly when Jesus prayed on the night before he died that we may be one and He and the Father are one, He was not speaking merely figuratively. This does not mean Mass need become a hootenanny, but that the Eucharistic Species are given to me to bring about union that is concretely lived out. These people around me are not 'a gathering of strangers' but the adopted sons and daughters of God the Father', bound together as brothers and sisters through Christ. Mass is never meant to be a personal devotion that I happen to do with other people doing it with me, it is meant to have a dynamic affect in the lives of all who call themselves Catholics.
What is to be avoided is the minimalistic approach of where I do the least possible to call myself Catholic (Catholicism is more than 1 hour a week) and individualism (what is it for me)…Mass is neither a gathering of the Frozen Chosen nor a drive thru to get fire insurance for the week. If your only contact with the parish is once a week, then I must ask whether one is going to Mass or is consuming religion.
Finally I do applaud you for the Adoration; we have a perpetual adoration Chapel in this parish. I wish more would use it.
December 7, 2011 at 6:14 am
"Straight up. Just Mass Mass."
Look again, Mister Fallon. Not every parish does frisbees and beach balls. You can find the Mass Mass if you look for it. Look again.
December 7, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Yeah with Mass attendance down what we really need is:
MORE COWBELL!
Woohooo!
December 7, 2011 at 11:33 pm
"Used to post said…
Yeah with Mass attendance down what we really need is:
MORE COWBELL!
Woohooo! "
LOL! It will bring in "young people"!!
December 8, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Father, with respect:
"If your only contact with the parish is once a week, then I must ask whether one is going to Mass or is consuming religion."
Or you are experiencing deep spiritual dryness and are hanging on to your faith by your fingernails by your weekly attendance.
Or you previously showed up at Mass only occasionally, and for you, faithful weekly attendance is an unaccustomed high point on your road back to faith.
Or you have a long travel to get to your parish for Mass, and returning on other days during the week is unrealistic.
Or the parish, for one reason or another, is unbearable, but you will not cave and stop attending Mass when obliged.
Or your life is devoted to Christ in other ways than busy-ness about the parish, through service to others, or holding down two-and-a-half jobs, or whatever is the reality of Providence's current dealings with you … and yet you still persevere in carving out time each Sunday to show up.
It is disheartening to see a priest apparently scolding weekly Mass-goers. The Church obliges us to Mass on Sundays and days of obligation; and Our Lord has had hard words for religious authorities who seek to add burdens to the fulfillment of the Law.
-Texas Catechist