Catholic Mass is sometimes a FREE FOR ALL

Have you ever watched a movie which shows a Catholic Church? Usually it is somewhat dark with beautiful architecture all around. You can see a section where there are many candles lit, there are statues and icons of many things all over the place. There are beautiful wooden pews and there are people all around in the pews kneeling down praying silently. Some are probably attending Eucharistic adoration and worshiping Jesus Christ in the holy sacrament. There may even be incense. There is a deep spirituality happening in these scenes. It is a place to go for contemplation, to feel God's presence and to reflect on life.

 Well if you're looking for such a place I suggest that you find them in movies because lately these scenes do not often reproduce themselves and real life very much anymore. Usually when I walk into a Catholic Church people are talking and laughing and shaking hands and patting others on the back and telling jokes and so on. The sad part is that this doesn't just happen before Mass or after Mass this happens during Mass! There is almost no sense of reverence whatsoever. That's why I like to say that Catholic Mass with the vernacular translation and with the catchy homilies by the priest has become basically a free-for-all.

 Today I went to mass and they were having multiple baptisms at the same time. Baptisms are one of the worst times to go if you want to see people acting as they should. During the entire mass in which their child will be baptized into the sacrament of initiation of the Catholic church and become part of the body of Christ, most of the people in attendance again are laughing and joking and telling jokes and playing with the baby and talking very loudly and not paying any attention whatsoever. My question is why are they even there? I think a lot of the time it's because the grandmother or grandfather of the child insists that the child be baptized and that's what happens. But these people have no interest or no information or no knowledge about the church whatsoever and so their presence is just a token appearance. They have no interest or intention of ever continuing to attend mass in any way shape or form. They are simply there to placate the desires of their parents by having the children baptized.

 But I suspect that this may also be the logic behind why so many people act so inappropriately during mass. Even today just before communion actually I saw a woman popping gum or some other form of food into her mouth. It wasn't even as if she had accidentally come into the church with gum in her mouth. She specifically put gum into her mouth right before going up for communion. This is basically a sacrilege and completely unacceptable and wrong.

 I understand that many priests nowadays have this extreme desire to appear hip and trendy and to be seen as a social justice warrior and so on. But these behaviors and activities must end and they must end immediately. People need to be informed on a daily basis that they are attending the holy sacrifice of the mass that was instituted by Jesus Christ and his re presentation of his passion and Death on the cross at Calvary for our salvation. If people actually understood this would they really be telling jokes and laughing out loud in such a context? I really sincerely doubt it. And if they do continue to laugh and joke and carry on even after they understand the meaning of what is happening I think they need to be told by the priests to get out of there. I can already see people's response to what I am saying. They are shocked and aghast that I would ever suggest somebody be told to leave the church. But is this a Catholic Church where we are presenting the body and blood soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ? Or is this some kind of bar downtown where we can go and have a few drinks with buddies and make a few jokes? Well if it's the former then it's really not out of place to tell somebody who has no idea what's going on to leave. There's really no point in even being there if you have no interest in it.

 But as usual I would really like to hear what you have to say on this topic so please add your comments below and we'll continue this whole discussion in the comments section. Have a great day!