John Bugay Goes to Mass

Sees “The Intention of Richard J--”, prayers that we “merit” eternal life, and “the New Evangelization”

“Is the Reformation Over?” I went to Mass last weekend (and took my son John), and I found that the Roman Catholic distinctives that Martin Luther protested: – Purgatory, the notion that we “merit” eternal life [however you define “merit”] and that “indulgences” can be paid for (not directly, but indirectly, through “the saying of Masses”) were all present.

As is the case with many large families (I have six kids), it can be said that we almost have two families. In my case, the older three (all sons) grew up Roman Catholics – we were regular attenders at Mass and we almost always sat up front. When I left the RCC, there was a period of time when we didn’t attend church (we had family devotionals on Sunday, until we were able to find the church we are attending now).

The younger three kids (a son and two daughters) have grown up going to church at our PCA – they are well engaged there, they have many friends, and very much like to go to church on Sundays.

Sadly, the older three boys are going their separate ways, and those ways don’t include church.

But my 4th son, John III, (I’m John Jr), had some curiosity about the Roman Catholic Church, and so when my daughters were staying with my sister for the 4th of July weekend, I took John III, now 17, to a Catholic Mass.

[The illustration nearby is from an 1876 surveyor’s map of the area – our home is the red block, and we are apparently right next to the “Cath. Ch.”, except that short distance is comprised of a very steep hill between us and them.]

John said he had some fear – he really had no idea what to expect, and he was fearful that he would sit or stand at the wrong time (I did not permit him to kneel), fearful that he would make the wrong hand motion.

I personally hadn’t been in a Roman Catholic Church for anything except a relative’s baptism or funeral in a very long time.

But I noticed three things:

First, the “intention” of the Mass was for Richard J-- – someone had paid money to have “a Mass said for him”. This presupposes that he is still in purgatory. Might be in purgatory. No one knows; it’s really just a roll of the dice. I never knew Richard J--, but he was the father of a former neighbor of ours. He died some 30 years ago, and he was not a good man in any sense of the word that I am aware of. I think of the bankruptcy of a system in which (a) the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ must (or may) still be paid for, and (b) the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ is thought of in such a pitiful state (this would not be the first or last “Mass” said for Richard J-- – again, the hope of such an “intention” is that it help to speed his way out of purgatory.)

Second, the “Eucharistic Prayers” had changed, and I understand why Roman Catholics don’t like it. There were four standard “Eucharistic Prayers” when I was still there – when you think “sacrifice of the Mass” and “transubstantiation”, those things happen within the context of the “Eucharistic Prayers”. It appears that the new Rite has revised those four and added some new ones (“for various needs and occasions”). In any event, at the Mass we attended, the priest used “the Second Eucharistic Prayer” (that is, the second of the original four, which was the shortest of them). To recount just one notable instance, the phrase “this is the cup of my blood” was changed to “this is the chalice of my blood”.

That prayer also included the following “intercession”:

Have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with the blessed Apostles, and all the Saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life, and may praise and glorify you through your Son, Jesus Christ.

The concept of “merit” is something that “we” accomplish.

This is the “Liturgical Reform”: “the culmination of which is nothing less than the union of God with man, with all that that implies” that is one of the legacies of “Pope Benedict”.

The third thing I noticed was that the priest was hawking “the New Evangelization” seemingly at every chance he could get.

“The New Evangelization”, is, in the words of Cardinal Wuerl his official explanation of the program, “a new moment in the life of the Church, a new Pentecost. It’s our turn to share the great give we have given, the gift of our Catholic faith, and renew the face of the earth.”

This particular Mass, at 8:00 am on a Sunday, was sparsely attended mostly by old people, “cultural Catholics” – victims of “the Catholic Faith” who rarely if ever in their lives heard the true Gospel – who were “hoping they were good enough” to “merit” some way out of purgatory (should they be fortunate enough to get there), with the “intercessory” “intentions” of future masses to be said on their behalf.

Still, they had the presence of mind to attend the shortest Mass, with the shortest Eucharistic prayer, in an attempt to “get it over with” and spend the rest of their Sunday watching sports.

Given the kind of damage that this “Catholic Faith” has inflicted upon the great mass of human beings for centuries, one can only hope that a “New Evangelization” that spreads this kind of system would be doomed to fail.