It's hard to believe that my summer program is almost half over! We finished one set of final exams at the end of this past week, and I've been enjoying our Mid-Summer free weekend tremendously! But with that free time, I've had a chance to internalize and meditate on some of the material that we've been studying over our first academic term.
One of my classes in the first session was taught by Fr. Dennis Gill, a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia whom I knew from my time at St. Charles Seminary. He brought to our attention an article published in the Vatican's daily newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano, which was written by Cardinal Sarah, the cardinal in charge of the Vatican's Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. So this is the sort of thing that folks want to pay attention to -- a thoughtful presentation by somebody who knows what he's talking about!
Cardinal Sarah wrote about the tremendous importance that the Second Vatican Council places on the participation of the Christian faithful at Mass and the other Liturgies of the Church. It's part of our sanctification and growing closer to Jesus! But the Cardinal points out in a very thoughtful and powerful way that we don't just have "full, conscious, and active participation" (actuosa participatio) when we DO something at Mass. On the contrary, we participate fully in Mass and get the most out of Mass when we enter into the sacrificial love of Jesus; then we have what we need to show that same love of Jesus to the whole world!
I don't usually post full texts of things, but this article is tremendous, so here you go ...
THE SILENT ACTION OF THE HEART
Cardinal Robert Sarah
L'Osservatore Romano
June
12, 2015
[Exclusive
Rorate translation by Contributor Francesca Romana]
Fifty
years after its promulgation by Pope Paul VI will the Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy from the Second Vatican Council be read? “Sacrosanctum concilium
“ is not de facto a simple catalogue of reform “recipes” but a real
“magna carta” of every liturgical action.
With
it, the ecumenical council gives us a magisterial lesson in method. Indeed, far
from being content with a disciplinary and exterior approach, the council wants
to make us reflect on what the liturgy is in its essence. The practice of the
Church always comes from what She receives and contemplates in Revelation.
Pastoral care cannot be disconnected from doctrine.
In
the Church, “that which comes from action is ordered to contemplation” (cfr. n.
2). The Council’s Constitution invites us to rediscover the Trinitarian origin
of the liturgical action. Indeed, the Council establishes continuity between
the mission of Christ the Redeemer and the liturgical mission of the Church.
“Just as Christ was sent by His Father, so also He sent the Apostles” so that
“by means of sacrifice and sacraments, around which the entire liturgical life
revolves” they accomplish ”the work of salvation”. (n.6).
Actuating
the liturgy is therefore nothing other than actuating the work of Christ. The
liturgy in its essence is “actio Christi”. [It is]the “work of Christ the Lord
in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God.” (n.5) It is He who is
the great Priest, the true subject, the true actor in the liturgy (n.7). If
this vital principle is not accepted in faith, there is the risk of making the
liturgy into a human work, a self-celebration of the community.
By
contrast, the real work of the Church consists in entering into the action of
Christ, in uniting oneself to that work which He received as a mission from the
Father. So, “the fullness of divine worship was given to us" since “His
humanity, united with the person of the Word, was the instrument of our
salvation” (n.5). The Church, the Body of Christ, must therefore become in Her
turn an instrument in the hands of the Word.
This
is the ultimate meaning of the key-concept of the Conciliar Constitution:
“participatio actuosa”. Such participation for the Church consists in becoming
the instrument of Christ – The Priest, with the aim of sharing in His
Trinitarian mission. The Church takes part actively in the liturgical action of
Christ in the measure that She is His instrument. In this sense, to speak of “a
celebrating community”” is not devoid of ambiguity and requires prudence.
(Instruction” Redemptoris sacramentum”, n. 42). “Participatio actuosa” should
not then be intended as the need to do something. On this point the Council’s
teaching has frequently been deformed. Rather, it is about allowing Christ to
take us and associate us with His Sacrifice.
Liturgical
“participatio” must thus be intended as a grace from Christ who “always
associates the Church with Himself.”(S.C. n. 7) It is He that has the
initiative and the primacy. The Church “calls to Her Lord, and through Him
offers worship to the Eternal Father” (n.7).
The
priest must thus become this instrument which allows Christ to shine through.
Just as our Pope Francis reminded us recently, that the celebrant is not the
presenter of a show; he must not look for popularity from the congregation by
placing himself before them as their primary interlocutor. Entering into the
spirit of the council means, on the contrary, making oneself disappear –
relinquishing the centre-stage.
Contrary
to what has at times been sustained, and in conformity with the Conciliar
Constitution , it is absolutely fitting that during the Penitential Rite, the
singing of the Gloria, the orations and Eucharistic Prayer, for everyone – the
priest and the congregation alike– to face ad orientem together, expressing
their will to participate in the work of worship and redemption accomplished by
Christ. This way of doing things could be fittingly carried out in the
cathedrals where the liturgical life must be exemplary (n. 4).
To
be very clear, there are other parts of the Mass where the priest, acting “in
persona Christi Capitis” enters into nuptial dialogue with the congregation.
But this face-to-face has no other end than to lead them to a téte-à-tète with
God , who through the grace of the Holy Spirit, will make it ‘a heart to
heart’. The council offers other means to favor participation [through] “ the
acclamations , responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by
actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes.” (n.30).
An
excessively quick reading and above all, a far too human one, inferred that the
faithful had to be kept constantly busy. Contemporary Western mentality formed
by technology and bewitched by the mass media, wanted to make the liturgy into
a work of effective and profitable pedagogy. In this spirit, there was the
attempt to render the celebrations convivial. The liturgical actors, animated
by pastoral motives, try at times to make it into didactic work by introducing
secular and spectacular elements. Don’t we see perhaps testimonies,
performances and clapping in the increase? They believe that participation is
favored in this manner, whereas in fact, the liturgy is being reduced to a
human game.
“Silence
is not a virtue, nor noise a sin, it is true” says Thomas Merton “but the
continuous turmoil, confusion and noise in modern society or in certain African
Eucharistic liturgies are an expression of the atmosphere of its most serious
sins and its impiety and desperation. A world of propaganda and never-ending
argumentations , of invectives, criticisms, or mere chattering, is a world in
which life is not worth living. Mass becomes a confused din, the prayers an
exterior or interior noise.” (Thomas Merton, “The Sign of Jonah” French
edition, Albin Michel, Paris, 1955 – p. 322).
We
run the real risk of leaving no space for God in our celebrations. We risk the
temptation of the Hebrews in the desert. They attempted to create worship
according to their own stature and measure, [but] let us not forget they ended
up prostrate before the idol of the Golden Calf.
It
is time to start listening to the Council. The liturgy is “above all things the
worship of the divine Majesty” (n.33). It has pedagogic worth in the measure
wherein it is completely ordered to the glorification of God and Divine
worship. The Liturgy truly places us in the presence of Divine transcendence.
True participation means renewing in ourselves that “wonder” which St. John
Paul II held in great consideration (Ecclesia de Eucharistia” n. 6). This holy
wonder, this joyful awe, requires our silence before the Divine Majesty. We
often forget that holy silence is one of the means indicated by the Council to
favor participation.
If
the liturgy is the work of Christ, is it necessary for the celebrant to
introduce his own comments? We must remember that, when the Missal authorizes
an intervention, this must not turn into a secular and human discourse, a
comment more or less subtle on something of topical interest, nor a mundane
greeting to the people present, but a very short exhortation so as to enter the
Mystery (General Presentation of the Roman Missal, n.50). Regarding the homily,
it is in itself a liturgical act which has its own rules.
“Participatio
actuosa” in the work of Christ, presupposes that we leave the secular world so
as to enter the “sacred action surpassing all other” (Sacrosanctum concilium,
n.7). De facto, “we claim, with a certain arrogance, to stay in the human - to
enter the divine.” (Robert Sarah, “Dieu ou rien”, p. 178).
In
such a sense, it is deplorable that the sanctuary (of the high altar) in our
churches is not a place strictly reserved for Divine worship, that secular
clothes are worn in it and that the sacred space is not clearly defined by the
architecture. Since, as the Council teaches, Christ is present in His Word when
this is proclaimed , it is similarly detrimental that the readers do not wear
appropriate clothing, indicating that they are not pronouncing human words but
the Divine Word.
The
liturgy is fundamentally mystical and contemplative, and consequently beyond
our human action; even the “participatio” is a grace from God. Therefore, it
presupposes on our part an opening to the mystery being celebrated. Thus, the
Constitution recommends full understanding of the rites (n.34) and at the same
time prescribes that “the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together
in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.”
(n.54).
In
reality, the understanding of the rites is not is not an act of reason left to
its own devices, which should accept everything, understand everything, master
everything. The understanding of the sacred rites is that of “sensus fidei”,
which exercises the living faith through symbols and which knows through
“harmony” more than concept. This understanding presupposes that one draws
close to the Divine Mystery with humility.
But
will we have the courage to follow the Council up to this point? Such a
reading, illuminated by faith, is however, fundamental for evangelization. In
fact, “to those who are outside as a sign lifted up among the nations under
which the scattered children of God may be gathered together “ (n.2). It [the
reading of S.C.] must stop being a place of disobedience to the prescriptions
of the Church.
More
specifically, it cannot be an occasion for laceration among Catholics. The
dialectic readings of “Sacrosanctum concilium” i.e. the hermeneutics of rupture
in one sense or another, are not the fruit of a spirit of faith. The Council
did not want to break with the liturgical forms inherited from Tradition,
rather it wanted to deepen them. The Constitution establishes that “any new
forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.”
(n.23).
In
this sense, it is necessary that those celebrating according to the “usus
antiquior” do so without any spirit of opposition, and hence in the spirit of
“Sacrosanctum concilium”. In the same way, it would be wrong to consider the
Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite as deriving from another theology that is
not the reformed liturgy. It would also be desirable that the Penitential Rite
and the Offertory of the “usus antiquior” be inserted as an enclosure in the
next edition of the Missal with the aim of stressing that the two liturgical
reforms illuminate one another, in continuity and with no opposition.
If
we live in this spirit, then the liturgy will stop being a place of rivalry and
criticisms, ultimately, to allow us to participate actively in that liturgy
“which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as
pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the
holies and of the true tabernacle.” (n.8).
