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rfmcdonaldFor Christmas Eve this year, I decided to attend the Midnight Mass at St. Michael's Cathedral (65 Bond Street) with the ex. I'm certainly not a practising Christian, but my years of unchallenged piety in the framework of the United Church of Canada have left a certain imprint upon me. Besides, the aesthetics of Roman Catholicism--the buildings, the liturgy, the music, the art--are decidedly appealing. The question of the degree to which this represents the legacy of an attempt to attract people to Christianity with nice remains open, or perhaps it doesn't. I went, with a friend, as an interested spectator only.
The ceremony, beginning at 11 am and continuing through to at least 1 pm, was enjoyable, with a wide variety of organ musics--some familiar, some not--the singing of a choir that was perhaps hampered by a poor sound system, and a few hymns sung by the people in attendance. I was surprised by some of the songs included--I hadn't expected hymns by John Wesley to make it. Then, at half past midnight, Toronto's Archbishop Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic managed to ruin the mood with his delivery. Christ, he said, was a man like us, coming from a society marked by difference and diversity, hoping to inspire the creation of a better society with his own message of difference. The Church continued in this tradition, with its criticism of abortion and "homosexual behaviour."
As he delivered the address, I saw a man in a grey suit on the other side of the church leave. Another man sitting in a pew in front of me quietly left. Still another girl, a decade younger than me, put her head against the pew in front of her and began to cry. Sometimes I think that belief would be nice, but then, all I have to do is wait to be shown that I don't need to make that choice.
The ceremony, beginning at 11 am and continuing through to at least 1 pm, was enjoyable, with a wide variety of organ musics--some familiar, some not--the singing of a choir that was perhaps hampered by a poor sound system, and a few hymns sung by the people in attendance. I was surprised by some of the songs included--I hadn't expected hymns by John Wesley to make it. Then, at half past midnight, Toronto's Archbishop Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic managed to ruin the mood with his delivery. Christ, he said, was a man like us, coming from a society marked by difference and diversity, hoping to inspire the creation of a better society with his own message of difference. The Church continued in this tradition, with its criticism of abortion and "homosexual behaviour."
As he delivered the address, I saw a man in a grey suit on the other side of the church leave. Another man sitting in a pew in front of me quietly left. Still another girl, a decade younger than me, put her head against the pew in front of her and began to cry. Sometimes I think that belief would be nice, but then, all I have to do is wait to be shown that I don't need to make that choice.
