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Views from the Choir Loft

Something We Humans Detest: Hypocrisy!

Jeff Ostrowski · July 16, 2013

EARS AGO, SOMEONE TOLD ME that insanity is caused when the brain sends more “messages” than a person can handle all at once. For instance, what does your leg feel like right now? I suppose your leg feels fine, but you had to “think about it” to know for sure. Why weren’t you thinking about it before I asked you? Because your brain realized it was fine, so there was no reason to send you a “message” about it. The human brain is a marvelous wonder of God’s creation and somehow knows which messages are important! No one who studies the human brain can remain an atheist for long. Speaking of the brain, for years I’ve written about something I call “the learn a new word, see it within 24 hours phenomenon.” It seems that when you focus on something, your brain stores it in a special place, and perceives instances of it you wouldn’t normally notice. It happens constantly to me.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE. Around 6:00pm I spoke to my wife about something I’ve been noticing lately. Let me explain. After the Second Vatican Council, tremendous apostasy ensued, and many folks twisted what the Council actually said into a falsehood they labeled “the spirit of the Council.” One aspect went something like this:

“God doesn’t care about rules and commandments. God doesn’t care about rubrics, fancy ceremonies, or beautiful liturgies. God doesn’t care about creeds and outward observances. God doesn’t care about sin or confession anymore. God doesn’t care if nuns and priests wear secular clothing. That’s all bad, outdated, pre-Conciliar stuff. The only thing God cares about is that we’re nice to one another and never offend anybody by talking about sin or hell. As long as we are friendly and neighborly, that’s all God cares about.”

Ironically, I’ve observed that many leaders of this “spirit of Vatican II” movement (who rose to positions of power in the Church during the 1970s and 1980s) are quite nasty. Filled with hatred, sarcasm, and arrogance, they seem to have no genuine love for anybody. I’ve seen what true love of neighbor is, and they don’t have it. My father, for instance, is a very loving person. He cares deeply about all humanity (even complete strangers!) and spends his time and money trying to help people every day.

Sure enough, less than two hours after sharing this with my wife, I came across the following passage by Paul W. Le Voir in a 1993 article he wrote for Sacred Music:

The church music scene in the United States today is not a pretty picture, and it has been growing uglier by the year for some decades. Composers and liturgists of the contemporary kind, whose compositions and writings will, thankfully, be forgotten by the end of the millennium, are lionized in publications and on programs of all kinds. Various associations and organizations within the Church regularly honor these individuals, perpetuating the corruption while lending it an air of legitimacy and the illusion of authority. Members of this American liturgical/musical establishment continually boast about their flexibility and sensitivity, but they are in fact the most rigid and insensitive of the Church’s members, especially if one has the temerity to challenge them, their policies, their processes, or their programs.

I can absolutely vouch for what Mr. Le Voir wrote, based on personal experience. I find it remarkable that within a few hours of speaking to my wife about this hypocrisy I should come across that paragraph.

Bottom line: if you make “friendliness” your calling card . . . be nice!

May our Lord Jesus Christ help us never to become discouraged while doing His work. May the Lord continue to renew the Church and may He help us to go to confession when we fall.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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“It introduces us to a still and serious world, deserted and rigid, without colour, without light, without motion; it does not gladden, does not distract; yet we cannot break away from it.”

— ‘Schweitzer on the THEME from Bach’s “Art of Fugue”’

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