Not Ascension Sunday or Tuesday or Wednesday. Ascension THURSDAY! Always was and always will be: Ascension Thursday! I don't care what the bishops say: I have not, do not and will not celebrate Ascension Sunday! My solemn vow: I will, for the remainder of my life, boycott the Novus Ordo in my Archdiocese of Newark or any where the feast is transferred to Sunday. I will travel to another diocese, or attend Latin Mass or Eastern Rite...as long as it is Thursday.
It is not just the Thursday thing. It is the structure of the liturgical year. Easter Season is the pinnacle of the year and it is itself formed by two periods: the 40 (that's 40, not 39 or 41 or "about 40) days of Jesus' Resurrection appearances and than the 9 (not "give or take 9") days of waiting from the Ascension to Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Those numbers, 40 and 9, have a sacrosanct nature to them. They are exact and precise and must be. In this case 40 + 9 does NOT equal 42+7 or, for that matter 35+14 or 49+0! The pinnacle, the summit, the high point of our liturgical year has been broken. Everything...EVERYTHING...builds to Easter and then onto Ascension and Pentecost; and then the ordinary time flows out of that, right into Trinity and Sacred Heart and Corpus Christi and so forth. The beautiful Gestalt that is our liturgical year has been defaced and deformed; as if we allowed a class of 4-year-olds to color, paste and cut a Rembrandt!
Why this destruction of what is so precious, ancient and sacred? Apparently, it is inconvenient for so many to make mass during a work day. Yes we have vigil, early morning, noon and evening masses. But it is still inconvenient. Where I live (Jersey City) there are well over 100 masses available throughout the day within about a 45 minute drive. So, this is another move to dilute, water down our Catholic faith to make it convenient, comfortable and accessible to bourgeois life. Catholic life in this country is becoming like a delicious stew, brimming with beef, vegetables, potatoes and good seasonings, but some people have weak stomachs so we are combining in with twenty portions of water to one of stew: Catholic lite, comfortable, thin, mediocre! Tastes and looks like lukewarm, dirty water. Disgusting! Spit it out of your mouth!
Cardinal Tobin in Newark wrote last week that he was transferring the feast "to ease the pastoral work of livestreaming during this difficult time." This is the most ridiculous, nonsensical thing I have ever read. I have observed my parish priest do the live-stream: he mounts his cell phone, presses a button and celebrates mass. What is there to ease? Our priests have nothing to do: Churches and rectories have been closed, even to quiet adoration; sacraments banned; priests directed to quarantine and isolate. They don't even have weekly envelops to count donations. They must be bored stiff. And our Ordinary speaks of "easing the pastoral burden!" It would be comical if it was not infuriating and nauseating.
I confess: I am entirely drained, depleted of any residuals of filial gratitude, affection or trust in our hierarchy (with exceptions). My act of loyalty and prayer for my pope and bishop are bare, raw acts of volition, acts of the will in resistance to my passions and emotions. It is an unhappy dissonance for so many of us Catholics.
What am I to do? Well, first serenely accept that we are in a time of exile, of crisis, of dessert dehydration and starvation in regard to our bishops and popes. Not the first, not the last time. Secondly, follow alternate leadership: the exceptions and especially emergent lay leadership; and of course, bring it to our Lord Himself. He alone is our true and only and enduring Shepherd!
(BTW: Three cheers for Archbishop Hebna who is leading the Minnesota bishops in defiance of their authoritarian governor!
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