Eucharist: Our almighty, perfect, absolute, everlasting, infinitely Good-True-Beautiful, eventful Trinity...present in a simple rite, a few words and gestures, and elements of bread and wine. This is incomprehensible for our finite intellects! This is incommensurate with the fragility, finitude, weakness, disorder, instability and sickness of wills, hearts, intellects, and emotions. The thing is impossible on two levels: objective and subjective. Objectively: no human act, no creaturely reality can fittingly express God. Subjectively: so distracted, inattentive, agitated, restless, compulsive and obsessed are we, in so many ways, that we are incapable of a fitting reception and response.
Nevertheless, Christ choses to give himself to us...body and soul, humanity and divinity, crucified-and-risen...in these few simple gestures, words and elements. So we, the Catholic Church...the Bride of the Groom, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit...say "yes"..."fiat"..."amen" as we receive, cherish, celebrate, enjoy, protect and share this Incommensurate Mystery!
Subjectively: We hear the words "this is my body...take and eat...in memory of me." We do so...aware that our thankful but weak reception and response are infinitely asymmetrical, incommensurate, and inadequate. We can only pray that over time, by God's grace, we might walk a patient path that honors the encounter...of thanksgiving, receptivity, praise, charity, hope, compassion, zeal, and joy.
Objectively: We receive with filial gratitude, from Mother Church, this miraculous treasure in its humble, earthen vessel. For us: the Novus Ordo, the Vatican II Catholic mass. We painfully recognize that no imaginable rite of words, gestures and things can fittingly represent God. But he himself chooses to come to us in this simplicity, indeed indignity. And we obediently receive, participate, eat, drink and adore.
Novus Ordo form of the mass, universally practiced by the worldwide Roman Church for almost 60 years, is authoritative, efficacious, authentic, and valid. It is also blatantly inadequate...as an expression of the inner form/substance/essence/Mystery of the Eucharistic Reality...in several ways:
- It lacks sense of the sacred, the solemn, the awe-inspiring, the adorable. It is deliberately casual, informal, vernacular, relaxed, ordinary. It discards silence in favor; it replaces altar with table; it prefers the living room to the sanctuary, the chapel, the cathedral. Along with this:
- Aesthetically it is banal, monotonous, philistine. It is low (Protestant) Church and low brow. The newer Church buildings feel like clean, new, high school gymnasiums. The music is, for the most part, winey-moany-groaney, effeminate, sentimental. (I much prefer the solemnity of Gregorian Chant, the piety of old Catholic hymns, the vigor of charismatic Praise-and-Worship music, and the martial virility of the Neocatechumenate.) Translations emulate the secular and avoid the traditional and ancient.
- Too many words! Too verbal! We sit and listen, non-stop, to prosaic, common-use American English until our minds go dizzy and we get nauseous. There is no break for silence, Latin, crusader zeal, solemn chant, praying in tongues, holy laughter, ecstatic worship. The entire rite is cerebral, white bread, suburban, bourgeois, middle class! Along with this:
- Too priest-centered! Paradoxically, the liturgical movement intended to retrieve a sense of community. What resulted is that we sit and listen to the priest. He reads scripture, gives homily, says almost all the prayers. We sit and listen, like a bunch of hyperactive, high-testosterone junior high boys stuck in the classroom learning poetry from a 75-year-old nun. Worse: priests with a narcissistic trait feel obliged to entertain, to tell jokes, to charm and enchant. And so we endure the annoyance of embracive greetings, personal stories, clapping in Church, and amateur performance. By contrast: the Latin mass offers: an aura of quiet, ongoing chant from the choir, incense, a legion of aged altar "boys" moving around in perfect harmony; the Charismatics offer robust music, praying in tongues, prophesies, apostolic preaching, miraculous healings, heartwarming testimonies; the Neocatechumenate offers echoes, admonitions, and crusader music that would stir the heart of an El Cid. In none of these forms is the persona of the clergyman so pervadingly monotonous and oppressive.
It is not the fault of the priests. Many are humble and holy and find a way to hide themselves and allow Christ to radiate in the liturgy. The problem is systemic. So we see that our Church needs other expressions, other forms to manifest other dimensions of this incomprehensible Mystery.
Latin Mass retrieves that sense of the sacred and the solemn: the unusual language, the calming-prayerful-inspiring chant, the genuflecting-kneeling-reception-on-tongue. It maintains a sense of community with previous generations over the centuries. It is deliberately NOT casual, informal, user-friendly. The priestly action is, of course, the heart of the rite, but it is symphonically complemented by music, incense, many participants around the altar. It is largely non-cerebral and non-verbal and so appeals to the human spirit, senses, emotions as well as the intellect. There is plenty of exercise: standing, sitting, kneeling, genuflecting, sitting, etc. It is even good for the body!
Charismatic Worship, offers similar benefits in a strikingly different style: tongues, prophesies, exuberant music including swaying and lifting of the arms, testimonies. Again: the priest is the center actor, the Alter Christus, as he is surrounded by a superb cast of supporting characters. From the Pentecostals and Evangelicals there is an enhanced reverence for the power of the Word of God.
Neocatechumenal Way even more deeply strengthens the Liturgy of the Word. A small group meets previous to the liturgy to prayerfully, carefully read the three scripture offerings and prepare admonitions or exhortations. After the readings, participants share "echoes" or personal testimonies on how the Word impacts their actual lives. After this, the priest delivers a succinct homily, highlighting the key message. Historically we Catholics have been weak in our reception of the Word. Unhappily, the Liturgy of the Eucharist which follows is not strengthened but weakened in this "Way" as the ancient, received model of solemnity and sacrifice is rejected in favor of a "Passover-meal" model that became fashionable at the time of the Council.
Eucharistic Devotions are essential to Catholic life for two reasons: objectively no single rite can adequately express the Reality; and subjectively our reception/response at that rite is woefully inadequate and requires an entire way of life, a culture. So, we need: adoration, processions, 40-hour-devotions, frequent visits to Church, holy hours, daily mass, solemn protocols of silence/genuflecting, signs-of-cross, fasting, daily office, rosary and frequent confession. We need to build our personal and social lives around that simple, short daily and weekly liturgical rite.
Pope Francis, tolerant of the charismatics and Neocatechumenate, has brutally repressed the Latin Mass. This is a rash judgement on his part; a huge mistake; a scandal; a narrow, authoritarian repression. One of his very worst decisions. He has crushed a wholesome, salutary and even necessary expression of the Eucharistic Mystery. History will judge him harshly on this.
Pope Benedict will be remembered as the great pope-theologian of the Eucharist. His Spirit of the Eucharist, which echoes in his personal voice the masterpiece of the same title by Romano Guardino, is a classic. He encouraged the Latin Mass as a corrective to the Novus Ordo. He valued the Neocatechumenal Way but directed that they be more integrated into the broader Catholic liturgical practice by attending the ordinary parish liturgy once a month. This was, in my view, a prudent, balanced, corrective pastoral directive. However, Kiko Arguello rejected it as a threat to the integrity of his " ? " (way? association? movement? cult?). In this suspicion he shows a fundamental schismatic impulse: a disparagement of ordinary, parish Catholicism. While he does not question the validity of the ordinary mass in the manner of the most extreme, sedevacantist Latins, he clearly devalues ordinary parish worship. He seems to fear that such integration and diminishment of the detached position of his innovative Catholic association will destroy it. To his satisfaction, of course, Benedict resigned and his successor Francis is not so demanding.
To Conclude: Catholic life is an entire culture, a Eucharistic symphony, that infuses every aspect of life, and finds expression in boundless creativity, richness, and diversity. With Benedict we do well to "catholically" welcome the many valid expressions of the Eucharist, integrating them into the broader ecclesial life, but cherishing each for its distinctive beauty.
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