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From last week’s bulletin of the Cornell Catholic Community. I thought this was too rich not to pass on for appreciation by a wider audience. Fr. Daniel McMullin asks:
What is your personal experience of the Mass? A comforting routine? A weekly obligation? A ritual of challenge or consolation? I’m sure it is all of this and much more. Our celebration of the Eucharist here at Cornell has the idiosyncracies of a particular diocese, particular priests, and particular community, each with characteristics that inspire as well as irritate. That, however, is the genius of the Incarnation: Jesus Christ is embodied in this local, human community and made explicitly present in the liturgy of the Mass.
So am I getting this right - the genius of the Incarnation is that some of us all of the time are ticked off about the way Mass is celebrated in the Diocese of Rochester, in our particular faith community, on the campus of Cornell University?
As for this “ritual of challenge” nonsense, Franciscus and I play darts at the Chapter House every Wednesday night after Rosary - that’s what I call a ritual of challenge.
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
Are you being facetious? I’m going to act like you aren’t, because sarcasm doesn’t travel well over the internets.
The key to understanding his phrase “ritual of challenge” is in looking at how that sentence ends: “…or comfort.” A ritual of challenge, then, is one that, through the re-creation of Christ’s sacrifice, reminds us for the need for sacrifice in our own lives, and calls us from our sinful lives into a more Christ-like one. Fr. McMullin contrasts this with a “ritual of comfort”, wherein the sublime mystery of the Eucharist heals us after we’ve perhaps had a particularly bad week, or are feeling like we’ve lost hope in this world, and need to be reminded of the immensity and constancy of God’s love for us.
I think this Fr. McMullin said was therefore entirely appropriate. Or at least it is in the context of what you’ve given us… was he using this as a response against people complaining that the Novus Ordo is irritating?
Whaaaaat? Oh, well, I guess I deserve this
No, no, I’ll say more than that. Fr. McMullin’s words (of course, he prefers to be called “Fr. Dan”) were not “entirely appropriate.” If he had said what you said, Matisyahu, then Iosephus would not be making fun of him. But you’ll note that the man says nothing about re-enactments of Christ’s sacrifice, nothing about calling us out of our sinful lives, nothing about Our Lord at all until the very end, where he mentions him only in the context of claiming, basically, that “he can be ours in whatever way we want him to be.”
Instead of talking about the re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice, about sacraments, or about graces, he terms Mass first and foremost a “ritual” and a “routine,” thus emphasizing the repetitive nature ahead of the salvific nature. Perhaps you think it can be taken as assumed that the students already know all about the sacramental nature of the Mass? Think again. I doubt the words “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass” have ever escaped the Father’s lips, in all his time at Cornell. He is giving the distinct impression in this letter that the Mass exists primarily for the purpose of inspiring pleasant feelings and aiding in the personal reflections of those who attend (in this context, it hardly seems right to use the term “assist”.)
It’s no wonder most Cornell students opt for Desperate Housewives over Mass if this is the kind of encouragement they’re getting.
Fair enough, but it’s pretty clear that most Cornell students opt for Desperate Housewives over the Cornell Society, too.
With all due respect, Society members, you are talking about an ordained priest of the church when you make a personal attack such as this one: “I doubt the words “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass” have ever escaped the Father’s lips, in all his time at Cornell.” Is that how the society would like to go on record speaking of an ordained priest of the Church? Really?
Shame.
I’m with Housewife#1. Clara crossed the line there. In fact, she went WAY over it. Not good.
Housewife and Joseph,
Why beat up on Clara when she’s making a true, if damning, statement about this priest? While I am fully on board with respect for our clergy, it is not our job to cover up their egregious heresy and faith-destroying inanity when they impose it on us. In fact, it is a charity to others, subjected to their inept or damaging ministrations, to speak plainly about their failings.
There is a shame here, and it is not Clara’s. It is Fr. McMullin’s!
Why be a couple of busybodies clucking over Clara’s alleged bad manners when you could be praying for Fr. McMullin’s conversion, which Clara — I know for a fact — would celebrate with great joyfulness. She does not hate or dislike the man, but his abuse of his ordained ministry to spread evil within the fold.
I thought that we had discarded clericalism during this new springtime?
Humble thanks to Ambrosius for saying just about everything that needed to be said. I did just want to address this little point:
“Fair enough, but it’s pretty clear that most Cornell students opt for Desperate Housewives over the Cornell Society, too.”
We’re not priests. We can’t say Mass for them. The best we can do is invite them to go with us to better Masses than those offered by the Cornell Catholic Community… which we’ve done, to the best of our ability, but it’s hard to persuade someone to drive two hours with you to an FSSP parish when they’ve been taught to think of the Mass as “a comforting routine.”
I appreciate what you’re both trying to do, but I tell you, it’s just heartbreaking to see the fruits of these terrible college chaplaincies. There is probably no time in life when people are more in need of firm spiritual guidance, and instead they are subjected to the kind of “guidance” that seems prepared to accept almost anything except orthodoxy. We’ve seen students chastised for wanting to go to confession too often, or for wanting to have Eucharistic adoration; we’ve watched time and again while our “pastors” criticized the Holy Father and the Vatican for their uncompromising commitment to Catholic teachings; we’ve even seen the chaplaincy give a tacit nod to a supposedly “Catholic” student organization that lobbied for abortion and blasphemed Our Lady. I’m sorry, but that’s not the sort of “ministry” that I can respect, and the fact that I hold the priesthood in such high regard only increases my pain when I see God’s ordained ministers causing such scandal.
And yes. You can put that on record.