Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Liturgies: who and what?
You can check the original story on San Diego's Bishop Brom denying a funeral to a man who ran a gay nightclub. The family has released an apology from Brom, who now apparently regrets his decision and will permit a memorial Mass.
I'm sidestepping the issue of public scandal for the moment. First, let's state for the record that church liturgies are not "for" any earthly person or persons. Consider it: weddings are not for the bride (or her mother, groom, etc.), baptisms are not for the infant (or the doting parents or grandparents), and funerals are not for the dead. These people are the reason the Church gathers and celebrates sacraments. But liturgy, by definition, is for the worship of God and the sanctification of the faithful. We use that as a baseline and move from there.
People are asking the wrong questions about Mr McCusker's funeral Mass (or lack thereof). One need ask two basic questions here (as Bishop Brom apparently/hopefully did):
1. Will a funeral or memorial Mass be about the worship of God?
2. Will it be directed toward the sanctification of the faithful?
These factors are largely the responsibility of the priest-presider and the liturgical ministers. While there may be people pew-warming or even protesting at such a liturgy without the motives of worship or holiness, that is beyond the reasonable control of those well-intentioned folks either serving or celebrating. Those who would protest McCusker's funeral are not operating with an informed viewpoint. While I have no doubt that some Catholics would see the funeral of a notorious sinner to be a problem, even to the point of needing to rush to the pharmacist for some Tums or such, they have bought into the mindset (which sure as heck didn't come from Vatican II) that liturgies are "for" persons as individuals or groups. They are not.
My take: If the bishop is serious about sin, a funeral is not the place to make a stand. Celebrate the liturgy and show the Church is healthy enough to walk into the realm of doubt and emerge the better for it. God can still be praised and people can still be urged to holiness: which is where the best effort will be made.
