So someone mentioned to me the other day about Protestants complaining about how Catholics are dull and dead at Mass, as opposed to vibrant, enthusiastic Protestant services. Around the time of hearing that I heard some Gospel music and went to a Sunday Mass where the choir sang very emotionally effusive music, but probably 90% of the congregation wasn't buying it.
I don't know about you, but if I was required to make a big emotional display every time I walked into church, I would virtually never go to church (if I was Protestant). If the Catholic Church really required that, I would hide in the back, come late and leave early. The great big emotional display every time at church thing only works if 1.) you are one of the small percentage people who just naturally find it easy to make big emotional displays all the time about everything you're happy about 2.) you are one of the small percentage of people who can induce those sorts of emotional overflows in yourself at will, like how some people can cry on cue, 3.) you can fake it reasonably well, or 4.) you only have to go to church when you feel like it.
If you're a #1 or #2 person, you might not understand the rest of us. After all, you may say, if you're so happy and joyful about Jesus, then why don't you act more like it? Look at married people, though, including those who really love each other a lot and have really good, happy marriages. Do they have to make a huge emotional display every time they see each other? No, they don't. Most people can't walk around like that all the time no matter how happy they are. And wouldn't it be weird and unhealthy to force it at times when it doesn't come naturally? Sometimes a simple "I love you" or hand-holding or loving look can say as much as any extravagant display, especially if the former is sincere and the latter is forced.
Now, Protestant congregations differ from the Catholic Church and Catholic parishes in significant ways. Protestant congregations can cater to a specific sort of person and don't have to worry about taking diverse sorts of people, so you can easily have a congregation made up mostly of people for whom #1 and #2 are applicable. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, is universal - has to take all sorts - and a parish also cannot segregate, but typically (or ideally) has all sorts. I would hope that most everyone would find #3 as dreadful as I do. Number 4 is not a legitimate option for Catholics.
Ideally the music at Mass would be music that does not demand emotional effusiveness to perform properly, but it is open to it. Gregorian chant and "traditional" hymns are good for this.
But what really has been the case in recent times is that the people of the #1 and #2 type gravitate towards the music ministry in parishes and take it over, with help from the status quo which heaven help you if you try to challenge, and the icy warm fuzzy black hand of hymnal publishing companies. Ostensibly this is a popular movement, and it sort of is in a tortured way, but it really ends up excluding most of the average folks in the pews in your typical parish, which typically has abysmal congregational singing because it holds up something as an ideal which does not respect peoples' feelings and which is impracticable for most every Catholic parish.
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