I like Father’s answer to your question in the Ask The Apologist section of CAF.
My first piece of advice to you is to stop your uncharitable thoughts towards others. This is poisoning your soul. If you keep this up, you will find that it’s harder and harder for you to connect with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and eventually, you may walk away from it all because it no longer holds any joy or edification for you. Bitterness is like a cancer that eats away at your soul and destroys you. Don’t let it get any stronghold in you. Pull it out now, and cultivate good, wholesome, forbearing, loving attitudes towards your fellow Christians.
This doesn’t mean that you are compromising on reverence before the Mass. But choose a different and better way to deal with it rather than stewing over it and using an earbud device to try to block it out (it won’t work–you’ll still be able to hear people).
First, it isn’t really your issue to deal with–it’s up to Father to correct his congregation. You could take your problems to him and ask him how you can love Christ and others in spite of all the noise before Mass. And then obey what he tells you to do, even if it’s not what you want to hear.
Second, rather than trying to shut all these fellow brothers and sisters in Christ out, include them in your Mass preparation. Pray for those who are annoying to you, rather than create clever-sounding, but cruel names for them. “Loud, bloviating gas bags?” That’s really really mean, and it makes me wonder if you are getting anything out of the Mass at all if you can even conceive of such a mean name for fellow Christians. Your thoughts for fellow Christians should be filled with love and joy and peace.
Mass is not meant to be a private, personal devotion. It’s a corporate event. What that means is that there will be other people there, and you are supposed to worship with them, not in spite of them.
What you are seeing at Mass is real people, where they are right now, struggling along on their way to heaven. Some of them are caught up in sin, and it’s obvious. Others are sinning privately, and it’s not so obvious. And still others are as close to Christ as humans can get here on this earth–and that’s not always obvious.
Try this–get to know a lot of those people so that you know who you are name-calling. If I were you, I would select the most annoying people in the Mass, and after Mass, I would greet them and strive to get to know them. Perhaps eventually you can even go to lunch or coffee with them so that you can have a little more in-depth conversation than just standing in the parking lot. I’m guessing you would find many of the people who annoy you delightful and inspiring. I have done this several times with people and families in my parish, and without fail, I have been ashamed of myself once I got to know the people who annoyed me and learned just how good and devoted to Christ and His Church they are.
Another thing you could try is to stay outside of the nave until Mass starts. Our parish is fortunate enough to have a 24/7 Adoration Chapel on campus–it’s completely quiet there, and there are people who remain in this chapel and then take a very short walk to the church for Mass. If you don’t have a chapel like this, then perhaps you could find a quiet spot on the grounds somewhere or inside the church building to sit by yourself and think about God. Perhaps there is a little storage room somewhere and you can “hide out” there and try to escape some of the noise before Mas, although again, you are part of the Body of Christ with lots of other Christians, and many of them aren’t at the same place in their lives that you are at–in other words, they’re noisier than you. (Make sure to obtain permission to “hide out” in a specific room, or you might look creepy to anyone who discovers you.
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Perhaps this analogy would help. You and all your fellow Christians are on the road to heaven. It’s very crowded on the road. As you trudge along, there are millions of other Christians on the road with you. Some are running, some are walking, some are dancing along, and some are dragging their feet and complaining about the road, the people, the sunny sky, the rain, the darkness, a bird’s song, etc… Some are constantly getting distracted away from the road, stopping at every tourist trap and restaurant and bar and amusement. Others are stopping every few miles for “just a little rest and relaxation, because after all that walking, I deserve it.” And some keep bumping into you, and jostling you, and at times, knocking you off the road entirely as they careen along the road totally oblivious to you and most of the other people.
What you have to do on that road is just keep walking and figure out a way to get along with all those other people on the road with you. You can’t shut them out and ignore them all–Christ has not given us that option! You can’t go to another road. You can’t just create a private space for yourself that locks all others out of your personal walk. You have to learn to walk in peace with all the others, and as much as possible, help them to get to heaven, as many of them will help you to get to heaven.
I hope this post is helpful.
