More on the bishops' idea of Eucharistic Revival

I'm not feeling it and neither are you

I feel like the bishops moved on and are now back to social justice/worrying about government contracts, but never mind, I still have something to say about how it’s going.

A while ago I wrote about how one of the leading cardinals (now in our nation’s capital, where he can throw off religious pretensions and get down to the real business of jollying-up politicians), Cardinal McElroy, provided an example of how uncommitted the bishops actually are to on-the-ground Eucharistic reverence.

Oh, they love them a fourteen-million-dollar campaign, but actually not subjecting the Mass to debasement and mockery? Not so much.

About what I witnessed in a video of that prelate’s “celebration” of the Eucharist at last year’s Religious Education Conference in LA, I wrote:

“I am quite sure I can’t find the right words to express the horror of three thousand years of monotheism flowering into nearly two thousand years of transcendent worship plunging to the bogs of this narcissistic and frankly, pagan display.” You’ll have to go over there for the pictures of what I’m talking about.

On the other hand, I had to acknowledge it was extremely, insanely boring to all the senses.

This year’s LA-REC was a “hold my beer” moment, maybe?

Hard to tell — it might be a toss-up. What do you think? Here are some stills from the video recording of a Mass there for the youts (hat-tip to Joseph Sciambra on his Facebook page):

“Eminence, allow me to show you how to put the light on your phone…”

“Is this it? Is this what they do?”

“Yes, Eminence, very good.”

Again with the dancing girls, which is just very cringey in the many-faceted context. I prefer non-vestal vibes for virgins, personally:

This time it’s Archbishop José Gomez, and I must say, I’m old enough to remember Opus Dei not wanting its priests to be lame, ridiculous, undignified, sacrilegious, and consumed with ennui.

At least at a real rock concert, people are experiencing some sort of ecstasy, however manufactured. Maybe next year’s LA-REC should try drugs.

Granted, the Eucharistic Revival was over last year. I shouldn’t expect much. But I do worry that the future of the Church will be populated by former young people who actually thought all this was… okay.

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