Mass confusion: Greeley's new book reports Chicago Catholics unclear on the concept

Father Andrew Greeley is a talented novelist and the author of the only sermon I have ever stolen. I have to admit, though, that his take on religion in America is one I regard as so much leprechaun fairy dust.

Greeley's new book, Chicago Catholics and the Struggles Within Their Church, reports with apparent sympathy that Catholics in our mutual home town "lack enthusiasm" for the Mass.

Awww.

Earth to Chicago Catholics: Christians don't gather on Sunday morning to be entertained. We gather to encounter Christ. Do you really lack enthusiasm for encountering Christ? And if so, what does that say about your Catholicism? Your Christianity?

And no. We do not encounter Him in some subjective, internal emotionalism. We encounter Him objectively, in Himself- in His full reality and full power. Catholics and Lutherans alike believe- as Scripture teaches- that His body and blood are truly present in the Eucharist, and that He is present in His proclaimed Word as well- this wholly exclusive of the yucks we may or may not get from the process, or the emotional warm fuzzies it may or may not produce.

He also reports that they don't like the church telling them how to live their lives.

Double awww.

Earth to Chicago Catholics: God is the one Who gets to decide what is right and wrong. We are the ones get to follow Christ. Or not.

But if you want to be a Christian of any flavor, you don't get to pick and choose which of the commandments you're going to follow, or which of the teachings of Jesus and the apostles you're going to accept.

To try is to be an intellectually dishonest hypocrite.

HT: Real Clear Religion