Sunday, December 04, 2005
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT HOMILY
Today we heard--sung to the usual tune,
You'd better watch out.
You'd better not cry.
You'd better not pout.
I'm telling you why.
Jesus Christ is coming to town.
He's making a wish,
And checking it twice,
Gonna find out,
Who's naughty and nice.
Jesus Christ is coming to town.
He knows when you're a-sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake.
It's true, of course. It produced a chuckle and even got the kids attention.
Still...
It was sung as part of last Sunday's homily too.
Sometimes I think I've just been around too long, seen too many changes, and outlived my usefulness. It seems like the world belongs to a different generation with different ideals, different purposes, different intentions, and different standards. Sometimes I just feel like an alien in my own spiritual home.
When I got home from Mass my husband started telling me, before I had even gotten my coat off, that he had watched two Masses on TV this morning from two different dioceses, our own and another one. He said I would have found lots to dislike about the one from a different diocese. The priest didn't wash his hands for one thing, there was no tabernacle in sight, and there were other differences, plus the homily was a social gospel claim that we must love everyone which to him sounded like an apologetic for homosexuality coupled with humanitarianism. I suggested that maybe it really hadn't been a Catholic Mass, but he said the credits included the name of the diocese.
The one from my own diocese looked and sounded normal to him. In fact when he watched it last Sunday he had liked it and spoken favorably to me about it.
He watches Mass on TV but doesn't want to attend Mass. He still believes. He just doesn't practice. I think he has separated his faith from his religion and Mass no longer has meaning. Yet he watches two Masses on TV on Sunday morning. Which I guess means that he still wants to practice. Maybe he's just searching for something he can relate to the God he believes in, which Mass no longer does for him.
I really don't know...
