Lily this post is not directed directly at you.
You’re right it should be all about Christ, but where do we find Christ? Do we find Christ only in the Eucharist or do we also find him in the noisy baby? (“as you did it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40)–are we sending Christ to the cry room or telling him to stay home from Mass?) I’m sorry but when we tell them to go to the cry room–we’re not making Mass about Christ–we’re making it about how we want our Mass experience to be i.e. making it about us. I have a hard time believing Christ is upset by a babies crying and is thinking about how disrespectful that baby is being to him. (“And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, 'Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it. Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.” (Mk 10:13-16)
This should not be taken to mean that I am in favor of extremely disruptive children at Mass–because I do fail to understand why parents don’t leave the “sanctuary” (this is for you jmcrae), I mean nave, when their children are extremely disruptive but its not because I think they are offending Jesus or making the Mass about themselves. I think it would be because they would see Jesus in us and want to do something for us–their fellow parishioners (it is after all a two way street).
When we come here and complain about the way parishioners are dressed, that they don’t genuflect, that they don’t bless themselves with holy water, don’t seem reverent enough, that we sang such and such a song, that so and so’s baby was so loud, that father did xyz, or whatever it is --that’s ruining our Mass experience–and then claim that these people are making the Mass all about themselves–we should just look at ourselves in the mirror and laugh because we’re the ones that are not making the Mass about Christ but rather about how we think the Mass should be i.e. about us. We’re the ones failing to focus on Christ and blaming it on others. If I would let them–a lot of things at Mass would irritate me (currently they’ve stopped announcing the hymn at Mass and the music just starts–I know it’s petty but it drives me crazy–so you can see I can be irritated by the most trivial of things). Now I have a choice I can 1.) be irritated and focus on everything that bothers me and let Mass be ruined or 2.) I can ignore it, pray the prayers, read the readings, receive Christ in the Eucharist and try to see Christ in everyone at Mass–if I do this I am focused on Christ and Mass is enjoyable no matter what goes on around me. To be quite truthful my eyes are closed through all the prayers, I follow the readings, sing the songs, and take notes during the homily–that leaves very little time for looking around worrying about what everyone else at Mass is or is not doing. I guess I’ve come to see that I am responsible for my focus at Mass and if I let others bother me–that’s on me. Since I have started down this path I find that my experience at Mass is almost always good no matter where I go because no one can ruin my Mass experience but me–it took me a long time to realize this. Christ should give us a joy and peace that others can’t take away – I think it’s why the early Christians could go joyfully to their deaths. That joy and peace is what I am shooting for–though I have a long long way to go.
The peace of Christ,
Mark