Mass is something really boring? (I)

Why is it that some people say that Mass is boring?  Is the Mass boring?  I’m sure everyone reading today’s Pastor’s Bench has an opinion on this question. This question seems to plague parents in particular when trying to get their teenage children to attend Mass with them. Often the response by many parents is, “I don’t care if you think it’s boring you’re going to Mass anyway.” This answer is usually more effective with younger children, but hardly every satisfies a teenager.  In many cases with teenagers a parent just decides that it is too much trouble to try to get their teenager to Mass, and so they go without them.  “The music is so boring.” parents might hear. “The readings are ancient and are talking about shepherds and kings; we live in the world of iPads, Facebook and YouTube”. If this is the case then it is no wonder that it is difficult to get young people excited about going to Mass.  But this is not just a problem that teenagers struggle with. How often do we say to ourselves, “I really don’t want to go to Mass today; Father never says anything that I understand.” Or maybe its, “Well, the football game is at 12.30, and Mass gets over at 1:10, so maybe I’ll just leave right after communion.”  How often do we grudgingly go to Mass just because we don’t want to feel guilty for missing it? How often have we attended Mass and just felt like we just didn’t get anything out of it.  “What a waste of time” we might be secretly thinking, although we might never verbalize it. The answer that we might have for this dilemma could be, “Well, if the Mass was just a little more engaging, and a little less boring, then maybe I would actually like going to Mass”, “If only we had a more experienced priest then we could get into some real life homilies.” I use these examples because these are some of the most common complaints about the Mass, but the list is almost infinite. So where is the problem and where is the solution to this problem? Is the Mass boring? Is it wrong to ask this question? Should we just go to Mass and accept that it is boring?  Is it that we are not supposed to like Mass; we are just supposed to go regardless of what it does for us? We will continue talking about this. Do not miss the next Pastor's Bench! ■ Fr. Agustin