Mass musings
So, I had occasion to attend a Roman Mass this past weekend, having traveled to a downriver Detroit suburb for a wedding on my wife’s side of the family. I took it as a chance to engage in a little theological anthropology, if you will. Fortunately, my wonderful wife is nicely reformed (pun partially intended) from her lapsed Roman upbringing, and is solidly in line with my misgivings about taking our kids to such a Mass, and supported me fully in my attempts to educated our kids on the fact that we were attending a service that was not to be equated with attending a service at our home church — IOW, we were observing not participating. I tried to make the best of it by making it a “teachable moment”…
Interestingly, the Priest was really pretty good. He actually takes being a Roman Catholic seriously. And while I undoubtedly have some severe disagreements with him in terms of Justification, Christology, Sacramentology, & Mariology, I’ve got to give him his props for hewing to the Papal party line. He clearly stated that Communion was not open to non-Roman Catholics or Roman Catholics who were “not in a state of grace”. (Closed Communion — what a concept!), and very clearly called for a return to chastity and an end to abortion. So I’ve got to give him props for that, too!
Oh yeah, and he wasn’t American (at least by birth). He’s only been a priest for 6 years, and he has only been here in the States for part of that time. If I had to guess, I’d say that he was of either Caribbean or African birth. It’s too bad for Rome that they aren’t producing more solid American priests like Fr. Aloysious. Why, I bet he’d make a heck of a Lutheran! 
The usual, obvious, stuff that Rome has wrong showed itself during the Mass, e.g., marriage as a sacrament & making offerings of intercession & whatnot to Mary. The pernicious head of Vatican II also reared its ugly head, with laywomen reading the first two lessons, and (way odd to me) the mother of the groom assisting in the distribution of Communion. He took the sacrament seriously enough to close it, but not so seriously that he didn’t willingly let his priestly office be usurped. Odd…
The worst, though, came during the homily. It started strongly enough, likening the love in marriage to that of Christ. “Sacrificial” was ok, because husband & wife should lovingly sacrifice for each other, as Christ did for His bride. I’m now blanking on the second example (didn’t have my HipsterPDA with me!), but it was ok as well. The third example/analogy, however, was where the good father lost me — “Salvific”. The husband & wife were now responsible for ensuring the salvation of the other, as Christ did with the Church. Yikes! If’n I had known that I’d be on the hook for that, I might not have taken those vows 17.5 years ago! 
Seriously, though, that really showed to me in pretty clear relief the flawed theology that Rome has wrt Justification, Grace, & (to a lesser extent) the Sacraments.
At least it was a Christian service. There were some significant errors in theology, doctrine, & practice, to be sure, but at least it was still observably Christian.
But I’m glad that I’m Lutheran!
-ghp
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