Modern Money-Changers

The “liturgy wars” are something of a hot topic in contemporary Catholic circles.

 Latin chant or guitar hymns? Communion on the tongue or in the hand? Chapel veils or bare heads? Surplice or alb? It’s giving me a headache just writing it all out.

I don’t mean to say that none of this matters. The worship of the Almighty God, especially in the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is no trifling matter. It is good for people to be concerned about whether or not their worship is pleasing to God. I am happy that Catholics care enough about these things to have an opinion.

I’m not going to say where I fall on this spectrum of liturgical sensibility (the headache intensifies thinking of the emails I would get). And I won’t pretend it’s not something I feel passionate about, in my own way.

But too often I find myself sniffing dismissively at the “other camp,” the folks who are drawn to a different style or tradition. Too often I see them sniffing dismissively back to me. We are, both groups, obsessed with the form of a thing — so much so that we risk forgetting the function of it.

And when I stop to think about it, I wonder if Jesus shouldn’t crack the whip at us all, the modern money-changers of the temple, who have allowed worship to become a transaction (I offer x sacrifice, I am rewarded with y feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction).

I look at the Gospel today, and I can see the purpose of the money-changers. It could be argued that, in a way, they were facilitating the laws of Moses, making possible the temple sacrifices stipulated by God.

But it matters why you do something, not just how you do it.

What good is any act of worship, if at its conclusion we do not more closely resemble the One before whom we kneel?

©LPi