It just might be the priest's fault.
Last evening I was at Mass and a kindly priest was filling in for the evening Mass. He's from the seminary - an excellent priest, no doubt. A family with young kids was sitting ahead of me. I've seen them before - they are a large family and rather devout. Two of the preteen boys were slumped over and or slouching during Mass. One kid held his head with both hands, not that he was ill, he was totally bored. I listened to the music, the readings, the homily. The kid was right - the entire thing was so banal, so boring. I normally don't pay any attention to how people act during Mass, I don't care.
I remain rather recollected at Mass so I never notice much, but these kids were right in front of me, I couldn't avoid seeing them. So I put myself in their place and tried to experience Mass as they did. The woman doing the readings flat-lined - which is fine. The responsorial was well sung - but it really isn't a spontaneous responsorial when it's a rehearsed and conducted performance by the new music director with a really great voice. (I know the place of the responsory, so I'm not suggesting it be spontaneous.) The Gospel obviously echoed the first reading and the priest preached about that - at length. Nice biblical commentary and very smart exegesis, with something about being judged in the end, but we should have no anxiety about it. In the meantime the boys were kicking one another without even cracking a smile. They knew what to do all through Mass, because they politely greeted me at the sign of peace, bowed at communion, and so on. So they went through the motions and couldn't wait to get out.
Please don't be angry with me - I'm neither trying to channel the pope or complain about priests. I'm just reflecting on what I observed in the light of all the controversy surrounding the pope(s), liturgy, priesthood, and vocations. I could feel the boys apathy, I could feel their boredom. It really isn't the priest's fault - but I'm not sure it was the boys fault either.
So why did the tenants of the vineyard not cooperate with the landowner?
The priest reminded me of the priests and seminarians the Pope complains about. Perfect decorum, devout Mass according to the rubrics, well prepared homily - perhaps a little too academic and a bit too long. Nothing engaging. Very safe - but no 'fires' started. (If it had been the Extraordinary Form of Mass the kids maybe would have been curious, but unless the priest was on fire himself, the kids could have slept through it.) Even when the priest is 'enthusiastic' and animated, very often it's more about popular catch phrases and chuckles than real life problems. Last evening I half expected to hear something about the social problems in the world, anxieties people have about war and peace, not to mention some kind of instruction regarding the confusion in the church and the world. Nothing there. It seemed so perfunctory.
The Holy Father is right. I am convinced that is why many priests don't like him. He's never departed from Catholic teaching or proposed heresy. People say he does, but it's a convenient criticism by those who don't like him in order to deflect his efforts at reform. Even lay seminary professors feel challenged and insulted, which says to me there really is something wrong in formation. Think about it. Piously repeating 'save the liturgy save the world' anthems doesn't make a priest fervent or holy.
What the Pope said yesterday ...
Drawing inspiration from the bible passage in which the Lord says to the prophet Jeremiah: "Get up and go down into the potter's shop", the Pope explained that “priestly formation depends first of all on God's action in our lives and not our activities, adding, it is a work that requires the courage to let oneself be molded by the Lord, for it transforms our heart and our lives.”
During his address the Pope stressed that if one does not let oneself be molded like clay by the Lord every day, he becomes a priest who is out of the office with inertia, without enthusiasm for the Gospel or passion for the People of God. Instead, Pope Francis said, the seminarian needs to be guided by the Lord, as the craftsman, being led to become more and more his daily disciples.
The Church, Pope Francis said, “needs priests capable of proclaiming the Gospel with enthusiasm and wisdom.”
Finally, the Holy Father left the group with a question, “What do I want to be? A "priest in the lounge", quiet and well-arranged, or a missionary disciple whose heart is burning for the Master and the People of God? - Pope Francis
Just a thought. I may be wrong. I'm not picking on priests. All the priests I know are on fire with the love of God and are above criticism and are living saints. What?
