(6:30 PM) | Adam Kotsko:

A Lackluster Lent

I went to church tonight. I have so much reading to do that I know that I wouldn't go if I put it off until tomorrow, and I already skipped last week. On top of that, I didn't give up anything for Lent and ate meat last Friday. All in all, I'm sure God is weeping over my lack of piety, assuming he exists.

We had the singular privilege of having the bishop of Joliet to celebrate the Blessed Sacrament with us today. I remembered him as being much more personable and funny at the rite of election when I was going through RCIA, but he did make a cute little joke: "If someone gives you a free ticket to Liberia, don't go." He visited that impoverished, war-torn nation while on the committee that runs Catholic Relief Services, and after several days of being forced to take cold showers, he wondered, "What am I doing here?" The gospel for today was the Prodigal Son. Reading that Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, I wondered who would fill those roles today: phone solicitors? The meditation on the Prodigal Son, a story so utterly familiar that it begs for fresh, creative treatment, was lackluster at best. The father is really God. We should be more forgiving, because God forgives us so much. The basic theme of the homily is so frequently repeated that I'm starting to suspect that it's part of the Cliff's Notes to the lectionary.

As Professor Marion tells us, the bishop is the only true theologian. All of them are automatically granted a doctorate in theology if they don't already have one, whether they're qualified or not. May God have mercy on us.

I have been longing, however, for a high Latin mass with fourteen priests and twelve deacons lately, and tonight was as close as I'm going to get out here in the boondocks: a bishop, two priests, and a deacon. The priests actually concelebrated, rather than being part of the "God squad" to distribute communion or just sit decoratively in the sanctuary. The Kyrie and Agnus Dei were in Greek and Latin, respectively. Hearing the three of them try to sing together during the "Through him, with him, in him..." was mildly amusing -- three old men who can't really sing, singing together.

My only complaint about the liturgy as such is that in our parish, the closing hymn every Sunday in Lent for the last few years has been a song that says, "Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray...." It would be wonderful for communion, but it seems obviously inappropriate as a closing song. The first time they used it, I remember people being very hesitant to leave the church. My parish has also adopted the rather tacky practice of greeting one another before mass, in addition to during the sign of peace -- but during Lent, we "forego" that, "in order to enter more fully into this season of Lent." I have no idea what they could possibly mean by that. I am probably just too postmodern to have any concept of relative "depth" for anything other than holes.

I figured that since Adam Robinson has a post of capsule reviews, I might as well review the last public event I went to. He also mentioned in the comments to my last post that he didn't approve of the number of parentheticals therein. He's right: I should have done footnotes instead. They have technology to insert footnotes in Movable Type blogs, of course, but I don't especially want to see if they have an automated footnote generator for Blogger.

The post is ended; go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

[Heather, I answered your question in the comments to the post "See Kotsko Live."]

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