My friend Hanh, a Jesuit priest, told me that a lady called to ask his opinion about her attending a church that still uses the Latin Mass, a practice that was supposed to go away after Vatican II. Changes included:

• The widespread use of common languages in the Mass instead of Latin
• The ability to celebrate the Mass with the officiant facing the congregation. (Previously, the priest faced away from the congregation, and the people were said to “attend” Mass, not “participate” in the Mass, according to Hanh.)

These changes…remain divisive among those identifying as traditionalist Catholics. – Second Vatican Council, Wikipedia

Father Hanh is deeply opposed to the continued practice of the Latin Mass, using a language most people can’t understand, intensifying the divide between clergy and laity, making it difficult for people to actually have a relationship with God. Hanh told the lady who asked his opinion:

Do you know about the Vietnamese Boat People? [Hanh himself escaped South Viet Nam with his family after the fall of Saigon in 1975.] The boats were very important. Very important. However, I don’t use a boat today. I drive around in a car, and when I need to travel a long distance, I use an airplane. Just because the Latin Mass was important in the past doesn’t mean it’s important today. – Father Hanh, SJ

What practices do we hang on to? Practices that might have been useful once, but may not be useful anymore?

• We grew up with the “Sunday Night Evangelistic Service.” This is a practice, I’m told, that originated in the early days of gas lights. The churches had them when few others did. So some churches lit the gas lights and had a Sunday night service, attended by curious onlookers, with whom they shared the gospel. The practice continues in some churches despite the fact that a visitor hasn’t been in a Sunday night service in decades.
• Some folks are still tied to the King James Version, an English translation of the bible that was really effective when it was written in 1611. I grew up with it, and there are parts that have a majestic feel and a flow of language that is truly beautiful. However, like Latin, we don’t speak Elizabethan English anymore. “Quit you like men” (1 Corinthians 16.13) means exactly the opposite today of its original intention. And who knows what “I trow not” (Luke 17.9) means? (To be clear, if you understand the KJV and like to use it, I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with your insisting that everyone else use it, which some folks do.)

These are just two examples of “boats.” I don’t know what your “boat” is. It could be related to music or preaching styles, to certain forms of Sunday morning worship, or to programs in your church that are long past being effective. I’m asking God to make me sensitive to the boats in my life.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (1 Corinthians 13.11, ESV)

So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mathew 15.6 – 9, ESV)