DD, PART I

DD, PART I No, this won’t be a series of essays on “Dungeons and Dragons”! But it will be some explications and reflections on a recent Apostolic Letter from Pope Francis, Desiderio Desideravi, on the Liturgy. The Latin title, by the way, comes from the Vulgate version of Luke 22:15—“With [great] desire I have desired to eat the Passover with you, before I suffer.” Everyone, the pope insists, is invited to the Passover of which He is the Paschal lamb of sacrifice—the Church must embrace a “missionary option” to reach out to those who do not know they have been invited, or forgotten the invitation, or who have got [sic]lost in the world (##4-5). We may desire to take part in His Passover, but this is only because the Lord has first desired us! This is so like the theology of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, so strong in the theology of the Holy Spirit (the technical term is ‘pneumatology’)—we gather because the Spirit first gathers us; we come because He has first called us. Think of the parable of the wedding feast: “…everything is ready; come to the feast” Matt 22:4). Will we allow the Holy Spirit to gather us? In a crucial theological insight, Francis declares the Church’s teaching on the reality of the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist: “From the very beginning the Church was aware that this was not a question of a representation… From the very beginning the Church had grasped, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that that which was visible in Jesus…everything of Him had passed into the celebration of the sacraments” (#9). It is the risen Christ that we encounter there (or, better, it is the risen Christ who encounters us there). Without the power of this encounter, Christian faith does not exist (#10). The rest of this Apostolic Letter will be an unpacking of the ways in which Liturgy, properly celebrated and entered into, is the way to experience this encounter. Think about this statement: “…God created water precisely with Baptism in mind” (#13). What does this tell us about God’s desire for us? The worship here at Our Savior during Easter season reminds us of the glory of water as a sacramental sign of salvation, from Noah through the Exodus, the prophets, and Jesus in the River Jordan. Most of us do not remember our baptism, but when we bless ourselves with baptismal water while coming into the church, we are (or should be aware that we are) re-claiming that experience— we are saying YES to the fact of what happened to many of us at infancy. At the same time, we proclaim our faith in the Trinity of Father/Son/Spirit, and our salvation through the Cross which we symbolically make while blessing ourselves. This moment is extremely powerful—IF we take the time to think about what we are doing and affirm it. If it is simply a rote behavior, there is no encounter that we embrace. Could we imagine a spouse or child or significant other standing in front of us, arms outstretched, and then intentionally or carelessly walking past without a glance? The rest of the Apostolic Letter tries to describe the “…truth and power of Christian celebration. I want the beauty of the Christian celebration and its necessary consequences for the life of the Church [emphasis added] not to be spoiled… (#16). Let’s see where the Pope’s thoughts might take us. More to come! -Fr David