thinking about Church

My mind is the furthest it can be from God right now. Mass tends to have that effect on me. I remember when I was young asking my mom how you win at volleyball during the Our Father.
Children usually go to the basement for the kids' version of "the stories," as my mom called them and still does when she gets self-conscious about their worth. The messages of the Bible are dumbed down so much that most kids don't really understand them beyond the 21st century mentality of good guys vs. bad guys. Jesus and his buddies are good guys and Satan and his evil friend are bad guys. Tax collectors are bad guys too, but we still have to love them. Whenever a catechist tried to explain the story of Jesus forgiving the tax collector  it's an uncomfortable session. "But the mean man wanted the people's money?" says one precocious child, voicing everyone else's thoughts.
"But Jesus did a good thing by telling him that he wasn't a bad man. Do you understand?" said the woefully provincially informed teacher.
Really the children are confused by the concept of taxation along with Jesus' apparently contrarian attitude. I noticed early on in my religious education that Jesus tends to side against the majority. The concept of loving major-league sinners more than those who are just venial sinners was always a major sticking point for me. Why would I love a murderer more than someone who occasionally swears, but usually is pretty nice? The point was that we have to find the good in all people and now that I understand that, I am able to see the hypocrisy inherent in it (see: gays, blacks, people who eat shrimp). The more one thinks about Catholicism, the more one realizes how badly it has ruined itself. The more people interpret Jesus' teachings, the more unjustly they live their lives. What is to be learned from Jesus is basic and can be applied by his greatest commandment: love all things as yourself. Trying to glean more from the kindergarten ethics that are in the Bible can only lead to assumptions about human nature and the nature of existence. Jesus' teachings do not intend to give us these assumptions and the Old Testament's "stories" (the word applies here) simply provide a backdrop for the parable of Jesus.
The child-like ease of right and wrong, good vs. evil, is the reason Mass is boring. Only those who have lost it focus intensely on every word of the Lord; and, of them, few realize how simple it really is.

The homily of today is the great tragedy of Catholic mass. Too often is the homily a pulpit for fire and brimstone tirades about the world, all-too passionately spat by disgruntled men who have drowned their doubts in the river Jordan. The homily is meant to divulge the word of God to the unstudied listeners of the congregation. Few priests even understand their own job. They are meant to serve as a direct connection between the parishioners and God, not as an interpreter of perfect scripture. When a priest makes an argument based in the Bible, he is lost. (I would say "he or she" but that is inexplicably, unfortunately, inaccurate) When a priest uses the Bible as evidence for a grander point outside of it, he is lost. The Bible's word is supposed to be perfect and, in many parables, its lessons are. The homily should be simplistic. The priest should simply rife through the diction and exhume the pure lessons. His bias should not play a role because the only bias of a pastor should be a holy one. Or am I assuming that all pastors are good men, and that is too much to assume?