Sunday, March 7, 2010

Lenten reflection: Ite missa est (4)

As a lowly servant with no power or authority, I sometimes get saddled with the interesting challenge of trying to get people to actually leave the church. There are people who would spend their every waking hour in church if they could. Sometimes at the Basilica, we are still shooing them more than an hour after the last mass has ended.

And then there are the people who want to receive communion as often as possible. Some travel to three or five different parishes on Sunday so they can receive that many times. I don't pass myself off here as an authority on Catholic teaching but you can take my word for it that that is not in line with it.

But leaving the rules aside, it seems to me that the spirit of this action—receiving continuously—is wrong. It is to doubt the efficacy of God. If you really value the mass, you will leave it when it is over. "Ite missa est".

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