A Sunday Thought About the Assumption to Start the Week Off Right
Yesterday was the glorious feast of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but I hope you got the memo. You know, the one about how this year The Assumption is NOT a holy day of obligation. Really. It's NOT. Of course, if you were as fortunate as I was, this very clear and adamant announcement was made during the Mass the preceding Sunday, as well as being published in the parish bulletin and the Diocesan publication. Thank goodness, since I wouldn't want to have gone to Mass to celebrate Mary's special feast day only to find out then that it was NOT (as our priest reminded us) a holy day of obligation. Whew! Imagine how disappointed, if not bitter, I might have felt had I attended Mass on this glorious feast of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary when, in fact, it was NOT a holy day of obligation.
Yes I'm being sarcastic here. Also, in fairness to our priest, his declaration that it was NOT a holy day was intended to acknowledge those of us in the pews who had come to honor Our Lady despite that fact. In addition we were blessed with his marvelous sermon which addressed why we celebrate Our Lady being assumed into heaven, body and soul, at the end of her life here on earth.
OK, so maybe I'm being a bit "negative" in focusing on the "NOT." But the point I'm trying to make here is that the only thing many of us Catholic faithful (at least in our Diocese) read and heard was the "NOT," with little if anything about the feast day itself. You would think, given the special devotion we Catholics have to Our Lady, that an effort would be made to 1) explain the reason the day was not a holy day of obligation and, 2) encourage the faithful to attend Mass anyway. (Not only that, but maybe throwing in that this year The Assumption falls on a Saturday, which is of course, Our Lady's Day - or maybe they don't teach that anymore?)
Now, for those of you who've been subject to the "NOT" over the past week or so, in case you're not familiar with the reasoning behind it, our dear Bishops, in their wisdom and pastoral sensitivity, at some point decided that it was far too much to oblige us little people in the pews to attend Mass on erstwhile holy days that fell on either Saturday or Monday. After all, that would mean we'd have to attend Mass two days in a row! Heck, what might it do to us to be put under such a strain?
So what about the lack of effort to encourage us to attend Mass anyway? Don't our dear Bishops think that us little people in the pews would respond favorably to such encouragement? Sadly, friends, we can only suspect that they know all too well that the vast majority of Catholics, benighted as we are due to the lack of proper Catechesis by said dear Bishops, would likely do just what the vast majority of Catholics just did: stay home. Frankly, it's a pickle that's likely not going to be put back in its jar any time soon. It would take a firm resolution by our Bishops to teach our Holy Catholic Faith in its fullness, something that hasn't been forthcoming in over a generation.
But let's not let the NOT and those who purvey it dismay us as we start this new week. Catholicism has survived the NOTs so far and is destined to do so until the Lord comes again. Let's rather turn to Our Blessed Mother, whose feast at least some of us just celebrated. She knows, better than any of us, what man hath wrought when it comes to her Son and His Holy Church. Being at His side throughout His 33 years on this earth, she knew the best and the worst of us. And from her throne in Heaven, she will continue to watch and guide those of us who call upon her in our dismay. Let's call on our Queen of Heaven now with love and gratitude for her solicitous intercession on our behalf.
Yes I'm being sarcastic here. Also, in fairness to our priest, his declaration that it was NOT a holy day was intended to acknowledge those of us in the pews who had come to honor Our Lady despite that fact. In addition we were blessed with his marvelous sermon which addressed why we celebrate Our Lady being assumed into heaven, body and soul, at the end of her life here on earth.
OK, so maybe I'm being a bit "negative" in focusing on the "NOT." But the point I'm trying to make here is that the only thing many of us Catholic faithful (at least in our Diocese) read and heard was the "NOT," with little if anything about the feast day itself. You would think, given the special devotion we Catholics have to Our Lady, that an effort would be made to 1) explain the reason the day was not a holy day of obligation and, 2) encourage the faithful to attend Mass anyway. (Not only that, but maybe throwing in that this year The Assumption falls on a Saturday, which is of course, Our Lady's Day - or maybe they don't teach that anymore?)
Now, for those of you who've been subject to the "NOT" over the past week or so, in case you're not familiar with the reasoning behind it, our dear Bishops, in their wisdom and pastoral sensitivity, at some point decided that it was far too much to oblige us little people in the pews to attend Mass on erstwhile holy days that fell on either Saturday or Monday. After all, that would mean we'd have to attend Mass two days in a row! Heck, what might it do to us to be put under such a strain?
So what about the lack of effort to encourage us to attend Mass anyway? Don't our dear Bishops think that us little people in the pews would respond favorably to such encouragement? Sadly, friends, we can only suspect that they know all too well that the vast majority of Catholics, benighted as we are due to the lack of proper Catechesis by said dear Bishops, would likely do just what the vast majority of Catholics just did: stay home. Frankly, it's a pickle that's likely not going to be put back in its jar any time soon. It would take a firm resolution by our Bishops to teach our Holy Catholic Faith in its fullness, something that hasn't been forthcoming in over a generation.
But let's not let the NOT and those who purvey it dismay us as we start this new week. Catholicism has survived the NOTs so far and is destined to do so until the Lord comes again. Let's rather turn to Our Blessed Mother, whose feast at least some of us just celebrated. She knows, better than any of us, what man hath wrought when it comes to her Son and His Holy Church. Being at His side throughout His 33 years on this earth, she knew the best and the worst of us. And from her throne in Heaven, she will continue to watch and guide those of us who call upon her in our dismay. Let's call on our Queen of Heaven now with love and gratitude for her solicitous intercession on our behalf.
Comments