It’s a subject of seemingly never ending conflict: what should we do about noisy kids at Mass? Dom Bettinelli got in some hot water just recently posting on this very issue. Needless to say, the proper way to handle it has far from universal agreement. Well let me tell you a little story.
I went to daily Mass this morning which, as with daily Mass in most places, is mostly older folks dotted with a few younger ones – much more salt in the hair than pepper, shall we say. As Father started Mass with the sign of the cross one voice rang out loud and clear, “In the name of the FATHER and of the SON and of the HOLY SPIRIT, A-MEN!” I didn’t notice any grumbling and even a few smiling faces could be seen – very few turned around to look, conscious of making the parent feel self-conscious. I immediately felt bad for his mother, knowing what it’s like to be the parent of the one loud child in an otherwise quiet church.
Now normally you’d expect this to happen once, maybe twice during Mass and then the parent would either regain control or take the child out to re-inform him of proper etiquette. Not this time – every single response was the same, twice as loud as the rest of us and a half-beat behind. But it wasn’t just loud, it had a certain joy to it that our otherwise sedate responses lacked. At the end of Mass I finally had the chance to surreptitiously catch a glimpse of the boy making all the noise and lo and behold, he was maybe five or six and appeared to have a slight disability (or maybe he just really didn’t want to put his jacket on, I don’t know).
That five or six-year-old boy taught everyone there a lesson today. Our responses can be sedate, but must never be morose or lackluster. He reminded us that proper solemnity does not consist in merely saying the responses in a reverently understated manner, but that they must be done with the joy only a Christian can bring. Now I am not about for one second to suggest that loud or off-timed responses are the key to good liturgy – far from it – but rather that even those who love good liturgy must remember that joy is a fundamental component to all Christian living. Even in recalling the Passion and death of our Lord there is an underlying joy in knowing that He deigns us worthy of all that. As St. Leo the great said, “Be conscious, O Christian, of your dignity!”
Update: Keith’s comment really deserves a read.
