DD PART IV

DD PART IV “‘…we must learn anew how to relate religiously as fully human beings.’ What needs to be done to facilitate our encounters with the risen Lord in the Liturgy? Pope Francis quotes an influential liturgical theologian, Romano Guardini, to offer this insight: “‘…we must learn anew how to relate religiously as fully human beings.’ This is what the Liturgy makes possible. For this we must be formed. Guardini does not hesitate to declare that without liturgical formation ‘then ritual and textual reforms won’t help much.’” So Francis suggests two aspects for consideration: formation for the Liturgy and formation by the Liturgy. The first depends upon the second which is essential” (#34). How can this be begun, if not fully achieved? “Let us always remember that it is the Church, the Body of Christ, that is the celebrating subject and not just the priest.” True as this is, there is a special burden on the priest to lead others to “… actual practice of an experience of living faith, nourished by prayer” (#36). But to lead means that the journey is not a solo walk, with others simply watching, and it does not mean cheerleading others into the journey while failing to accompany them. We are in this together. It takes preparation on the part of the priest: from the more banal (unlocking the doors, turning on the lights, setting out hosts and wine, setting up the Missal and Lectionary) to the more profoundly important (homily preparation, prayerful engagement with the texts of the Mass). But there must be preparation on the part of all the members of the Body of Christ—a preparation for Liturgy which “…is about praise, about rendering thanks…” When we come to church, have we spent any time thinking about what we have to be grateful for and how we want to praise the Lord for that goodness? If so, then our participation in worship will be fruitful; it will begin to conform us to Christ (#41). We are a sacramental people, and so when we engage in Liturgy in this way we do so with material/sacramental things like bread, wine, oil, water, incense, fire, colours (sic), space, music, movement, posture, light. How they all are used is essential to communicating encounter—it is why the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from Vatican II insisted that all these items be, and be used with, noble simplicity informed by prayer and love. Here we touch on what is truly essential: without prayer and love the use of material things too easily can become a show, a performance (bad or good!) that might distract, might entertain, might bore, but will never transform. Earlier I quote Pope Francis as saying God created water precisely for Baptism. What if everything else was created for our sacramental transformation—for Eucharist, for Confirmation, for Reconciliation…? How would I look at a loaf of bread or a bottle of wine at my dinner table if I considered that it was truly created for Eucharist? The world itself would become sacred, and I would be highly sensitive to that reality when I come to church. Our difficulty, Pope Francis thinks, is insensitivity to these kinds of realities. He quotes Romano Guardini again: ‘Here there is outlined the first task of the work of liturgical formation: man must become once again capable of symbols.’ In his own words, Francis writes: “To have lost the capacity to grasp the symbolic value of the body and of every creature renders the symbolic language of the Liturgy almost inaccessible to the modern mentality” (#44). What can be done about this situation?
-Fr David