Does the Mass make a difference?

Last updated on: January 2, 2019 at 3:20 pm by Jane the Actuary

Does the Mass make a difference? 2019-01-02T15:20:54-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

from pixabay: https://pixabay.com/en/priest-catholic-mass-host-chalice-1588892/; public domain

Here’s something from twitter:

In first General Audience of the year Pope Francis said "People who go to church every day and then live hating others and talking badly about people are a scandal: better not to go to Church, living as they do as atheists, … rather than giving a counter-witness" pic.twitter.com/aXakM9Yp7V

— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) January 2, 2019

and

https://twitter.com/TommasoNin/status/1080484588584083459

And I don’t want to get into a dispute about the Pope. Running the full link through Google Translate gets me something that’s a bit mangled and confused and I don’t want to try to parse this too much, but you know you’ve read similar things elsewhere, so I don’t think I’m merely railing against a strawman, but here goes:

My issue is this: it is perfectly OK for Catholics to be sinners. It’s part of being human, and no one should expect that being Christian will remove that human tendency to sinfulness. Some Catholics/Christians like to say, in response to being called out as sinful, something along the lines of “oh, honey, you should see how sinful I’d be if I weren’t a Christian.”

But this quote from the Pope really bugs me. Let’s suppose his objective was to criticize hypocrites. Yes, I suppose it is possible that there are hard-hearted people who go to mass daily to be a show-off. It seems hard to imagine a culture where this gains admiration from others in the secular world — are there other parts of the world where daily mass attendance gains one recognition? — and maybe it’s a Vatican-specific thing that he really speaks of people climbing the church hierarchy with pretenses to be holy when they really care about nothing but that next appointment, in which case it’s merely a dumb thing to talk about in a General Audience rather than among Vaticanites. But (and again, maybe it’s cultural) I just can’t see this being about people who are daily church-goers in order to be show-offs, rather than people who go to church thinking they are doing the right thing and yet also being sinful, because I can’t imagine there are more than two or three of the former people in existence in the first place. Maybe I’m wrong and you can correct me in the comments.

But to be a Christian, to be a Catholic, is to believe that attending mass has some meaning other than just keeping a pew warm. We hear scripture. We hear a priest or deacon give a homily. We hear prayers. We receive the Eucharist (presuming that his mass-attending others-hating strawman wouldn’t stay in the pew). We are in the presence of Christ. The plain sense of what the Pope said, when we hear from others as well, is that none of this makes any difference, that we might as well stay home, or maybe, to fulfil our Sunday Obligation, show up, sit in a pew, and bring along a good book.

To assert that attending mass makes no difference seems ultimately to lack faith in the power of God. It suggests that, however much the Pope won early fans by his statement that the Church is no mere NGO, he doesn’t quite believe this.

And the Pope is not alone in these assertions. Cardinal Cupich has said that “Some of the greatest Christians I know are people who don’t actually have a kind of faith system” and that “If we don’t do this [anti-violence and social services] as a church, we might as well pack up,” which, as well as his statement that “the environment and protecting migrants” are the core of the “work of the Church,” suggests that he, too, believes, in the end, that the Catholic Church is an institution in which people of a common heritage (which may indeed include a theological body of work) work together for social justice, rather than one in which people’s lives can be changed for the good by belief in Jesus Christ, and in which prayer, scripture, and, yes, the Eucharist, can make a real difference in those lives.

So, bleh, I guess my first post of the new year should have been more inspirational and warm-and-fuzzy than this. Oh, well. Happy New Year!

Uncategorized

Archbishop Cupich

Pope Francis

Previous Post

December 31, 2018

The church and risks of abuse: follow the Boy Scouts

Next Post

January 3, 2019 Would you invite a neighbor to church?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I climbed a tree to see Jesus passing by because I was short in stature and curious about this teacher. Who perched in the branches?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nicodemus Zacchaeus Bartimaeus Matthew