Both the feud and the attendance of church are this consistent routine, and both are followed till without understanding until the individual who partakes in them parish. For thousands of years, people have attended some type of liturgical service without full understanding of it, and for several generations, the Shepardsons and Grangerfords have been feuding with no real basis or understanding as to why.
These two situations intertwine at parts of the novel as well. Both the Shepardsons and Grnaderfords attend a religious service, with each other in their presence no less. By Twain having both families at the service together not fighting, it would appear as though Twain puts an added emphasis on the service. Could Twain be attempting to state that the service is a mysterious device that has the ability to halt the insanities in this world? No, in fact, Twain is doing the opposite. By having the families stop the feud for this one moment, it actually acts as ‘a passing of the torch’ so to speak. The Shepardsons and the Grangerfords are going from one blind custom to another. They are simply putting aside their differences to gather in the next blind habit.
But when the Shepardsons and Grangerfords attend church, should not they at least gain some insight as to how incorrect the feud they are partaking in is? Part of the benefit to attending church is to grow morally in both one’s mindset and actions. So could the Sunday mass be understood but willingly ignored? A possible answer can be found in a highly accepted Catholic belief known as the law of human nature. CS Lewis describes this law as “human beings have (a) curios idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, (and that in fact) human beings do not follow in that way” (Lewis, 31). In other words, human beings like taking their own out of things; they do what they want, when they want. If one believes in God and desire to follow him, they will. But there is no forcing a human into following God in their actions. That mentally they might love and worship all God states, but in action they live life in the manner at which they see fit, regardless of contradiction to their believed teachings of God.
One member of the Magesterium, Cardinal Bernardin exclaimed, “The fact that the growth of the church here, like that of the country itself, is chiefly external, a growth in wealth and numbers, makes it more necessary that we bring the most strenuous effort to improve the gifts of the soul” (Bernardin, 223). This quotation refereed to the fact that many people where coming to church but where living outside of the spiritual laws.
One might be tempted to ask, whose fault was it that so many have been mislead? As far as liturgically speaking Mathew Conbeg believes that, “A silent factor responsible for the cultic behavior is the system of education for the clergy” (Conbeg, 64). Conbeg’s statement reflected upon the miss teaching of the clergy, and how it had led to a lapse in the understanding of the scripture. This misunderstanding is then passed down to the people attending worship, who take this word as absolute truth, as they put all their trust in the clergy. In the case of the Shepardsons and Grangerfords, the Clergy is equivalent to the elders of each family. They are the one’s who have been mistaught in the feud, having a complete misunderstanding of the feud and how it began.
A passing down of information can also attribute to a misunderstanding in the core beliefs of the two examples. Phillip Gleason, stated “as the ethnic group blurred into third and fourth generations the patterns of worship at Sunday mass and in religious devotionals remained static” (Gleason, 208). In other words the church’s message has gotten fuzzier and fuzzier through the years. The clergy has taken this fuzzy information, and allocated it to the congregation, who then receive the information they seek, incorrectly. As with the clergy, the elders have been passing down incorrect information and beliefs to their children, or the congregation. This bad information leads to a new generation of followers of this deficient feud, having their most trusted source of knowledge mislead them.
There are no simplistic solutions to the contradictions in human nature. Twain attempts to show us just one instance of this in his relation of the feud to the attendance of church in society. Both appeal noble and true on the outside, but inside both are misleading and narrow minded.
Bristol Harris believed that, “Perhaps no other single factor has been as responsible for the diminution of that strongly centripetal and externally efficient sense of identity in the (church) community as the movement for reform of cultic patterns in the liturgy” (Harris, 248). Harris basically stated that the liturgy was at fault, and that the church fathers should make the liturgy more easily to understand. By doing this, Harris believed that Catholics would be able to take away the lesson of the scripture more easily. David McBride, another Church Father stated, “The immediate cause of alienation to the church was simple, the growing alienation of the working classes from the church” (McBride, 17). This hypothesis declares that there is a misunderstanding between church and its people, that people of the third and fourth generation of American Catholics were having trouble relating to the church’s teachings as they were presented.
The Catholics believe that Sunday mass supports and encourages this innate desire for God. In reality, however, the behavior of Catholics directly contradicts this law. CS Lewis said, “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God” (Lewis, 20). This brings up the question, could the Sunday mass be understood and yet disregarded because of human will?
By the late 1800’s, the Catholic Church was alarmed at the externalization of their religion. One member of the Magesterium, Cardinal Bernardin exclaimed, “The fact that the growth of the church here, like that of the country itself, is chiefly external, a growth in wealth and numbers, makes it more necessary that we bring the most strenuous effort to improve the gifts of the soul”(Bernardin, 223). This quotation refereed to the fact that many people where coming to church but where living outside of the spiritual laws. The pope was aware of this fact. He attempted to lead the church into a course where the people where able to coprehend what the church was trying to get across, and be able to use the information in their everyday life.
All the quotations have focused on the core problem of the presentation of the Sunday Mass. The most essential part of Catholic worship and teaching is the Sunday mass. This is where the words of God are proclaimed to the people. It is the heart of all learning in the Church. Without it, most people would be ignorant of the word of God. As Robert Dolan once put it, “Sunday mass was the central social event and main means of communication for immigrant groups well into the present century” (Dolan, 217). It was believed that Catholics would be able to change any problems found in their follower’s pattern of belief by changing the mass.
Many examples of the misunderstanding of the Catholic faith can be found in Adventure of Huckleberry Finn when Huck tries to tackle the ideas apart of Catholic worship. One such occasion is when Huck says, “I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?” (Twain, 285). Huck seems to think that by praying, a person can receive anything they desire. Huck also states, “I asked (Miss Watson) if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go (to heaven), and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together” (Twain, 3). Huck seems to make a decision between heaven and hell by choosing which place Tom will go to. Huck also gets the concept of prayer mixed, up when he states, “And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better”(Twain, 285). Huck seems to have the idea that praying makes a good person, and the lack of prayer makes someone a bad person. Lastly, Huck believes that one right deed will take him to heaven. This idea is expressed when he says, “But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking -- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell” (Twain, 285). Huck belief of turning Jim in, he will get into heaven completely misses the mark on any Catholic teaching on the road to heaven.
There are no simplistic solutions to the contradictions in human nature. It has no doubt been helpful to make the mass more understandable and real. However, as long as the human condition prevails, humans cannot be forced into any single understanding of God and God’s laws.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Cardinal Bernardin. The Gift of Peace. New York: Doubleday, 1998.
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Conbeg, Matthew. Books of Catholic Customs. New England: Servant Publication, 1995.
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Dolan, Robert. American Catholic Experience. Philadelphia: University of ND. 1994.
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Gleason, Phillip. Contemporary Catholicism in the United States. New York: Viking Penguin, 1973.
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Harris, Bristol. Lourdes: A Catholic Church. New York: Viking Penguin, 1999.
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Lewis, CS. Mere Christianity. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
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McBride, David. The Story of the Church. New York: St. Anthony Messenger, 1996.
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Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. New York: Norton and Company, 2003.
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Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Dover Pubns, 1994.