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 Once, when I was preparing to concelebrate Mass at a
conference, an interesting thing happened. Due to a misunderstanding, the
assembled faithful were informed shortly before Mass was to begin that they
would not be able to use musical instruments to accompany the choir because
of a hitherto unknown "noise clause" in the hotel contract. While an
understandable disappointment settled in, I was quite intrigued, if not
saddened by what immediately followed.
The initial disappointment gave way in many of the
believers to anger. Cries like "How dare these people try to stop us from
praising our God!" were raised. A certain resentment against the decision
makers and others deemed responsible for the "outrage" was detectable among
the gathered faithful. Laments and complaints about this dastardly attempt
to keep folk from getting their praise on--if I remember the phrase
correctly--rumbled on for some time. Sadly this attitude spilled over into
the Mass itself as was evidenced by ongoing "protests" during a dialogue
portion of the homily, sprinkled heavily with amen's and alleluias!
 The reaction to what happened at that conference
reminded me of another phenomenon I increasingly witness among Catholics in
reference to the Mass. How many times have I heard Catholics (or former
Catholics) state that they were unsatisfied with (or have left) the Catholic
Church because they weren't "being fed?" Many of these folks turn to one of
hundreds, if not thousands of "Bible-based" fellowships-all with myriad and
mostly conflicting interpretations of the Bible-and believe, in their
estimation, that all or most of their spiritual needs are now being met.
Some go to these services in addition to going to Mass, some stop going to
Mass altogether.
In truth a partial source of this dissatisfaction is a
particularly and notoriously bad quality of preaching offered by many
Catholic priests. This legitimate complaint is so frequently voiced by the
faithful that all involved with the formation of seminarians should make
every effort to teach them how to effectively preach the Catholic faith in
complete fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church and in such wise as to
reach the people in the very midst of their daily journey of faith. The
prophetic duty of the priesthood demands informed, faith-filled preaching
from deacons, priests and bishops. The faithful need and deserve nothing
less.
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