Good morning, everyone.
On the drive home last night, I realised that sometimes there is nothing better than having a one-to-one conversation with the sole passenger in your car. Which, naturally, I duly did when I took Ivan home after hanging out, yet again (though less successfully than last week, if you catch my drift!) at Surfside. Now, while generally our conversations border on the utterly ridiculous, mimicking one another over Concrete, Fluid Mechanics, Structures, Commercial Law and Administrative Law, among other crazy topics, this time we actually decided to talk serious. We decided to talk about the Pentecost Vigil that we had both attended at St. Paul's Bay earlier on in the evening.
We both agreed wholeheartedly that it was probably one of the most boring things that we had ever attended, as a community, in our lives. It isn't inaccurate to say that the Vigil was dragging in nature, more dragging than that that we expected, to be quite honest. The nature of the whole ceremony made many a person, ourselves included, incredibly impatient and frustrated. And it was the same kind of frustration that the general public would feel whenever Mourinho would give some sort of a speech, so that definitely wasn't good at all. We also both agreed that maybe we shouldn't have gone to the Vigil because of these reasons.
However, Ivan then brought up a very valid point. He said that at Y4J, we tend to put the fun into worshipping God, and that's a big reason why people continue to come back and worship, and subsequently build a relationship with God. Which is fine, naturally, because it's as if you're "killing two birds with one stone". After doing it for the first time, however, and getting used to it, it practically becomes easy to do this. He continued by saying that this can be fully contrasted to the ceremony that we just attended, which was drab, dragging and boring to say the least. Due to our popular notion of praising God in a 'cool way', we tend to forget that there are other ways of praising God and indeed being in His presence as well, such as this. The reality is that the Church, in Malta at least, isn't like Y4J or Community, with live worship to indeed help people feel God's presence, but is totally different and sticks to more traditional notions; notions which us, as youths and teenagers, seem to commonly forget. As a result, if we don't integrate ourselves into the Church, then we will simply remain a bubble extraneous to it, so maybe in that sense, we do need to change.
Continuing on the notion of the Church, I then commented that the Church in Malta however does not have a mentality worthy of the year 2009, but one that is 30 to 40 years in the past. There is no sense of modernisation or reform happening in the Church in order to keep up with the times, it is essentially just stuck in the times when Vatican II emerged, i.e. the times when John XXIII was Pope. Granted, this is a massive improvement from hearing Mass in Latin (God forbid!) and priests not facing the crowd when saying their homilies, to quote Ivan, but these are reforms that happened donkeys years ago now. Sometimes, I believe that the Mass, albeit extremely significant, is intangible and incommunicable with the current times. And unfortunately, such reform cannot simply start from the priests themselves, or from the people - although they must all play a part - but from the Pope. There seems to be a drastic need for a Vatican III to emerge; something which, however, both Ivan and I were of the belief that it might have happened under John Paul II, God bless his soul, but will definitely not happen under Benedict XVI.
The Church really has to be the ultimate meeting point for a community, in every sense of the word. At the moment, while it is trying to promote this notion, I believe that it is unfortunately failing at this and is actually driving away more people from the Church instead of drawing them towards this.
I hope you understood my points outlined above; I'm sorry if they're slightly incoherent but I needed to get this off my chest and placed in writing before I forget it upon waking up tomorrow morning and not even having time to blog due to studies.
God Bless You all!
Matti
16 comments:
It's true that the church is very... old-fashioned. Understatement, i know. I heard mass last night at Uni chaplaincy and the group animating it were... well... you know. But the fact is, the church is our body, our network. It's the place of our growth and knowledge and guidance. Yes the wrapping isn't exactly pretty, but that's not the point. The point is Jesus, and if it's really Him you're after, you can look through it.
Granted, for evangelisation it isn't exactly the best, but maybe that's where people like us come in. What are we doing to help?
It's understandable that those who are still lost are repelled by the church, but for those of us who know the truth, we need to be able to look past the old men, the old music, the old homilies, and look at God.
:)
I agree wholeheartedly, and at least, in part - I believe - my message was trying to bring out the notion that you explained so clearly. The thing is, while we can see God behind the 'old notion' of the Church, and since I've been going to Y4J I've been able to notice this, quite a few others cannot. This is where the problem lies, and where the Church isn't helping itself. Furthermore, another problem that lies is that Y4J and Community, among other evangelisation groups, are only pockets of society that attract a limited number of people.
So yes, we're meant to evangelise; yes, we're people living for God; but the Church is meant to be the prime 'person' (in a juridical sense, not a physical person - an entity, if you want to call it that) that should be doing it as well. And unfortunately, it just isn't.
When the new Archbishop started his tenure, he expressly stated that he wanted to be the advocator of change in the Church. Three, four years on, and nothing has happened. It's not a problem for me, because as you rightly pointed out, I'm now capable of seeing God behind the moaning and groaning, but is it indeed the right approach?
Oh well.
Borgi +
Diskussjoni fuq kollox.
:P
ma zek why do u write an essay even in your comments.
I disaggree with the thing you said about the boring worship stuff.
I think we have to realise that the church has people of all ages so you can exactly cater for everyone. you cant exactly have some 80 year old listening to christian rock. in that sense i don't agree with you at all.thats why there are youth groups - to cater for the younger generations.
I think there should be a balance if anything.
Also, sometimes the older hyms i think tend to convey the 'otherness' of God better in certain cases. However as I said this stuff works differently for different people!
:)
Ma Zekk u had to include juridical & physical person talk :p i agree with Lanf to a certain extent but what I do believe is that yes, the church does need a bit of shaking up i.e. not a total overhaul but something to appeal to the generations that a falling away from the church and we all know its the younger generation and not the older part of the population.
What I am afraid of is that the way Mass is celebrated in Malta has become too much of a tradition ... I myself find myself wondering off in Mass and make myself stop repeating prayers aimlessly and put meaning into them because sometimes a church service is like a parrot recital. It happens to us let alone to people who have been going to church for a good 80 years!
I dono how to describe how i feel when for example I go to mass early during the week and there's the rosary before and I see people just repeating it, almost aimlessly, doing a 101 things and at the same time see them mouthing it. Its just a feeling I get and it angers me ... it is a pity because were supposed to be an alive body of Christ and what scares me is that Christianity has become a tradition in Malta and that's why it no longer attracts everyone.
"What I am afraid of is that the way Mass is celebrated in Malta has become too much of a tradition ... I myself find myself wondering off in Mass and make myself stop repeating prayers aimlessly and put meaning into them because sometimes a church service is like a parrot recital."
Couldn't be put better. I think people like us see the difference especially between worship sessions and Mass because we are the ones who experience both and the radical difference that there is between them. You don't have to look further than Y4J or Community, or indeed even SS, to notice that...
The effort that I personally have to put into a Mass sometimes, so that I can take something out of it and not make a parrot-like recital of prayers, is incredible. And it's not always the case that I manage to do so either!
Maybe it's fine for the 80 year olds though, they've had worse in their life (as written in the blog)... but for us? Please, it's one of the most frustrating things around. Not only that, but sometimes being faced with an old fashioned priest who believes that a lengthy homily of around 25-30 minutes, in the middle of summer, should be the focal point of the Mass, is simply criminal.
zek excuse my theological ignorance but you are portrayting John Paul II as quite a liberal pope. In my opinion John Paul II was one of the most conservative Popes of this century... pls get your facts right
Zekk i think if u were born in WWII u would have been Hitler's right hand man :P:P haha ... imbaghad u took your last comment a bit too far i think :p
The strongest presence of God is found in Mass theres no 2-ways bout it. Granted the Church is old-fashioned but I still feel that it is during a mass where we should try and get on the deepest level wid God. In fact when i've really tried and looked beyond all the things that bug me it really does feel different.
The Church is human, it has mistakes but besides the fact that were to improve it, we must always remember just how important it is.
At Y4J and Community its easy to get caught up in the Charismatic sphere of the Church. However, we are Roman Catholics and we've been instituted to be an active part in God's church and its in a mass where the greatest and strongest presence of God should be felt. I've just realised that maybe its my fault that i dont feel such power Mass because I block it out with personal feelings and get caught up more in d way other people approach mass.
I just wanted to say that your points are valid, but they need to approach the people of God as equals in designing and reforming the church to meet the future. The voices of those closest to the people’s needs and the issues of the day have to be seen as coequal and co-responsible in shaping the church and its decision-making. That's my view insomma
I'm not saying John Paul II was liberal Al, what I'm however saying is that in my opinion, he was more approachable than Benedict XVI. Hence by that logic, I believe that he would be more of a likely Pope to instigate change in the Church, were he still alive that is.
It's definitely not a case of theological ignorance, it's a case of opinion here I believe... something that is very subjective.
"There seems to be a drastic need for a Vatican III to emerge; something which, however, both Ivan and I were of the belief that it might have happened under John Paul II, God bless his soul, but will definitely not happen under Benedict XVI."
You are blatantly stating that Pope John Paul II was more liberal than Benedict XVI in his approach. How do you want a Pope who was completely conservative on reproduction issues and especially relevant for my point in the ordination of women priesthood could have possibly instilled the change you seem to profess he would have brought about in your blog.
Now I may be wrong but Pope Benedict XVI was former head of the Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before having been elected to papacy. I cannot understand any other person in the world more capable to bring about the needed reform that you profess..
Approachability has absolutely no place in this argument... In other cases such as ecumenism maybe but surely not church reform
Jer: If a reform had to happen, I'm of the opinion that it wouldn't be Pope X (undetermined Pope) who would get up one day and say that this, that and the other is going to be changed with immediate effect. I'm sure there would be a process of consultation, just as there technically is when the various Cardinals vote among themselves for a new Pope.
The people of God however are not just priests, Cardinals etc. The people of God are each and every one of us. In a consultation process, there are certain things which the Church will almost certainly not accept, however, which might be subject to people's demands - such as abortion. Hence while it is our Church and we form part of it, we can't expect some kind of radical change in thought at the top just because the majority want so.
The topic on such reform is so sticky, tricky and controversial beyond belief that there is no definite answer to anything in this regard, unfortunately. Obviously, seeing it from a youth perspective now, I must prefer animated masses that include various worship songs because I feel that I manage to get closer to God in that manner. Whether the Church feels that way or not though is not my call, unfortunately.
FIrst and foremost, thanks for debating this as well, it's healthy to bring up such stuff.
Note the word 'belief' in that statement, however. That's the key term over there, it is both Ivan's and my belief/opinion that that is the case; it isn't a fact that it is, however. As far as I know, the notion of reproductive issues still stands in the same stead as it was in the past... it's always been a kind of 'policy' that has been mentioned. While John Paul didn't, I don't exactly see Benedict speaking in favour of sex before marriage or the use of condoms either. Unfortunately, I can't answer you regarding the ordination of women as I don't know anything pertinent to that.
True that he was the former head of the Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before having been elected to papacy, but do you see any differences whatsoever from when he was elected back in 2005 to now, in 2009? Of course, the onus of 'blame', if you can call it that, doesn't solely rest on him, after all he's only one person, albeit the most supreme, in whom we can say he is God's true representative on Earth.
Perhaps the word 'approachable' in terms of a Pope was the wrong term to use, true; but I couldn't think of any other word. However, if there is to be some form of reform in the Church, then there has to be some kind of "consultation process", as mentioned in a previous post. My opinion here is that church reform, if it were to take place, cannot just take place by itself overnight...
Unfortunately, there is a difference between subjective opinions and objective facts...
and how can you state that there was no change in the way faith is viewed since his election to papacy... I am no theologian but I do take an interest in Papal encyclicals... one of them being FAITH AND REASON in which he dedicated a whole encyclical to secularism which is pertinent in the world and especially in the West.
Yes, honestly I have seen change since his election in 2005.
OWEJJA ZEKK why did u change your background :p ?? Three years of tradition :p black and green :S:S *sob* haha
Three years if this has been around since August last year? Haha
Or you're referring to the other blog as well? Lol... I felt it needed a bit of a freshening up imma
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