So when I got home I grabbed a pen from a drawer, whipped out a calculator, and wrote down all the extra miles I've put on vehicles to keep Sunday truly holy the last two decades. Average say $2.50 a gallon, plus 50 cents per mile for wear and tear on the vehicle, factor in inflation and some reasonable interest, then the dollar figures start to really grow.
37,720 miles
Average 25 miles per gallon
Average $2.50 per gallon
1508 gallons
$3,722 gas
50 cents per mile wear and tear
$18,860 wear and tear
$1000 inflation
$ 10,000 compounded interest over 18 years
$ 5,000 collection fee
Grand Total owed me by my Diocese:
$ 38,582. Man that's a lot.
Now if the say 75 households in Tulsa who drive to Sunday TLM, are owed even just half that, say $19,291 (while many families actually drive far distances every Sunday) then the Tulsa Diocese would owe us collectively...drum roll please...
$ 1, 466, 116
Wow! Somebody send the bishop our bill.
In all seriousness though, this is our penance, and a small one for most budgets considering most Catholics in the world don't have ready access to the Mass of the Ages. When the status quo in diocesan parishes is banality and objective sacrilege, that state of affairs forces us to drive to out of the way places, to gather together and worship outside of the parochial mainstream.
So be it. Is what it is.