By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Last week we saw an entire nation turn its back on God with a very small number resisting the popular wave of new paganism. The religious and cultural earthquake we witnessed in Ireland with over 60 percent of the population renaming a fiction based on same-sex activity with the sacred title of marriage had its roots in the many tremors that have shaken the Church to her foundation for years.
What has taken place in our churches for over 50 years has had its effect in what takes place outside of our churches. How we worship is how we believe because the law of prayer is the law of belief: lex orandi, lex credendi. Belief expressed in our worship has its effect, in turn, on our thoughts and actions beyond the church doors.
Catholics are predictably delighted and feel flattered when the Internet blesses the Church with notoriety through reaction on social networks and YouTube. A recent Internet sensation from Ireland was no exception. A priest “took the stage” at an Irish wedding by singing a popular tune from the altar to serenade the bride and groom. The congregation and the public at large responded with applause and accolades as recorded by YouTube replays and Facebook postings. Every action has a reaction, however, and not all reactions are as easily controlled or manipulated as their causes are.
What do the singing wedding priest and the Irish vote “yes” to bless sodomy with the name of marriage have in common? Much more than the fact that they both happened on the Emerald Isle. I agree with Fr. Ray Blake who, in a recent blog post titled “I Blame the Bolognese,” says that we, in effect, have replaced God with ourselves (http://marymagdalen.blogspot.it/). An idol has been enshrined in place of the true God in His Church.
Many of you may be familiar already with this Internet singing sensation Irish priest who warbled a restyled version of Hallelujah, a non-sacred pop song, from the altar during the Irish wedding. He certainly sang well and got a standing ovation for it.
But what of the reason why the wedding was held in a church in the first place? If the event was largely unhinged from the sacred, as codified in the Roman liturgy, why hold it in a church at all? If the liturgy of Holy Mass, which comes from God and gives God, morphs increasingly into a self-generated emotional manipulation more akin to a pop concert, then why not just go to a pop concert where it’s all done better, anyway?
Why, indeed, many others are also asking. And as a result of this, more and more weddings are not held in a church at all. More and more marriages are starting out with no reference at all to the sacred with predictably devastating consequences for souls and for the Church.
Sentimentalism, emotions, vacuous self-promotion, all these and more have been enshrined in our churches in the wake of a revolution in the understanding of the Roman liturgy born of the confusion surrounding Vatican II. An amorphous liturgy took on a life of its own in a new obsession with the expression of self. Now it is the individual who insists on following the rules and offering the liturgy as the Church directs in her rubrics who has the problem. Everybody else is just trying to have a good time. What problem could God have with that?
The Irish voted “no” to God by voting “yes” to blessing sodomy with the name of marriage. This cultural rejection of God has its roots in the decades-old denial that began by being disguised as Vatican II. People everywhere were told to deny their tradition, by which faith is handed down, because Vatican II said to do so. They were humble, good people who believed what priests and other leaders in the Church told them, to their ruin.
Throughout Catholic history the Popes and doctors of the Church always dedicated their efforts, especially in times of crisis, to spreading and deepening the cult of the Eucharist. Why this focus? Everything that we do and believe as Christians hangs on the Presence of the God in the Holy Eucharist. If our people come back to faith in the Real Presence of Christ everything else will fall back into place.
If Christ our Eucharist becomes present through His Church, for example, then it is indeed the true Church, endowed with the gift of the Holy Spirit by the will and plan of God. Also, if the sacred liturgy is the privileged context in which God becomes present, then it is truly a sacred gift that cannot be changed or manipulated according to mood, whim, or fashion like a children’s Christmas play.
Promotion of the Eucharistic procession as mandated by the Church for the annual Solemnity of Corpus Christi, again this year on June 7, is a key to popular growth and deepening of faith in the Real Presence. Putting God back in His place in our hearts by faith is the first step to bringing the many back to Sunday worship in our churches where He is enshrined in pride of place in our tabernacles. The public witness of faithful and priests walking in procession with our Lord in the monstrance can help to physically reach those who do not come into our churches to meet Him.
Our humble walk together with the Lord in a simple procession in the streets of our local neighborhoods enshrines Him in our lives and hearts more effectively than a popular tune, no matter how well-meaning or poetic, crooned from our altars to the accolades of an adoring public.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.
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(Follow me on Facebook at Reverendo Padre-Kevin Michael Cusick and on Twitter @MCITLFrAphorism. I blog occasionally at APriestLife.blogspot.com and mcitl.blogspot.com. You can email me at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com.)
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