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Yesterday, I began describing my visit to a Roman Catholic Church. Today, I am listing some of the positive and negative aspects of the church service.

The Scripture readings formed the high point of the service for me. I am not accustomed to hearing so much Scripture read aloud in church. The first man read a passage from Isaiah which foreshadowed the sufferings of Christ.

The second person to read was an elderly woman. She read from Philippians 2, about Christ humbling himself and then being raised and exalted by God. A woman sang a spine-tingling rendition of Psalm 22, complete with repetitive “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” lines.

Finally, we read the entire Passion narrative from Mark’s Gospel, beginning with Mark 14 and continuing all the way to Christ’s burial at the end of Mark 15. A man to the right of the stage read the narration, the priest said the words of Jesus, the woman to the left of the stage read the other voices in the narrative, and whenever the crowd in the passage spoke, so did the entire audience. This was a creative way to read the Passion narrative. I felt as if I were there, in the crowd, shouting “crucify him” and “come down from the cross.”

The sermon was the most disappointing part of the service. The priest offered a few words about the importance of the coming week. He pointed to the sufferings of Christ done on our behalf, but he did little to explain just how that takes place. The sermon lasted less than five minutes.

The way that the church took Communion was quite disturbing to this Baptist. The explanation of Communion’s significance is clearly sacrificial. The priest said a secret prayer out loud while we were singing, a prayer that we could all hear but not understand. He prayed several times that the “sacrifice” of the Mass might be pleasing to God. Then, he would speak of Jesus as our perfect sacrifice.

The ideas regarding the Mass as a sacrifice and Jesus as a perfect sacrifice were conflated. The priest did not mention who is eligible to receive the elements. I came across a paragraph at the beginning of the hymnal which specified that only Roman Catholics who have not committed grave sins can partake of the elements. But a newcomer to the church would not know what to do in this situation unless they happened to read that paragraph.

The songs were uplifting and God-centered, so I did feel encouraged to praise God. God did speak to me through His Word, but that came from the reading, not from something the priest or singers said.

Every worship service has a theology, be it sound or errant. This church’s worship service began with a song that speaks of Jesus, the coming King. From the start of the service, we were invited to worship a holy and powerful Creator God. Another song was about the sufferings of Jesus. We sang “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” which recounted more of Christ’s sufferings. “My God, My God” was taken directly from Psalm 22 and spoke again of Jesus’ Passion. Overall, I believe the songs chosen were appropriate for the season of Lent, even though there was little explanation for how one can have the death of Jesus appropriated for our salvation.

The church’s role in the life of a believer was most evident in the priest’s remark regarding two recent funerals in the church. Also, the priest encouraged members to take flowers to the elderly in nursing homes. The priest encouraged the church to act as a family, even though the atmosphere was cold. Aside from the “passing of the peace,” people rarely spoke to each other.

The sermon did little to explain what salvation is, and who Jesus is. There was no effort to evangelize people. The entire service was created under the assumption that everyone knows what is going on, who God is, who Jesus is, and what the church is all about.

The impression one gets from visiting a Catholic Church is seriousness! Everything is taken seriously, from the music, the readers, the auditorium, to the Eucharist. It is easy to feel as if you are only a spectator and not a participant, due to the inaccessibility of some of the songs and prayers. The service itself is very structured, yet the atmosphere is informal. Some people are dressed casually, while others are dressed in suits and ties. The worship team was dressed in robes.

I grew up in a Baptist church that was a not liturgical at all. In the past few years, I have studied Catholic and Anglican liturgies, so I must say that I am familiar with this type of worship service, even if this was my first time to attend a Mass.

I enjoyed my visit to this church. There are things I can learn from the Roman Catholic Church. Even though there were several theological aberrations, I believe we can learn from this church how to better revere God and how to prize history and tradition as Baptists.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

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