Thou shalt not talk in church

Third Sunday of Lent, Year B
First Reading: Ex 20:1-17
Second Reading: 1 Cor 1:18, 22-25
Gospel Reading: Jn 2:13-25

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned ... I’ve been talking in church.” People may not mention this bad habit in the confessional as they used to, but Pope Francis has deplored it several times since Nov. 8, when he began a series of Wednesday general audiences on Mass and the Eucharist.

“When we go to Mass, perhaps we arrive five minutes early and begin to chat with the person next to us,” he said. “But this is not the moment for small talk ... It is the moment for recollection within the heart, to prepare ourselves for the encounter with Jesus. Silence is so important!”

The Mass is not a “spectacle,” he said. As we enter the church, we should think: “I am going to Calvary, where Jesus gave his life for me.” Then the idea of a “spectacle” disappears, and so does “the small talk.” (So, I would add, does applause at the end of Mass.)

“Think,” the Pope said: “when you go to Mass, the Lord is there!”

Indeed, he is there even before and after Mass. The church is a sacred space, where he is present in a “unique” mode, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, for “in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, together with the Soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ, is truly, really, and substantially contained.”

Do we believe that? If so, how can we be so rude as to talk to others and ignore our host in his own house? If “some very important world personage” were present, said Pope Francis, “it is certain that we would all be close to him, that we would want to greet him ... But it is the Lord!”

We go to Mass, the Pope said, “to encounter the risen Lord (or, better still, to allow ourselves to be encountered by him), to hear his word, to nourish ourselves at his table, and thus to become the Church; that is, his mystical living body in the world.” 

However, he said, some people maintain that Mass is not important as long as we love our neighbour.

Now the love Jesus commands us to have for our neighbour is not natural love. (For some of our neighbours, that may be impossible!) Rather, it is the supernatural love the Gospel calls agape. With agape, we love people we neither like nor even know, Pope Benedict XVI said; and agape is possible “only on the basis of an intimate encounter with God,” which teaches us to look at others from his perspective.

As Pope Francis put it, “How can we practise the Gospel without drawing the energy necessary to do so, one Sunday after another, from the inexhaustible source of the Eucharist?”

Supernatural fellowship with our neighbours, then, is based on the Mass. Logically, therefore, it should follow the Mass. However, it should take place outside the church proper; otherwise, it will distract people who are still talking to Jesus in the tabernacle. (To love our neighbour is the second great commandment; to love God is the first.)

As a retired priest, I say Mass all over the archdiocese. I try to arrive an hour early in case someone wants to go to confession. If no one does, I pray the Divine Office. However, all too often, someone interrupts me to say, “Good morning, Father.”

I see “talking in church” becoming louder, more acceptable, and more widespread. I can imagine Jesus saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are turning it into a coffee-house.”

What can we do? In this homily, I am probably preaching to the converted, but let me make some suggestions.

First: do not “talk in church” yourself. Focus, in silence, on God alone. Do not try to catch your neighbours’ eyes, even to smile. Do not interrupt them, even to say “Good morning.” If you must talk to them, wait until they leave the church.

Second: to discourage others from talking to you, make it clear that you are praying, from the moment you enter the church until Mass begins, and from the end of Mass until you have to leave. Kneel, close your eyes, bow your head, join your hands, read the missal, etc.

Third: do not respond to the talk of others. Do not be rude; just say, with a smile, “I’ll see you outside after Mass,” and then resume your prayer. People will get the message.

Let me finish by praising those who, often in the most difficult and distracting conditions, continue to talk to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. As Saint Alphonsus Liguori wrote, “Of all devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments, the one dearest to God, and the one most helpful to us.”