MUSIC HAS CONSEQUENCES
"For many Catholics, the 45-minute experience of Sunday Mass is the only time during the course of a week that they will give any attention whatsoever to their role in the world as Catholics. For still more Catholics, these encounters with the liturgy--with the Church at worship--are not even weekly; they are limited to attendance at weddings and funerals, or Mass at Christmas and Easter. What information are these people receiving through their participation in the liturgy? How are they being formed by their experience of worship?
Orthodox Catholics might complain, and with ample justification, about the arrogant priests and their talk-show banter. They might cite the homilies that, week after week, provide nothing more substantive the sort of basic precepts that we learn in kindergarten. They might talk about the homilist who bounces around the aisles, or the celebrants who leap down from the altar to shake hands with dozens of people at the Kiss of Peace. They might express outrage when the words of the liturgy are altered or omitted. But are these the things that have the most profound effect--the things that stay in the memory of a lukewarm Catholic long after the Mass is over?
Very few people will leave church on Sunday morning repeating the words of the homily. But many will be humming the tune of the closing hymn. Music can have a profound affect on the experience of the Mass, in a very subtle but lasting way."@
What are you humming?
