"Getting In Touch With My Sinfulness"
At Mass today (First Sunday of Lent), the priest repeatedly (four times) told the congregation to "get in touch with their sinfulness." That was after using the same phrase six times during his homily on Ash Wednesday.
Of course, he didn't do anything really drastic and increase the confession times to more than fifteen minutes before Mass and an hour on Saturdays. Silly me, I thought that was a rather important step in "getting in touch with one's sinfulness." Nor did he suggest fasting or penances for Lent. He spoke extensively last Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) on how nice we ought to be to people.
Well, being nice to people is important. Charity is the greatest virtue, and we should see Christ in everyone. And goodness knows that I would rather be told to be nice to people than that the Apostle's Creed was created by the Mayans and Aztecs or that the Incas were the founders of the idea that we as Catholics should pay respect to Mary (yes, I did hear those things recently during a homily; different priest, though).
However, I tend to wish for something a bit more substantial for a sermon to begin Lent with, so I looked forward to Sunday when I thought perhaps we would have a different priest.
Well, we did. The priest we got for the sermon (not the one saying the Mass, who was the priest who said Mass on Ash Wednesday) told us all about how much we needed to up our donations to the church in question so that it could do more and better social work.
Yet again, he missed the point by a mile. Social work is important, but the church doesn't exist as a social agency. It exists as a SPIRITUAL agency. Soup kitchens and homeless shelters are needed, and those who staff them do great work. However, the priests need to be in the confessional to help us spiritually as well as socially.
The best way to "get in touch with one's sinfulness" is through prayer, meditation, confession, penance, and acts of charity. It isn't just a matter of "being nice to people."
Of course, he didn't do anything really drastic and increase the confession times to more than fifteen minutes before Mass and an hour on Saturdays. Silly me, I thought that was a rather important step in "getting in touch with one's sinfulness." Nor did he suggest fasting or penances for Lent. He spoke extensively last Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) on how nice we ought to be to people.
Well, being nice to people is important. Charity is the greatest virtue, and we should see Christ in everyone. And goodness knows that I would rather be told to be nice to people than that the Apostle's Creed was created by the Mayans and Aztecs or that the Incas were the founders of the idea that we as Catholics should pay respect to Mary (yes, I did hear those things recently during a homily; different priest, though).
However, I tend to wish for something a bit more substantial for a sermon to begin Lent with, so I looked forward to Sunday when I thought perhaps we would have a different priest.
Well, we did. The priest we got for the sermon (not the one saying the Mass, who was the priest who said Mass on Ash Wednesday) told us all about how much we needed to up our donations to the church in question so that it could do more and better social work.
Yet again, he missed the point by a mile. Social work is important, but the church doesn't exist as a social agency. It exists as a SPIRITUAL agency. Soup kitchens and homeless shelters are needed, and those who staff them do great work. However, the priests need to be in the confessional to help us spiritually as well as socially.
The best way to "get in touch with one's sinfulness" is through prayer, meditation, confession, penance, and acts of charity. It isn't just a matter of "being nice to people."
posted by UbiCaritas at
2:08 PM
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