Fr. Jeffrey Kirby - Real Religion: How to Avoid False Faith and Worship God in Spirit and Truth

Fr. Jeffrey Kirby

Real Religion

How to Avoid False Faith and Worship God in Spirit and Truth

2021 Fr. Jeffrey Kirby

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To

Aaron J. Kirby

State Trooper and Nephew

Introduction

Throughout my priesthood, I have always labored to be as available as possible to anyone who wants to meet. Because of this open interaction, Ive had some edifying and encouraging conversations, as well as some distressing and disturbing ones. Its amazing to hear whats happening in the trenches of our faith.

On one such occasion, a younger couple asked to meet and discuss the Mass and Catholic worship in general. I was elated by their interest and looked forward to the conversation. But we had barely started when the couple began to criticize the order of the Mass, its repetition and sobriety, the choice of music, the absence of a welcoming spirit, the somber tone, the lack of energy, and the bad homilies. In contrast, they asked for engaging music, more fellowship, an upbeat tone, homilies with stories and nuanced styles, and more interaction. In summary, they wanted the Catholic Mass to resemble the worship service of a megachurch.

Oddly, of the many things that were mentioned, there was a notable oversight. After the couple had explained and offered suggestions for almost an hour, I just looked at them and asked, But wheres God?

There was an understandable pause, and then secondary attempts to explain how their ideas would help us get closer to God. But even their explanations were lacking in terms of true worship. So I said, It seems that all these suggestions would engage us, inspire us, and entertain us. But where is the worship of God? Shouldnt our liturgy help us to quiet down, refocus our minds and hearts, and then lead us to encounter and adore God?

The couple were frustrated and told me I was taking their thoughts out of context, and so I asked them to help me understand. I pointed out that I had just listened to them for almost an hour, and not even the word God was spoken.

Do you think it says something, I asked, that we had an entire conversation on worship, and Gods name was not even spoken? Could that possibly tell us something about the ideas themselves or the spirit behind them?

But Father, if you do these types of things, people will come!

Okay, but come to what? Our work is not simply to amass a large group of people.

But Father, dont you want more people to come?

Yes, of course, but that is not the goal of worship. Worship is the adoration offered to God by his chosen people on his terms. Worship is not the Churchs principal outlet for evangelization. We dont adjust our worship so that more people might attend. We worship so as to praise and glorify God, not our own hearts, or our own community, or even our own desire for a large group.

Needless to say, the young couple left my office bewildered. Our conversation turned their world upside-down. Regrettably, I think it was the first time that worship, born from the revelation of God and from his clear directions on how to worship him, were presented to these younger Christians.

The standard of all things

In light of Western cultures modern submergence into subjectivism and relativism, such self-focused views of worship shouldnt be surprising. They still are, especially among baptized Christians, but the cultural landscape provides a broad context in which to evaluate and dissect these peculiar liturgical views.

Modern Western culture, separated from the convictions that created it, has convinced people that they are the standard of all things. The lie is propagated: something has value only because I find it subjectively satisfying. My emotions are the end-all and be-all of everything, even the worship of God.

The gas we breathe

In absolutizing our emotions and ways of thinking, we perpetuate the sin of our first parents and display the consequences of our fallen state. Even as God blessed Adam and Eve with sanctifying grace and guided them on the proper way of life, he respected their freedom and gave them a means to reciprocate or refuse his love.

The Genesis account describes Gods instruction not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The tree was not merely a tree of general knowledge. Adam and Eve were free and knew good from evil. This tree was the ultimate fodder for temptation (and deception): Satan could falsely claim that it gave a knowledge that does not discern , but rather decides and determines what is good and what is evil. For Adam and Eve to accept such a temptation was to attempt to seize divine power. It was a concerted effort to steal the majesty of God for themselves.

In refusing to reciprocate Gods love, our first parents chose themselves over God. They chose lies over truth, deception over transparency, and pleasure over virtue. Adam and Eve rebelled against worship and sought to declare themselves gods. They desired to worship only themselves.

This act of rebellion by the first human beings caused harm to our human nature and to the created world. All created existence fell from grace. Our bodies now suffer corruptibility, our intellects are darkened, our memories are blurred, our passions wage war against themselves, and we have lost the beauty of dwelling in Gods presence.

All of this fallen reality is played out in a thousand different ways every day. It is particularly displayed in humanitys constant revolt against true worship of God and our perpetual drive to worship ourselves.

In his usual satirical way, the novelist Mark Twain summarized this tension, saying: God made man in his own image, and man is forever trying to repay the favor.

In this overthrow of reality, we place the epistemological over the metaphysical, our emotional intelligence over rational intelligence and reasoned thought. We falsely believe that whatever we might think or feel is somehow equal to or greater than what something truly is. We forget that there is an objective order outside our limited minds and beyond the arena of our emotions. In such confusion, true worship is lost and seductively replaced by communitarianism, euphoria, and other forms of self-worship.

Such narcissism is so imbedded into our fallen nature that even the best among us struggle to identify and overcome it. It is a part of what author Flannery OConnor described as the gas we breathe.

The happy child list

As an example of this man-made, man-focused false worship, Im reminded of another story from my priestly ministry.

Every year, there is a battle over First Holy Communion. Suddenly, a small army of children show up. They were baptized but never raised or formed in the Faith. Now the parents and the family want the child to receive more sacraments of a God they do not know. As the parish seeks to use the situation as an opportunity to introduce the child and family back into the regular and devout practice of the Faith, the family play games. They skip classes, leave retreats early, have multiple illnesses, favor sports in scheduling conflicts, and do only what is absolutely required in order to receive the sacraments.