What Is Wrong?

September 15: Monday of Week 23 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Corinthians 11:17-26, 33; Psalm 40:7-8, 8-9, 10, 17; Luke 2:33-35 (or John 19:25-27)

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

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“Your meetings are doing more harm than good” (Corinthians 11:17).

People are leaving the Church because of what they experience (or don’t experience) at Mass. Paul says the Corinthians’ liturgies were worse. But anytime Mass is “doing more harm than good,” we have to look for the cause. And fix it.

The Corinthians were separating the rich from the poor. We generally do that by parishes rather than by seating arrangements. Inside church the most common separation is between those who sing and participate (who sit up front) and those who are silent in the back pews. Or those who, like teenagers, are silent wherever they sit. Yes, Mass might be doing the passive more harm than good. The expression, “to damn with faint praise” (google it) also applies to praising God.

The more lively Protestant churches are filled with Catholics who have given up on Mass. Don’t count on the bishops and clergy to do anything about it; often they are part of the problem. It is up to the laity. Up to you as a “steward of the kingship of Christ.”

Do you speak up or write when you can’t sing the hymns, listen to the homily, find devotion in the way the lectors read and the presider says the prayers? Do you offer suggestions? Take action yourself?

Jesus suffered “so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Are you revealing yours?

PRAY: “Lord, open my lips.”

PRACTICE: See, judge, act.