At Mass this past Sunday, the song leader decided to give an extra-special introduction to a song. It went along these lines: "This Sunday in addition to celebrating the Ascension and Mothers' Day, our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters are celebrating
Cinco de Mayo, so we'll sing
Resucito."
How much bad thinking can be packed into one sentence? Let's see. (BTW, as far as the music that's used in Mass that was composed after 1900,
Resucito is actually not that bad in my book.)
1. The Feast of the Ascension is a major feast of the Church and a mystery of the Holy Rosary. It carries with it enough material that there's not much reason to tag anything else on to it.
2. While Mothers' Day is something that is quite nearly universally observed by Americans, it isn't properly what the Church is celebrating on any given day. As odd as it seems to celebrate the Ascension on a Sunday, that is what the Church does in most American dioceses. The Ascension is a particularly Christian celebration and the Church celebrates that which pertains to Her Divine Husband, rather than secular ephemera, no matter how well intentioned.
3. While it may be PC to refer to "our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters", it's also not very accurate. The significance of May 5 has nothing to do with what language one speaks. It commemorates the Mexican army's defeat of a French force. It celebrates Mexico (and, to some extent, denigrates France). Of late
5o de Mayo seems to have become little more than a general secular excuse for drunken revels with colorful costumes, on a par with All Hallow's Eve or March 17th. While there is much to celebrate about Mexico and much to denigrate about France, neither of those are proper topics to include in the Holy Mass even on a day that isn't already a major feast of the Church on its own. General drunken revelry is similarly not a particularly appropriate appendage to corporate worship.
4. If it is really just "Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters" that celebrate May 5, then why is there any commemoration of it at a Mass that has a pronounced paucity of speakers of any Iberian language?
5. It beggars description to celebrate a holiday that is named "the fifth day of May" on any day that isn't itself the fifth day of May. At least start calling it something like "The glorious Mexican rout of the French" if the celebration is to extend for multiple days.
6. The song in question has nothing to do with Mexico. It was written by a Spaniard. (But, since it has to do with the resurrection and the Feast of the Ascension takes place during the Easter season, it isn't wholly inappropriate.)
7. If one objects to having any part of the Mass in Latin (as our music leader does) on the grounds that people won't understand it, courtesy obliges one to refrain from using songs in any language that the people don't speak fluently.
At the risk of spreading an equine puree, when one speaks publicly in a forum that makes one appear to be an authority on the Church, it is imperative that such a one closely examine what he says to be sure that it in fact comports with the teachings of the Church and Her Dear Lord.
