I knew I was in for some trouble when I heard the opening lines of a homily on Sunday. It was one of those using the Super Bowl as an extended metaphor and framework for the homily. So yes bad metaphor alert. It was just as cheesy as you might imagine. The two teams rivaling each other were the “Holy Ones” and “Satan’s Team” (which apparently was not a reference to the Patriots).
The eternal battle between these two teams lead by the Quarterback Jesus. Yes that was the words actually used. It was quite awkward as intentional laughter was threatening to break out over the unintentional humor of the bad metaphors. Maybe the worst part is that a fairly decent homily could have been salvaged without the football comparisons. He didn’t even go for the cheap laugh over the “Hail Mary” reference. Really it was delivered very deadpan which made the delivery deeply serious. This extended football metaphor might just possible had been pulled off to good effort if delivered with some humor.
So I thought I had it bad until I saw this the following day.
Parish: St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Marysville, WA.
Deacon Greg Kandra said “Out of bounds? Yeah. I’d say so.”
Or to extend the joke, the priest should be sacked over this. Well at least the colors were Ordinary Timish. Still if you watch the video it gets worse.
While not his diocese, Cardinal Dolan could not be reached for comment.
4 comments
I think I’d flag that alter with excessive celebration or un-church-men-like conduct.
As readers may know, Celtic football club in Scotland is strongly associated with Catholics and Ireland, although their most successful manager, Jock Stein, was a Protestant. On the other hand, the other (previously) major football club in Glasgow is Rangers. They are associated with Protestants and Ulster. Relations between the supporters are not, shall we say, the most friendly. Rangers supporters like to wave the Union flag (of the United Kingdom) while Celtic supporters prefer to wave the tricolour of the Republic of Ireland. Rangers supporters have been known to sing offensive songs about the Pope. I think that if something similar to the above were to be seen in a Catholic church in Glasgow the Rangers supporters would have their strongest condemnations confirmed. By the way, Celtic players have been in trouble with the authorities from time to time for making the sign of the cross during matches. The authorities consider it a sign and a cause of sectarianism. Different country. Different planet.
Jeff, it never hurts to pray even if it is mostly for Football 🙂
I’ll start off by saying that there’s so much that “I” want to say about this post and believe “IT” or not, I’ve seen and read many of your links provided for this post and as a matter of fact I’ve even seen and listened to every minutes of The YouTube Mess, “I” mean Mass…lol
Long story short, I’m going to close by simply saying that all Catholic Christians should keep each and everyone of US (usual sinners) in Honest Check even if on occasions “IT” does hurts the home front.
To tell you the honest to honest truth Jeff, i hope that none of your readers try and provoke sinner vic, especially when he’s anxious to give all IS so Right and Wrong, “I” mean Left and Right so called Canadian spiritual reality Two sides, “I” mean two cents worth, if YA know what “I” mean?…lol
God Bless Peace
I clicked on the link to this parish’s website just for laughs I suppose and the banner ‘advertising’ Ash Wednesday as “Holy Day of Obligation!” did bring forth a snicker, so I guess it was worth it…..