Chapter 10: Changing the Mass

Okay, time to think about how Catholicism can change its most basic ritual, the Mass.

I recently had a conversation with one of the priests at my parish. When he asked me what I thought of the Mass, I am quite sure that I worried him. I told him that I dreaded coming to Mass. I hated the mind numbing rituals and repetition. It seemed to me, I told him, that the Mass must have been written by obsessive compulsive people...people who say things over and over again...people who like to state things three times. So much of the Mass is repetitive nonsense. None of it is expressed in modern language. Sometimes it doesn't even resemble English. The language is often so antiquated that it has become nearly opaque.

It shocked him when I lashed out at the Catholic notion of prayer. It prompted him to ask me, “Are you saying that you don't pray the Our Father?”

And my answer was to the point, “Not if I can avoid it. I do it when everybody does it but never alone.”

He continued, “Then you still consider yourself a fallen Catholic?”

Now this response from him indicated how single minded he had become. In fact, this kind of thinking is endemic of most Catholics. The ones who have remained within the fold have stopped asking the hard questions. And the Church has regressed as a direct result. I use the word “endemic” because it is (to me) a disease caused by the rotting of the intellectual process.

His reaction was predictable. He immediately pointed at some examples designed to constrict my mode of thought. He regailed be with tales of clown Masses and other ridiculous attempts to change the Mass. By denegrading these foolish attempts at reform, he attempted to throw out the entire notion of reform. I took his cue and changed the subject. He was clearly uncomfortable talking about my ideas.

But it is clear to me that the Mass, if it were changed to accommodate critical thinking, could be a source of a weekly regenerative process instead of an irritant to intellectualism. By limiting the ritualistic portions to a few minutes and greatly expanding the faithful examination of truth, Catholicism could undergo a Renaissance of tremendous importance. Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate scholarly diatribes as a replacement. (facilitating even more dozing participants) But the kinds of conversations we all have about faith should be front and center every Sunday at Mass. And the iron grip of control exercised for centuries by conservatives would at last be broken.

So how would a typical Mass be constructed? Well first of all, it is important to note that the traditional Mass would have to be offered to those Catholics married to the past. There are millions of them and taking that away from them would be anethema to those of us who seek a more open minded kind of assembly. We, as liberals, do not wish to take Catholicism away from the vast majority of conservative minded people. We recognize that two wrongs do not make a right. Even though millions of liberals have been excluded from Catholicism, the idea that we must be of one mind is unimaginable.

So in the liberal version of Mass, there would be a potpourri of challenging moral dilemmas to consider. And there would not always be an easy answer with a proscribed way of thinking as we have been forced to endure for so long. There could be opposing viewpoints represented so that Catholics would be challenged to use their own cognitive and moral compasses to guide their choices. Priests could disagree with one another from the pulpit. The altar could become a stage for morality plays and theological discussions. All of it would be enormously stimulating and relevant to daily life. The Mass would become a living, breathing mechanism for change, spiritual evolution and a sense of community. And Communion would become less of a ritual and more of a symbol of sharing and communal love. Real bread would be passed around and real wine would be drunk. The celebration that Jesus gave us would be renewed and the Church would expand dramatically as a result. I believe so strongly that this will be a fact that I no longer doubt its acceptance. It is all just a matter of time.