Years ago, in my second parish, I was extremely fortunate to find a group of young musically talented people. They formed a modern band and after several weeks they started playing and singing modern hymns of worship. Sunday evening Mass, one of the five in the parish, became a Youth Mass. The main difference between this and the more traditional one was music, played on modern instruments and in a modern way. All of a sudden, self-appointed parish guardians of the old traditions started attending evening Mass – though they had never done so before – complaining about the noise and turning Mass into a disco. The complaints stopped when the bishop came to baptise and to confirm a girl in her twenties at that very ‘disco-mass’.
When we come to a new place, or when we are in a new situation, or when we meet an unknown person – we always feel insecure. Automatically we try to deal with new circumstances to make them more familiar and consequently safe. As children and teenagers have a natural inclination to look for new experiences, with the passing of years and getting mature we look for more stable and safe way of life, in most of its aspects. We create our own rituals, or we adopt existing ones, like Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries and so on. They help us to maintain our relationships, they establish some order, and they give a rhythm to our monotonous life.
But they make sense only when something greater is behind them. Sometimes they sadly turn into dull and empty celebrations, kept only out of duty with growing annoyance or silent resignation. The religious aspect of our lives is not free of this danger. Everyday prayer, Sunday Mass can become just elements of routine, daily or weekly duties without reflection and depth. The spiritual can imperceptibly turn to ritual.
Interestingly, today’s gospel tells us about a controversial meeting of Jesus with a local congregation. To be sure, they were religious people, dutifully attending weekly service in their local synagogue, to listen to the Scriptures and a usually uninvolving sermon. But this time the preacher was saying something that shook them out of their mental and spiritual idleness. They had to react, and they did. And, as it happens very often, they decided to react defensively. They despised Jesus, ironically asking about his working-class origin and relatives. Funnily enough, religious people gathered in their house of God were described as lacking in faith.
If our faith is to be deep and alive, it has to be confronted, questioned on a personal level. Faith is something far greater than religious rituals. These are helpful, but only as long as there is some spiritual depth behind them. That depth is something personal, something you and I have to take care of individually. Each one of us has to add to ritual to make it spiritual.