9-10-22 Morning Meditation
Found in the mind over breakfast, released to unsuspecting public . . .
Some preaching don’t fly. Chatty start, except in special circumstances, is one. Seriousness matters. The late Father Bob, SJ, friend from decades back, reminded the writer of “the seriousness of life” in an email exchange weeks before meeting his Maker a few months ago.
The phrase stayed with me. I’d referred Bob to a National Catholic Reporter piece I wrote years ago about Vatican 2’s abolition of mortal sin. Why else would Catholics line up for Communion, none remaining behind? Why? No more disqualifying mortal sin, get it?
Bob got it and didn’t like my using satire on things sacred. My response was perfect from an English literature point of view: Did Swift recommend serving roasted Irish babies at English tables? His “modest proposal” carried the grim satire off, but few can do that or would try.
Bob had a point, of course, about the nature of life itself. So how about preachers’ ditching the chatty and easygoing for the serious but somehow not overbearing rendition of what’s important?
It’s not a new issue, I realized a while back while reading the obit of a long-gone ancestor of the lady of the house, an early-19th century Congregationalist preacher, of whom the writer could report that he had never told a joke from the pulpit. Which means some did.
Deliver us also, please, from sermon-as-lecture, as in “we asked for bread and you gave us” what? homely observations? We ask for inspiration, we get lectures.
Elsewhere in the mass, we watch the priest at his work table, washing his cup at the end, doing this, doing that, as any scullion would. Mystery? There it goes, out the window, still at the heart of what’s happening, but nothing to remind us of it here. Where’s it gone? It’s a meal, he’s the chef.
Scripture of this Saturday of the umpteenth week in ordinary time: Ah yes, gimme that ordinary time, neatly marked and ready for counting. After Pentecost, you say. Really? No reminder of same, thanks to the fix-it fellow who steered the pre- and post-council liturgy committee, taking no prisoners in the sad process, giving us numbers instead.
OK then, the Sacred Scripture (SS) of the day, out of 1 Corinthians 10, in which Paul exhorts, “Avoid idolatry.”
Listen up. You adore things? Baubles. People? Undeserving louts. Pay attention, you 21st-century listeners, you do not want to be caught dead doing that.
Who bows before statues these days, anyway? Don’t answer that. You might be snidely mentioning the Holy Father, whose zeal for ecumenism has led him astray on at least two occasions, in a Vatican garden where Pachamama was unduly honored some months back and just the other day in Canada (au Canada!) the land of smudging.
None of that if you don’t mind. What was he thinking?
Forget it. Enough of that.
We go in peace.