Unhappy With Our Praise

James McQuade
Dr. June Ellis
Understanding Literature
Event Blog #3
October 11, 2017
“What If God Is Unhappy with Our Praise?”

This past weekend was “Parent’s Weekend” at Loyola, and as per usual came an influx of parents and families from several different states coming back to see their children or siblings, cousins, etc. Once it got to be late Saturday Loyola was a ghost town, likely due to the fact that people given the option go out to eat over good old “Boulder Garden Café”. Besides that point, many of the families just before the campus emptied could be found at the 4pm welcome mass that the school hosts to welcome our family members back onto campus. While this mass is not so different to others typically, there was one outstanding piece of it that must be discussed when talking about Jesuit ideals or a “ Jesuit Education Experience” and this piece was that of Father Linnane’s amazing homily. A Homily, similar to a sermon if that helps, is a part of the mass where the presiding priest gives a sort of lecture or speech on lessons that we can take from our scriptural readings, particular the gospel.
Father Linnane starts out this Saturday homily, “What if God is unhappy with our praise?”. To put this in context, I have attended church, my entire life, often in catholic mass despite that not being my denomination. I have never heard such a brazen statement before in mass, especially in a sermon/homily. To tell the congregation that their praise is not welcomed by God? To assert that their praise might not be enough, it seems counterintuitive. Yet, this was not all he said. Linnane went on further to say, that though praise is necessary and amazing, what does it mean if we are not living by those same ideals in our daily lives. He claims that to go to church and sit through mass is once again great, but it means nothing if you can sit their in communion with others, but once you head home and are not at church turn your gaze away from those in need.
Edgar Allen Poe’s “ The Cask of Amantillado” might seem a little far of the subject. Yet Fortunato it seems might have met the same fate that Linnane implies, an exacting justice, a retributive justice. Fortunato, though his transgressions seem a little unclear is met by the trickery and deceit of his thought to be friend and it puts him in to a casket. This idea of retribution for wrongs committed is what Linnane seems to imply, but does not dare state explicitly. God could be unhappy. For social injustice, for not being neighborly, for the pain we cause each other through bias.
Similarly both Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Mitsuye Yamada’s “Cincinatti” touch on the subject as well, just in a different perspective. Rather than discussing retribution, they discuss some of the ways in society in which we begin to deserve the retribution, societal transgressions. As is clear from the line of papa having Whiskey on his breath to the mother’s constanst frown, it is clear that there is an involvement in alcoholism and arguably domestic violence going on throughout this narrative. In Cincinatti, it majorly focuses on the rude attitude of citygoers, Cincinattians that make this woman feel such pain, particularly if focuses on racism another major societal transgression. So, it is clear that action has impact, that transgression has impact and in the words of Fr. Linnane, it is not enough to sit in the pews, if you don’t live the same way you act in mass.