Putting Catholic Men on Ritalin
SIT DOWN & SHUT UP
The lady cantor, in her polite intercom voice, intoned the dread phrase as she announced the final “song” of the Mass: “Please turn to song number 117 in your Breaking Bread hymnal. We will be using the alternate lyrics.”
Ah, yes: “Joy to the World.” Instead of “Let men their songs employ,” we have “Let us our songs employ.” The cantor had done the same with “Let There Be Peace on Earth”: from “Brothers all are we” to “We are a family.” I had to keep from laughing out loud as the voice of Barney singing those alternate lyrics resonated in my head.
This episode, and it was hardly the first, got me thinking: What exactly does the American Catholic mindset offer to its laymen?
To be blunt, it offers this: the opportunity to sit down and shut up.
Think about it. Unless your parish is unusual, the ratio skews female on Sundays and other holy days of obligation. Why is that?
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In the long run, for my pastor, for me — for all of us — praying together at Mass in one voice of obedience and trust in the wisdom of the Church is the bottom line.
Modern man wants a form of worship that is both understandable and predictable. And, because grace is the fruit of worship, this implies he wants his grace without mystery.
The rubrics, gestures, and symbols that are employed serve a fundamental and very useful purpose: they reveal and give witness to the faith we profess.