Don't Worry, Be Happy! As The World Destroys Itself..

When I attend Mass on weekdays, the Novus Ordo Masses are the only option available.  Such was the case today.  The first reading was from 2 Chronicles 24:17-25.  I'll cut and paste it from the Douay-Rheims version.

And after the death of Joiada, the princes of Juda went in, and worshipped the king: and he was soothed by their services and hearkened to them. [18] And they forsook the temple of the Lord the God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Juda and Jerusalem for this sin. [19] And he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, and they would not give ear when they testified against them. [20] The spirit of God then came upon Zacharias the son of Joiada the priest, and he stood in the sight of the people, and said to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Why transgress you the commandment of the Lord which will not be for your good, and have forsaken the Lord, to make him forsake you?

[21] And they gathered themselves together against him, and stoned him at the king's commandment in the court of the house of the Lord. [22] And king Joas did not remember the kindness that Joiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. And when he died, he said: The Lord see, and require it. [23] And when a year was come about, the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to Juda and Jerusalem, and killed all the princes of the people, and they sent all the spoils to the king of Damascus. [24] And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joas they executed shameful judgments. [25] And departing they left him in diseases: and his servants rose up against him, for revenge of the blood of the son of Joiada the priest, and they slew him in his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

I think the applicability of this passage to current events is obvious.  Moreover, the Gospel was from Matthew 6, part of the Sermon on the Mount.  The main thrust of this was Jesus exhorting the people to "seek first the kingdom of God".  As a lead-up to that, Jesus remarked how the people worried about their material needs.  So what did the priest emphasize today?

He emphasized the worry that many people have.  He actually used the phrase "don't stress".  I could almost hear Bobby McFerrin's trite little ditty "Don't Worry Be Happy".  What an abysmal waste of a teaching moment.  The world is literally going to hell in a handbasket, with plenty of souls cascading their way down there now, with so many progressive bishops indifferent to their plight.

To think that Father might have encouraged the congregation to more frequent confession, to the daily Rosary, requests of Our Lady of Fatima, etc.  The readings provided the perfect setting for that.  Instead, he settled for happy-clappy pap.

However, we know what we must do.