The faith, the follower and the Father...

Many Catholics go to Sunday or holy days of obligation mass. The flock follow their faith. The followers are us.

During these Sunday masses, I cannot help but observe the "followers" of the faith. In spite of the fact that the Church has provided guidelines on "appropriate dress codes", there are those that refuse to follow. What is ironic is that, the Church where I attend Sunday mass is in an upscale neighborhood. It's not like the people that go to Church there are poor. They come in Volvos, BMWs, Pajeros, Audis, Monteros...cars that would make my Innova look like a poor man's vehicle. Yet some of them refuse to heed the guideline on the dress code. Sure they wear Havaianas or Crocs or Banana Peel, but they're still slippers. And it's like they just got off the gym because some of the younger crowd still wear their basketball shorts, sandos (with of course Shaq, Jordan, or some NBA players name emblazoooned).

What strikes most at the core are the texters. They're the ones who can't keep the mobile phones off even during mass. In spite of the requests by the lector to please turn it off, the distraction of various ringing tones is palpably irritating.

It leaves me with one final denouement. The Father. At the very center of the mass is the sermon. Some of the priests like Fr. John Lucas, are excellent in putting together the meaning of the Gospel and the readings for the day. But those like him are far and few. What abound are the priests who come unprepared. They babble and babble and some are lost in translation with the sermon. The crowd beside me are usually asleep. I, am left with a bad headache.

There is a need for the religious to take the sacrifice of the Mass more seriously. While we call it "sacrifice", the followers need not be crucified to boredom and to obscurity. There is a need to redeem the faith that is slowly eroding and the priests are obligated to lead its flock. There must be more meaning to mass than just our obligation as followers. It should lead us to the road less traveled...heaven...