STOP IT!!!
 

Don’t you not know where you are?

You are at the foot of the Cross — and Jesus Christ is hanging upon it!

That is why it is called The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.!
 

And you clap?!!! Seriously?

Both during Mass — which is blasphemous  — and then, again,  after Mass. Think about it!

This is a certainty: if you applaud during Mass or after Mass, you completely fail to understand where you are and Who is there.

Humor me, and consider this: let us suppose that you are transported 2023 years ago and you are standing at the very foot of the Cross with Mary, Mary Salome, and the Apostle Saint John. They are weeping inconsolably. The Blood of Christ, dripping from every wound and laceration inflicted upon Him, falls onto the hands of His Mother, Mary. They are devastated …

But you are not. You are clapping your hands gleefully, applauding the greatest sacrifice — and the most gruesome crime in all history.

The Roman soldiers tortured Christ, spat upon Him; the High Priests of Jerusalem mocked Him and ridiculed Him — the blasphemy, the taunting, the outrage that they heaped upon Him was cruel beyond measure — but in an unspeakably perverse way, you may have exceeded their cruelty, for what they did in their malice, you have somehow surpassed by making Christ’s crucifixion, His agony and His death  ... trivial — by applauding it;  to say nothing of your spritely singing stale and banal “folk” songs, strumming on guitars, or banging on pianos — as Christ is in agony before you.
 

The One Possibility

There is only one possibility — one only — for this literal disgrace, this unimaginable outrage:

You do not know, understand, or comprehend ... where you are!

We will have the audacity to tell you again: you are at the foot of the Cross — and Jesus Christ is hanging upon it!

The antiseptic and sterile world in which you alone live does not, and cannot, allow the Living God to dwell in your presence. His Blood is a contagion to you, a harbinger of suffering and death that you have banished from your presence; His lacerated Body is a scourge to your conscience, an unwelcome reminder of the price paid for the sins you no longer confess because the only real sins in your world are “social sins”, “collective sins” (in which there is no personal responsibility), “sins against the environment”,  “sins against mother earth”, and sins against “the Amazon basin” as our criminally heretical “pope” incessantly reminds us. There apparently are no sins against God: only against the biosphere and, increasingly, the homosphere. But, to acknowledge your sins against God is to acknowledge your own complicity in His suffering and death, and you will not tolerate that, let alone acknowledge it — after all, ♫ “We are the Light of the World”♫. Yes?
 

A “Jolting” Example

Let us look at this more closely. Most people would agree that applauding during (or after) the execution of a criminal would not be — let us say, in good taste and terribly inappropriate, no matter what his crime. Nevertheless, you will not only witness his execution; you will find yourself capable of sprightly playing your guitar or your piano, and singing utterly banal folk songs as he is being lethally injected or electrocuted. But you recognize that even in secular society to do so would be unacceptable — even condemned as outrageous! You would be vilified and ostracized — as well you should be.

If it is inappropriate to do these things during (or after) the execution — of even the vilest criminal — why is it appropriate with Jesus Christ during (or after) Mass. He is the Innocens Patri: The Innocent of the Father. Sinless. Blameless. The Sacrificial Lamb.

How can we possibly clap our hands — applauding His crucifixion?

Are you really capable of doing this the very Presence of Christ crucified on the Cross?

“Absolutely not. It’s most inappropriate and it’s the responsibility of the pastor to make sure that the congregation understands this. The choir is not singing as a matter of entertaining anybody. They’re singing to worship God. We don’t clap for prayer. We pray”, says Father Vincent Serpa O.P. at Catholic Answers. ²

Pope Benedict XVI was absolutely and unequivocally clear about this:

“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.” 2

 

Entertainment: isn’t it what the Novus Ordo Mass became after Vatican II? Say it is not so!

At my own parish I have too often witnessed the applause ... solicited by the priest himself! — who actually encourages this blasphemous behavior for:

• The choir and the (always miserable) music it produces

• A soloist within the choir.

• The “cantor-ess” (is there such a thing?)

• The lectors

• The now female Altar “Servers” (boys are now largely prohibited in yet another token of the Church’s submission to radical Feminism)

• The ushers

• The “greeters”

The basket collectors


Where is Christ in the mix?

It is such a tiresome, banal, and profane conclusion to something unutterably sacred. The gesture of clapping or applauding is totally secular, mundane, and unrelated to worship. It is, however, completely proper to entertainment …

Why this final focus on man, instead of God? All those listed above — wittingly or not — call our attention away from Christ … to themselves. It is noteworthy that in response to the applause heaped upon them, each properly bow in turn … as befits entertainers and their audience — not God and His worshippers.

Lately, I have even begun hearing hoots and whistles from the congregation … and how few remain to give prayerful thanks to God for His sacrifice on Calvary which we have witnessed this day!

How much more can we secularize the Mass? With the whimsical Francis micromanaging the Church, I’m afraid much more …
______________________

¹ The Canon of the Mass is the most sacred part of the Mass, and it begins with the “Epiclesis” — or the calling down upon the Holy Ghost to transform the bread and wine into the actual Body and Blood of Christ: “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down Your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”, and ends with the final Doxology: “through Him, with Him, and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor be Yours almighty Father forever and ever. Amen.”
² https://www.catholic.com/ & https://www.apostoliviae.org/resources/9654/is-it-okay-to-applaud-at-mass-heres-what-popes-have-said-about-it 
³ Joseph Ratzinger Collected Works: Theology of the Liturgy



Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal

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