This special Mass, which closed the conference and packed the chapel, seemed an example of what FUS is truly capable of in the area of liturgy. One must wonder why Masses such as this do not become the norm here. But it can go much further in the right direction. I do not mean to condemn those who prefer the music found in The University Songbook in our chapel to Gregorian chant, nor to question the sincerity of their worship. Clearly the attempt is to express the joy of praising God as a people, but the predominant sentiment is inappropriately self-preoccupied.
Authentic worship requires an attitude of profound self-forgetfulness in the face of the holy.
While it is true that one aspect of worship is our presence together as a community, it is dangerous and somewhat presumptuous ever to make this aspect the focus of our attention. The aesthetic qualities lacking in many of our favorite songs pose a second reason to call such music second-best. Few of the songs in The University Songbook express a sense of the sublime or of truly transcendent beauty, majesty or power. Third is the question of objective fittingness, which ties the previous two points together. It is true that many more recent hymns speak to people, especially young people, in a very positive and personally influential way.