Obviously, this is not what our pastor intends his request for civility to imply. None the less, his request demands consideration beyond whether or not to wish the members of the annual pilgrimage to church at Christmas a "Merry Christmas" or a "Happy Holidays."
Specifically, one question that comes to my mind is this: To what type of religious experience are we welcoming these souls?
When my wife and I were considering converting to the Catholic Church, we started by attending the nearest parish church.
My wife's observation as we walked back to our car after Mass: "Well, I could go here without any problem. This is exactly like the Lutheran church in my hometown."
My reaction was similar, but with an opposite conclusion: "What's the point of joining the Catholic Church when it's exactly the same as the Methodist church of my childhood?"
That's the problem: As it was in my Protestant youth, it is now in most parishes offering the enculturated version of the Novus Ordo; on Christmas Eve, watching "It's a Wonderful Life" seems more in keeping with the season than attending these community-centered, entertainment/worship events.
Thus, we can make our welcome as sweet as wild honey and it won't make any difference if that to which we are welcoming this nation of lost and wandering ex/lax Catholics is not identifiable as wholly Catholic.
I try my best to drive my family to the nearest weekly Tridentine Mass (80 mile round trip), but weather and infrequent local commitments mean that we attend the local Novus Ordo at least two Sundays each month.
I already know what the Mass of the Nativity in my local parish will be: MAYBE we'll sing a Christmas hymn (although, last week a traditional hymn was replaced at the last minute by a Marty Haugen gem), but more than likely, since there'll be a half hour of carols before Mass, the music director will regale us with up-to-date or contemporary hymns from the "Worship" hymnal; the altar servers will be made up of boys and girls (hopefully they won't break into giggling at each other from opposite sides of the sanctuary as happened last Sunday); the priest will proceed down the center aisle smiling at people and maybe even shaking hands and doing a high-five to a teen (our youth are our greatest asset, remember); the orientation of the following worship service will be totally focused on the community; the homily will be more sugary than my wife's home-made caramels; the music will be the Dan Schutte setting because key people ( the music director) must regard it as user friendly (I suppose it is, if you are a big fan of "My Little Pony" and "Gone with the Wind"); and, in the end, I will leave with the sense that I have been sitting through an hour long group therapy session. Well, not even that. Dr. Phil is more severe in some of his assessments than the motivational, cheerleader speeches we sometimes receive locally. The local Mass will seem more like going to a live radio show, a variety show.
No sense of sacred mysteries, very little reverence or acknowledgment of the Real Presence...everything is centered on the people and their temperament, or at least the priest's perception of their temperament.
And what would the average non-church goin' chap think after witnessing such nonsense? I know because I was that person for many years after being alienated from the church of my youth. There's really only one reaction: Why come to this church when I get more of a sense of reverence for the sanctity of life and the depth of God's love for us by watching _It's a Wonderful Life_ on Christmas Eve?
