Fun, Frolic & Fahrvergnügen

Last updated on: November 9, 2006 at 8:13 am by Fr. Joseph Huneycutt

Fun, Frolic & Fahrvergnügen 2006-11-09T08:13:00-06:00 Fr. Joseph Huneycutt

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About that Halloween “Mass” …

Like Dawn, I only watched the beginning snippet. Couldn’t bear to see it through.

But, I can understand. Really, I can. It is often thought that mocking the devil is a holy endeavor. “Look! We can dress up like devils, serve the Mass, and still … be able to live another day. Ha-ha! God doesn’t care about our fun and frolic!” And, of course, that is true. He, the He, just plain don’t care (for it). Find me a place in Scripture where the Lord longs for our “fun and frolic.” God help us.

Still, I’ve been there. Kinda.

I remember when I was in college and attending a little Episcopal church on campus. We once had a visiting priest, a young man with a beard, to celebrate an evening Mass in a peculiar way. We stood around in a circle, the priest without any vestments — in jeans & a flannel, all of us around the altar and, sans the eucharistic prayers — but with the “Words of Institution,” we passed around a styrofoam cup of wine and a disposable picnic plate with a slice of white bread. Each of us communed the person next to us. At the end we held hands, enjoyed a very pregnant moment of silence, and ended with an extemporaneous group prayer. And that was it.

The message: God doesn’t mind if we just do it this way. Or any ol’ way, for that matter. We don’t need all that pomp and majesty stuff. All we need’s each other.

One of my seminary profs, Dr Peter Toon, was once asked about receiving communion from suspected non-believing clergy — say, heretics. He said, and you have to hear this in a gentle and dramatic English accent: “Sometimes, on your way to receive communion, you have to pray, ‘Dear Lord, of Thy mercy, today please give me just a little piece of bread and a small sip of wine.'”

In other words, God does care. It does matter.

To that end, someone has taken the time to write a letter to Fr Fred, the priest who encouraged the “Devil Mass.” Here’s a quote:

You made the Mass into a joke with your idea of “fun and frolic”. In fact these two words should not even enter into your speech when talking about the Mass. Christ did not institute the Sacrament of His Body and Blood so that we could come together to have fun and frolic together; He gave us the Eucharist so that we could proclaim His Death and Resurrection until He comes again and so that we as His believers could share in His Sacrifice that has been offered once and for all. I ask you for the sake of those who are under your care either treat the Lord present in the Eucharist with the respect and reverence He so rightly deserves or else leave the priesthood.

Go here for the whole letter.

Would that we all, Catholic, Orthodox & Other, took such matters as seriously as we do sports, shopping, surfing, and pleasuring. In other words, would that we Christians took the eucharist more seriously than we do fun and frolic.

After all, when it comes to fun and frolic, someone does care. (And he don’t even mind if you mock him.)

But he can’t save you.

Corrected spelling of the F-word thanks to blog reg, Doug.

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