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STOP IT!!!
Don’t
you not know where you are?
You are at the foot of the Cross with Jesus Christ hanging upon it!
That is why it is called The Most Holy SACRIFICE of the Mass.
And you clap?!!!
Seriously?
During and especially after Mass ...
If you applaud at Mass or immediately after Mass, you completely
fail to understand where you are and Who is there.
Consider this: somehow you are
transported 2022 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 clap your hands gleefully, applauding
the greatest and most gruesome crime in all history. In fact, you are
sprightly playing your guitar, banging on your piano, and singing stale
and banal songs as Christ is in His agony before you.
This is possible on two accounts, and two accounts only:
-
You do not know, understand,
or comprehend where you are.
-
You are not of a sound
mind (non compos mentis)
Only under one of these two conditions
would you applaud in the face of Christ’s crucifixion.
But the reality is this:
• On the Altar (not a Protestant
“table”, but an Altar of Sacrifice) during the Canon of
the Mass 1 the priest confects and transubstantiates
the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
-
Yes! The bread actually
becomes Christ’s Body hanging upon the Cross! The wine actually
becomes Christ’s Blood, dripping down His Sacred Body from every
wound and laceration.
-
Really and truly! — not
figuratively. Not symbolically. Not in mere remembrance.
-
It is His wounded
flesh and His copious Blood being crucified
before you upon that sacred Altar of Sacrifice.
YOU ARE, IN FACT, AT THE VERY FOOT OF THE
CROSS!
And you applaud??? APPLAUD???!!!
You should be trembling.
Let us look at this more closely. Most people would agree that
applauding during (or after) the execution of a criminal would
be — let us say, not in good taste and terribly inappropriate no
matter what his crime or number of crimes. Nevertheless, you
will witness his execution. In fact, you may be capable of sprightly
play your guitar, and/or bang on your piano, and singing utterly
banal songs as he is being lethally injected or electrocuted. Even
in secular society it 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 Innocens Patri:
The Innocent of the Father. Sinless. Blameless.
HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY CLAP OUR HANDS
IN APPLAUSE FOR HIS CRUCIFIXION? Either during Mass or after Mass.
Should you be clapping your hands? Is this what you are capable
of doing in 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 liturgy has totally disappeared
and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.”
2
At my own parish I have witnessed not just the applause
solicited by the priest himself! — who actually encourages
this blasphemous and certainly profane response from the congregation,
urging them to clap for merely parenthetical figures present
during Mass:
-
The choir and the (often
miserable) music it produces.
-
A Soloist within the choir.
-
The Cantor
-
The Lectors
-
The Altar “Servers” — mostly
girls — the term “Servers” being “correctly” neutral in a nod
to a profane genderless and Feminist agendum now popular (indeed,
de rigueur), at Masses. The ushers
-
The “Greeters”
-
The Basket Collectors
Where is Christ in the mix?
It is such a profane conclusion (the word “profane” understood as “relating
or devoted to that which is not sacred or biblical; secular rather than
religious.”) to something sacred — that is to say, 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
Printable
PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse
3.8)
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