Just a regular Sunday

Today was the feast of Corpus Christy. The Body and Blood of Christ.

All of the usual faces were in church today. No visiting fireman. Nobody that only shows up on Christmas and New Year’s. Just a regular Sunday and a regular summer in a regular year.

In the homily Father Chris mentioned that 13 new priests would be consecrated today at the seminary. That is an exceptionally big class. In the past three years they consecrated 27 new priests. In the same time 57 have died. The numbers aren’t going to work. He said by the end of the decade at least three of the neighboring parishes will close. Not for a lack of the faithful. But for a lack of priests. Unless they import them.

At one time they would import them from Italy or Ireland. When the great swathes of immigration hit New York these immigrant priests would come and tend to their flocks. However that does not seem to be the case with the current mass of immigrants. In this as in so many other things they are very different than previous patterns of immigration.

The best bet for the Church is to import priests from Africa, China or the Philippines. These areas are still a hotbed for true believers who are not busy signing up for the latest politically correct cause. We have a visiting priest from Ghana every August and I have to say he makes me sound like a dirty hippie. I look forward to hearing him preach the word even if I don’t hardly understand half of what he has to say. He works in deepest darkest Africa with poor sick kids dying of Aids. He doesn’t have much patience with trendy American nonsense. We need to import some more of these guys. The bishop should be more like George Steinbrenner and less like Donald Trump.

There was a phrase in the second gospel where Jesus said “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever." Now how does one interpret that? Does that mean that everyone who went before will not get to heaven? I don’t think that is right. I mean Moses and Noah and Zachariah and all those dudes don’t make the cut? But it could be. That Old Testament God was a tough guy. He didn’t hold with nonsense. He smited you big time when you got out of line. Pillar of salt stuff or getting swallowed by a big fish. So who knows? It is something to think about.

I get restless when we go away from the basics. Going to Church on Sunday. Honoring your mother and your father. Helping the poor and the sick and the lame. Standing up for the innocent. Especially the innocent unborn. Taking the body and blood of Christ and knowing that it makes part of the community of faith. Not dabbling in the politics of resentment and reparations and income inequality and every other thing. Maybe that makes me a “Shite” Catholic. Not cool. Not trendy. Not on board with the latest thing. Not playing the tambourine and singing pop songs in church.

Just a regular guy. In a regular pew. In a regular church. On a regular Summer Sunday.