Keep Holy Days Holy
So, this all started with making a quick meme about something I felt passionate about and then quickly realized I could not summarize what I meant by it in a sentence or two.
There is a trickle down effect here. In an August 2023 interview with EWTN, Bishop Barron stated, “My generation got a dumbed-down Catholicism and it’s been a pastoral disaster.” It’s true, once you start eroding any element of faith and/or Church teaching, the rot can set in. Following this interview the National Catholic Reporter (a source I generally stay away from) was critical of the standpoint taken by Bp. Barron, starting with their headline, “Bishop Barron's fear of 'dumbed-down' Catholicism isn't very smart.” The article goes as far to criticize the cherished Baltimore Catechism stating it, “…did nothing to prepare Catholics to face the questions posed by modern and postmodern culture.” The author, anecdotally referencing, “My parents' generation…”, that I can only assume grew up in the wake of the reforms of Vatican II, were unfortunately some of the many babies thrown out with the bath water. The Baltimore catechism was chucked out the window for what would intimately become very cheesy, poorly illustrated workbooks, work sheets, videos and “children’s liturgies” that were of far less help. Having grown up with the latter in CCD, I can say, at least in my case, I’m thankful for having spent most of my pre-college years in (mostly) good Catholic schools where I received better faith formation. I was actually excused from CCD between receiving my First Holy Communion until Confirmation prep began. By the time I rejoined my cohort, I found their grasp of the faith to be quite infantile and itself “dumbed down.” The author asks, “When, then, did this dumbing down occur?” A not so specific answer would be over time, from the close of the Council in 1965 through the present.
Let me affirm, I am not an anti-Council trash talker. I think there is great beauty in the documents promulgated by the council and some great good was done. But I also believe that in the modern age, the growth of rot that had already set in was given a fertile bed to rapidly expand. Even if it wasn’t the Council’s fault, directly or indirectly, something happened around the time of the Council. We cannot refute the words of St. Paul VI, "from some crack the smoke of Satan has entered into the temple of God." (da qualche fessura sia entrato il fumo di Satana nel tempio di Dio).
A tiny look into this erosion is the decision by the USCCB and I’m sure other episcopal conferences to remove the “obligation” from Holy Days when they fall on a Monday, so the faithful don’t have to go two days in a row. If the Eucharist is, as the Catechism states, “…the source and summit of the Christian life,” (CCC 1324) should we not then desire to go to Holy Mass and participate in that Eucharistic sacrifice as much as possible? The CCC is paraphrasing in that paragraph, the Vatican 2 document “Lumen Gentium” (11) which states, “Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It…Strengthened in Holy Communion by the Body of Christ, they then manifest in a concrete way that unity of the people of God which is suitably signified and wondrously brought about by this most august sacrament.”
The USCCB in a general decree made in December 1991 ruled that, “…the precept to attend Mass is abrogated,” whenever the Solemnities of Mary the Mother of God (January 1st), Assumption (August 15th), or All Saints (November 1st) falls on a Saturday *OR* Monday. So note, it’s not just a Monday thing. By removing what has been made to seem insignificant and inconvenient, it makes the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the worship of God insignificant and inconvenient. Many wayward or self proclaimed “ex-Catholics” will cite their being too many or so many rules that they couldn’t follow or they found repugnant which led to their departure from active participation in the Mystical Body of Christ.
Religion is not easy, it is not meant to be. Religion, in this case our Catholic faith calls us to to live a certain way, it places demands on our whole being and existence. What originally set Christians apart was that we were different. We acted, talked, worked and lived differently. Christian’s were easy to spot because they actively lived out the Gospel with every fiber of their being. Proverbs 14:23 states, “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to want.” Therefore, Christians, we are called to do not that which is easy, but that which is hard. We must live out our Christianity beyond mere outward appearance.
“What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? …So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith… Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, " Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God… You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone… For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.” -James 2:14, 17-18, 20-24, 26
Using Bishop Barron’s point, the “dumbing down” of Catholicism has become two fold, it is dumbed down by the removal of solemn obligations but more importantly the lack of any explanation as to why these days are holy and solemn in the first place. The obligations are of course not lifted when a Solemnity like Christmas falls on a Monday, like this year (which could generate endless discussion alone). Either Holy Days are Holy and worth maintaining or they aren’t.
References:
- NCR Article: www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-voices/bishop-barrons-fear-dumbed-down-catholicism-isnt-very-smart
- Catechism on the Sacrament of the Eucharist: www.
scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c1a3. htm - Lumen Gentium: www.vatican.
va/archive/hist_councils/ii_ vatican_council/documents/vat- ii_const_19641121_lumen- gentium_en.html - USCCB Decree: www.usccb.org/
beliefs-and-teachings/what-we- believe/canon-law/ complementary-norms/canon-1246 - June 29, 1972 Sermon: hwww.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/homilies/1972/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19720629.html
- "Smoke of Satan" Commentary: aleteia.org/2018/07/06/what-did-paul-vi-mean-by-saying-the-smoke-of-satan-has-entered-the-church/
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