Left Brain/Right Brain
Our left hemisphere is logical, verbal, mathematical, analytic, linear and more masculine. Right hemisphere is creative, imaginative, intuitive, mystical, musical and more feminine. Iain McGilchrist has famously used this binary to indict Western culture as being overly left-brained: activist, technological, and controlling; lacking the receptivity of art, contemplation and mysticism. Here we might apply it to contrast the Novus Ordo mass that emerged from the Vatican Council to previous Eucharistic practice and devotion.
The shift to the vernacular from Latin was the standout aspect of the reform. This was widely heralded as an enhancement of lay understanding and participation. What was enhanced, we now see in retrospect, was precisely verbal, cognitive, deliberative, left-brain engagement. With this came an unintended and largely unrecognized consequence: diminishment of right brain engagement as contemplation, receptivity, rest, quiet, awe, reverence, ecstasy, and surrender.
The current appeal of the old rite, entirely incoherent to progressives, makes sense in this light. Today's young people are drawn to the solemnity, silence, reverence, receptivity and restfulness; to the sabbath release from cognition, deliberation, analysis, achievement, moralism, activism and too many words.
The new mass has too many words: readings, prayers, sermons, comments. There is no rest for the left brain; there is no engagement of the right brain. Additionally, there is too much attention to the priest. Rather than facing with the people towards the East, disappearing into worship, he now faces the people throughout the rite. We cannot get away from him. This has led to narcissism on the part of the priest: he is under pressure to be funny, charming, witty, creative, inspiring, profound and yet lighthearted. He has to have a good joke to start the homily. He has to be welcoming and warm.
Contrast this with the TLM: the personality of the priest is invisible. He speaks everything in Latin, mostly in a low voice. The determining assumption: Ex Opere Operato...it is the sacramental act itself that sanctifies. This has nothing to do with the personality, intelligence, charm or piety of the priest. With the Latin, silence, ritualism, and garb there is an appeal to the mystical, the contemplative, the receptive right brain. One is removed from the normal, the routine, the ordinary; moved into a realm of mystery, transcendence, enchantment. This is enhanced even more with Gregorian Chant, incense, and legions of septuagenarian altar "boys" moving about in perfect choreography (like the girls in a Radio City Christmas show) with candles, crucifixes, censors, missals and others. In addition, in a classic old church we are inundated with icons: statues, stain glass windows, paintings and other. The quiet, intuitive right brain is enormously stimulated by the corporal stimuli through eye, ear, nose and the entire human body. While the clergy move about on the altar, the laity sit/stand/kneel over and over again, getting the equivalent of a good hour in the gym. This is deeply, intensely sacramental: the eternal taking flesh here and now. By contrast, liturgical renewal after the Council seeks to move away from the mysterious, the awesome, the sacred; it wants liturgy to be ordinary, relevant, secular...everyday-language translations, saccharine music, the priest as master of ceremonies, architecture mundane like a gym or auditorium.
Ratio and Intellectus
An identical binary of the intellect is found in the classical/medieval contrast of reason as Ratio and Intellectus. Both are aspects of human intelligence, but ratio is deliberative, active, verbal, logical, linear, empirical, argumentative, problem-centered. "Artificial intelligence" (if it is intelligence at all, which I doubt) is closer to this form of reason. Intellectus is receptive, immediate, intuitive, nonverbal, artistic, inspired, ecstatic. It is not calculative, but the immediate apprehension of the actual given. It is not effort, work, achievement. It is a a gift of gentle, peaceful, joyous reception. It is fully human as personal, corporal, spiritual, celebrative...there is absolutely NOTHING "artificial" about it.
The primacy of intellectus over ration, of contemplation over action, of reception over initiative, of leisure over achievement, of being over having, of the sabbath over work, of the intuitive over the deliberative, of the festive over the efficient...has been proclaimed by Pieper, Heschel, Buber, Balthasar, Kierkegaard, Schindler, Marcel, Stein and a legion of wise ones.
Here again we see that the ancient rite leans more into intellectus and the contemporary into ratio. In this it is entirely relevant and contemporary as claimed...in the worst way. It tends to the verbose, moralistic, histrionic, activist. It renders the left brain overstimulated and exhausted; the right brain remains dormant.
Where to, Church, from Here?
Christ, alive for us in the Eucharist, is absolutely the ground, focus, destiny, pinnacle, and epitome of our Catholic life.
The Novus Ordo...in its poverty of form...is the authentic, efficacious, ordinary, valid manner of celebration.
There is a fittingness to the humility, the poverty, the psychological inadequacy of the rite. The core of the Eucharist is simple, plain, humble. We confess and ask for Mercy, receive the Word; the priest offers the elements in memory of the sacrifice of Calvary, consecrates the elements; we receive communion. This is best seen when priests in prison are able to celebrate with the smallest drop of wine and piece of bread. Christ's heavenly presence from heaven is fully manifest in a few simple words, gestures and things (bread/wine).
The Catholic project is to build a life, a culture, a society, a history, persons and communities...in which all flows from and into the Eucharist...for the salvation of souls and the Glory of God. For this we need to move beyond the limitations of the left brain and ratio... into the right brain and intellectus.
To start:
1. Let TLM flourish in its ancient splendors. May it be complemented by other, reverent rites: Neocatechumenal, charismatic, ethnic, simple and elaborate, wedding and funeral masses, traditional and contemporary.
2. Clarify the sacrifice dimension: even the Passover-family meal was a feast on sacrificed lambs.
3. Revive Eucharistic worship with silence, solemnity, high art, fine music, the sacredness of the Church building itself (no unnecessary talk or noise PLEASE!). Let's bring back "ad orientam" with priest looking East with the congregation so he is not distracting by drawing so much attention. Let's bring back kneeling to receive. Let's NOT clap in Church...not for the choir, not for the ushers, not for the altar boys, not for a good sermon...PLEASE! NO CLAPPING. PERIOD.
4. We genuflect (bend knee) on the right (not the left knee) to the tabernacle, and only to the tabernacle (with the exception of Good Friday/Holy Saturday). Let's get this right. This is THE EUCHARIST! Traditionally, we bend the left knee to a human like a king or such. The right knee is reserved only for Christ as God, in the Eucharist. We bow to altar, where the sacrifice is offered, which is a symbol, but not Christ's very self. If you are physically unable to do a full genuflection, a reverent bow from the waist serves. Spare us the half-curtsy...it is awkward, ugly, distracting. This is important. THIS IS THE EUCHARIT!
For extra credit, dear Reader, google Fr. Mike Schmitz on "three reasons to genuflect." He recall "Lord of the Rings" at Rivendelle, the start of the adventure, when Aragon (the King himself) bends the knee to pledge loyalty to little Frodo Baggins: "Whether by my life or my death, if I can protect you, I will. You have my sword."
5. Lets build an entire culture, a way of life around our Cult of the Eucharist: sign of cross when passing Catholic Church, Churches left unlocked for frequent VISITS even for a few minutes, holy hours before the tabernacle, 40-hour-devotion, parish missions, pilgrimages, processions. If you are sitting at home in prayer, direct your attention also to the nearest tabernacle-in-Church. When you travel after you know where you will sleep and eat, learn where Jesus is present in the tabernacle. Read mass readings before, during and after mass. Go to mass daily as possible. Supplement with rosary, stations, litany of Divine Mercy, first Friday devotion, and other. Have masses said for the deceased. Pray for priests and for vocations.
Like Aragon at Rivendell, let us bend the knee, pledge our loyalty, offer our sword: "whether by my life or my death...to nothing and no one on earth, but to Christ, so simple, small, quiet, serene, peaceful in the Eucharist!
Jesus,
My friend and brother; captain and king; Lord, Savior and God;
Present in the Eucharistic Host...so small, simple, silent, serene;
Make me like Yourself: poor, powerless, patient, persevering, and pure;
Receptive of and Radiant with Your holiness.
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