Last Sunday was the celebration of Christ the King. The Gospel reading was about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked.... and about how when we do those things we are doing them to Christ. It is a beautiful feastday, and that Gospel is a wonderful one for that day - no miracles, not even the Ascension, nor the Transfiguration - but a call to respond in love to needs we perceive and in so doing to meet Christ....
So that came to mind when I was having discussions about world hunger, about the challenges to be faced in providing food and water as the population grows, and as cities expand, and as the climate changes.
The discussions straight after Mass had been about anger and frustration at the exercise of power in imposing this Mass text which seems so inadequate to so many.
The discussions about feeding the hungry were among climate scientists, during the week.
It is odd that the work I do during the week among these good people seems no longer resonant with the Mass, for me. The Mass text now accentuates remoteness of God, not God's presence in the daily struggles and suffering of so many, nor our efforts to make a difference. In so detaching from the world it diminishes sacramentality, ignores Jesus teaching, and alienates those who should be at home within it. The Mass is now experienced as a symbol of power over the English speaking Catholic world. So many changes are small, and disrupt the flow enough to say "aha, its our Mass you are saying" Even the doxology has relocated thereference to the Father - I now think this is a reminder to God that we have been praying to God, in case attention had lapsed in the onslaught of the many graciouslys and kindly's.
To attend Mass is indeed now a sacrifice of praise for me, in the wrong way. I've only walked out during it once; I just go much less often.
