Good series of posts at JimmyAkin.org on rad-trad-ism and liturgical abuse and the like.
It begins with a 2001 This Rock article by Jimmy, which he entitled "Problems in the Church," but which he ought to have entitled "Spiritual Fruit-Chuckers." Has more of a ring to it. In this article, Jimmy points to the story of the high priest Eli and his two sons as a precursor to today’s liturgical abuses and moral failings among the clergy. Another is a historical incident that doesn’t appear in the Bible:
At the time, the man in charge was named Alexander Jannaeus (ruled 103-76 B.C.).
One of Israel’s more important national festivals was (and still is) the feast of Tabernacles (a.k.a. Sukkoth). In Alexander Jannaeus’s day, one of the customs for celebrating Tabernacles was for the people to bring luabs to the Temple and wave them in celebration. A luab was a bundle of branches from trees in the vicinity of Jerusalem-palm, myrtle, willow-to which a citron had been tied. A citron is a fruit similar to a large lemon.
While the people held their luabs, one of the things the high priest was supposed to do was pour out libations from two silver bowls-one of water and one of wine. According to the custom of the Sadducees, the high priest was supposed to pour out the water bowl on his feet, but the custom of the Pharisees disagreed with this.
Alexander Jannaeus, who was a Sadducee, followed the Sadducee custom in performing the ritual, but the Pharisees were so popular at the time that the people became enraged, tore the citrons off their luabs, and pelted Alexander with them in the middle of the liturgy.
Well, that’s one way to deal with perceived liturgical abuses-though I wouldn’t recommend using it today. (In fact, it didn’t work so well then, either. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Alexander took revenge by killing about six thousand members of the citron-lobbing crowd.)
His point is that there’s a wrong way and a right way (actually, several of each) to respond to liturgical, and other problems. And that you shouldn’t "give someone else permission to control your spiritual peace."
More recently, Michelle Arnold (alluding to that article) has a good blog-piece, "Surviving Sunday Mass," describing how that advice worked for her in a specific situation.
Then she goes on with a two-parter: Suggestions for "Overcoming Temptations to Rad-Trad-ism." In Part 1 she offers a definition of rad-trad-ism (distinct from the sensibility and preference-set that she calls Catholic Traditionalism) and suggests these tactics: don’t church-shop unjustifiably, support your priests, get to know your priests and religious, pray, and examine your conscience. In Part 2 she adds more: accept that you don’t know it all, don’t relyon hearsay, seek the good, and appreciate spiritual fatherhood.
All good advice. The comboxes get a little heated (mostly from miffed folks who recognize themselves, I’d wager) but it makes good reading.
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