I Don't Clap in Church

 I love my new parish in Bradley Beach, NJ, but they clap too much: for a good sermon, for the music, once (if I didn't dream it) we clapped for ourselves for being at Church!

Mass is not an Affirmation Exercise, not the Academy Awards, not a Mutual Admiration Society. I do not go to Church for fellowship and fraternity, for affection and affirmation. In my everyday life I have more community than I need! When there is clapping in Church I am defiant: I fold my arms rigidly and grimace my face disapprovingly and groan just loud enough for my wife at my side to hear.

Mass is where Jesus Christ, Incarnate-Crucified-Risen-Exalted, draws us to himself in adoration. Adoration is not easy. It is not natural. It is not possible. Except for the grace of God. Except for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But "grace builds on nature" and we have to do our best to provide commonsense supports for worship: an ambience of deep silence, beautiful surroundings of icons and sacramentals, habitual deportment of reverence. Liturgically, I am a no-frills, somewhat low-Church Irish Catholic. I don't need incense, chant, and impressive vestments. I appreciate the Vatican II intention to strip down the liturgy and expose the simple core: reception of the Word and communion in the Sacrifice. I prefer the 25-minute daily mass to Sunday's more elaborate 60 minutes. But when I do get to a Latin Mass I see what they get right: the REVERENCE! And yes, the chant and Latin and incense and elaborate performance all do help move me into prayer.

What we don't need is silly, superficial distractions. Please!  If any priest is reading this:  Do NOT start mass by saying  "Good Morning." I do not need another good morning! Please! Go right into: "In the name of the Father..." That is what we are there for. When the priest says "good morning" it is like he is hitting me on the head with a hammer. Even worse: "turn to your neighbor and introduce yourself!" And Please!  No holding hands with strangers during the Our Father. Please! No running round the Church to give hugs and kisses in those few moments when Jesus is present physically on the altar!

In practice, the Vatican II mass is too casual, informal, relaxed...lacking in reverence. At the end of mass everyone is chatting in Church! Can't they wait to leave the Church like the sisters taught those of us of a certain age? It is like short pants in Church. Where I go to Sunday mass, all the men wear shorts. It is a uniform. I feel like a weirdo in my long khakis! I am if anything too casual myself but at least I don't wear my dirty-work khakis. (My wife organizes my khakis into three groups: dirty work, normal-everyday, and go-to-Church.)  Who wants to see men's legs in Church?

Our American bishops have us in the early stage of a three-year Eucharistic Revival. I don't know how to engage with this. Of course we all need to grow more in love with our Lord in the Eucharist. But how to do that? Our bishops elicit a minimum of allegiance from me in light of their closing of the Churches during the pandemic and their double sacrilege against the body of Christ and the bodies of the unborn by welcoming the abortion mafia to the communion rail. Our pastor's comments about this campaign this past week were humorous, lighthearted, and casual. No depth or passion of zeal there! I am afraid their campaign, like "synodality," smells like a futile, wasteful exercise in bureaucratic silliness!

I know I would do well to arrive early and stay after mass. I don't. Part of it is that unfailingly my wife or I or both of us need the bathroom just as we are leaving for mass. Is this the work of Satan? Or is it just the weakness of the flesh? After mass I am nervous and jerky and want to move around. Am I suffering a nervous condition?

Currently I am reading Jean-Jacque Antier's inspiring biography of St. Charles De Focauld. Now that was a man enflamed with love for the Eucharist! Charles followed the standard "form" of Catholic sanctity: love for the Eucharist, confession of sin, devotion to Mary, obedience to the Church, and service of the least. That is good enough for me!