Entertainment?

Some years ago a wise correspondent put his finger on the damage being done by the press. The media, he said reduce everything to entertainment. Even conveying vivid pictures of disasters to individuals or communities, it all comes over as entertainment. Of course tragedy as well as comedy has its artistic place. But we come away from the cinema and theatre informed and enriched with perceptions of the human lot in order to live it better. Now we are surrounded in all our waking hours by entertainment to fill the gaps. And we are thereby conditioned to look for entertainment at all times.

When we come to church some come so conditioned. Mass is boring. Sermons are boring. We must admit that they do frequently fall short of what they should be. But their purpose is not to amuse or to share novelties. Rather we have liturgies to take us deeper into who we are, what we are, what is the reality of this richly gifted world in which we live.