But then what?

Well, I'm taking "the plunge" this Fall.... I enrolled in a class at St Paul Seminary, ... while I'm working full time. Pretty dangerous..... the class is ...ta-da..... Theology of the Sacraments. Those of you who read this blog know how I love the sacramental life of the Church. So, being asked to read hundreds of pages about sacraments is no hardship.

However, because I'm taking the class while working I decided to go ahead and start reading through the syllabus ahead of time so that I can better prepare for class with all these full-time seminarian priests-in-waiting that I'll be in class with.

Here's the first of many gems I've run across. It's from a book entitled The Wellspring of Worship by Jean Corbon. It looks at liturgy from an Eastern Christian point of view, and offers a lot of insight into the commonalities that link the two lungs of the Church (East and West), and keep us all breathing the Ruach of God's Spirit.

"What then does it mean to say that God saves human beings? Does it mean that he gives them a course in theology?

That he gives them a moral law, or even that he gives them the commandment of love?

That he teaches them to change structures, whether personal, social or economic?

That he lets them know in the smallest detail the kind of worship agreeable to their creator?

That he reveals to them that God is a Father, and kind and merciful, and does so by letting them experience it, as we do with one another in our good moments?

But then what?

All that I have just been saying has been the object of the human search for centuries, in religions, philosophies, sciences, ideologies....

Of what use to me are models of morality and fine promises of life as long as the root of this disasterous tragedy- death- has been pulled up- not tomorrow, but now?

This is the only really important question. Everything else is just a passing episode and a distraction.

One Thing Needful, and Two Slight Correctives

Coincidences abound.

I've been starting the last few days to prepare for a class I'm taking this Fall, Theology of the Sacraments. I've been personally involved in liturgical matters for many years, as student, presider, lector, extraordinary minister. However, as I begin some reading, I've started to have a new appreciation for the source and summit of our faith.

Then along comes yesterday's gospel reading... Martha, Mary and the one thing needful. How perfect!

Lk 10,38-42.

"As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

This gospel reading puts the focus of our worship and our lives where it really belongs... on being with Christ. We need to hear this again and again.

I was taught early on at (Lutheran) seminary that liturgy meant "the work of the people." Liturgical reform was seen by some as if lay folk were storming the Bastille of clergy dominated rites and re-taking their rightful place as the focal point of the Church's public worship.

Liturgy... of the people, by the people, for the people.

For Christians in general and for Catholics in particular that word "liturgy" by the mid 20th century had come to mean the cultic acts of public worship, the pious exercises God's people engage in communally in worship and praise of God.

Pope Pius XII sensed the need to point the Church toward a deeper understanding of liturgy with his encyclical Mediator Dei. There he said that essential liturgy was not just our actions. It is the extension of Christ's saving presence as High Priest into our world. An important message. However, that early 1950's reminder was soon overtaken and swamped by the current events of the Second Vatican Council.

Turn the altars around!
Anoint the lay folk to take over roles previously reserved to clergy!
Make the language spoken intelligible and every-day so the people can "relate!"

Rightfully, the Vatican II Council pointed once again to active, full and conscious participation in the liturgy as one goal among others. Indeed, many of these changes rendered valuable service to a Church in sore need of reform.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think we need to turn back the clock. However, I also don't think the Reform can progress much further going forward without a much-needed Reform of the Reform.

The zeal for immedate reform in the wake of Vatican II seems to have obscured the importance of Pius XII's statement. Two other important elements of worship only now, a generation later, can be rediscovered, unpacked and fully appreciated.

Looking again at Pius XII's statement and the ancient sources it seems to me that the word "liturgy" really has two additional and slightly different foci. The word leiturgeia was used most commonly in the ancient world to reflect the work done on behalf of another.... public service, if you will, whether that be civic, political or religious duties. The focus of liturgy rightly belongs on Christ's priestly work and on others, not on us.

One of the "others" we focus on is God Himself. As Pius XII said, true worship is Christ-o-centric. It comes from Christ and remains centered on his salvific work as our great High Priest. The priesthood and accompaning sacramental ministries all turn back toward this one point, the source of all grace and all life who is that greatest of all High Priests. He mounted the altar of the Cross and gave himself for us. This is where we need to aim our worship, and not at the lower (but admirable)goals of "relevance" and "intelligibility."

A counter-balancing facet keeps this turning upward from becoming some sort of inward-turning introspective, convoluted maze, unrelated to the world at large. The "for other-ness" of liturgy also means that the entire assembly is called to worship and serve the living God in order to help bring life to the world.

We're not here in Mass to make ourselves feel good, or be affirmed or even to be "strengthened for service," All of those results may be helpful by-products of our liturgical involvement. We are really there on behalf of another or really LOTS of others... to help make the salvation which Jesus Christ won for us more real in its salvific effects in the world.

We really need both elements of "for-otherness" to make liturgy work right.

The high-priestly work of Christ made present in and for the world. What could be better? What could be more needful?

Both... And

Thanks to Spencer Howe's mother, I found this really great quote from Servant of God John Paul II. She has a daily e mail which she sends out from JOY2DAY2U@aol.com. Thank you, Spence's mom, for your email ministry and for encouraging your son in his priestly vocation.

This quote is another example of the Church's
"both...and" which often brings together complementary elements in the life of faith.

The late Holy Father lived the truth that good liturgy produces good social relationships. We often need to be reminded of the connection between the two.


"Christ in the Eucharist urges the faithful
to foster warm and constructive relationships with everyone,
and to work untiringly
for the spread of peace throughout the world.

The love which the Eucharist nourishes in human hearts
impels Christians to work for peace in society.
Whoever lives by this love
is convinced that conflicts can be resolved
and that social justice can prevail."

Pope John Paul II

Here's a link to the helpful Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commission's work on Liturgy and Justice.

On the Loss of the Sacred

Here is a fine excerpt from the first part of four, penned by the Bishop of Paterson, New Jersey, Arthur Seratelli. "On the Loss of the Sacred" provides some good pointers on the continuing Reform of the Reform.

The anti-authoritarian prejudice that we have inherited from the social revolution of the '60’s imprinted on many a deep mistrust not only of government but of Church. Some even reject the very idea of hierarchy (literally, “a sacred origin”) as a spiritual authority established by God. As a result, Church means, for some, simply the assembly of like-minded believers who organize themselves and make their own rules and dogmas. Thus, the Church’s role in the spiritual realm is greatly eclipsed.

On the first day of the new millennium, Prince Charles of England said, "In an age of secularism, I hope, with all my heart, in a new millennium we will rediscover a sense of the sacred in all that surrounds us." He said he hoped this would hold true whether in growing crops, raising livestock, building homes in the countryside, treating disease or educating the young. He recognized by his statement that we have lost a sense of the sacred.

Living in our world, we breathe the toxic air that surrounds us. Even within the most sacred precincts of the Church, we witness a loss of the sense of the sacred. With the enthusiasm that followed the Second Vatican Council, there was a well-intentioned effort to make the liturgy modern. It became commonplace to say that the liturgy had to be relevant to the worshipper. Old songs were jettisoned. The guitar replaced the organ. Some priests even began to walk down the road of liturgical innovation, only to discover it was a dead end. And all the while, the awareness of entering into something sacred that has been given to us from above and draws us out of ourselves and into the mystery of God was gone.

Teaching about the Mass began to emphasize the community. The Mass was seen as a community meal. It was something everyone did together. Lost was the notion of sacrifice. Lost the awesome mystery of the Eucharist as Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The priest was no longer seen as specially consecrated. He was no different than the laity. With all of this, a profound loss of the sacred.
Not one factor can account for the decline in Mass attendance, Church marriages, baptisms and funerals in the last years. But most certainly, the loss of the sense of the sacred has had a major impact.

Walk into any church today before Mass and you will notice that the silence that should embrace those who stand in God’s House is gone. Even the Church is no longer a sacred place. Gathering for Mass sometimes becomes as noisy as gathering for any other social event. We may not have the ability to do much about the loss of the sacredness of life in the songs, videos and movies of our day. But, most assuredly, we can do much about helping one another recover the sacredness of God’s Presence in His Church.

On the first day of this millennium, the Prince of Wales struck a strong note of optimism for the recovery of the sacred. Paraphrasing Dante, he remarked: "The strongest desire of everything, and the one first implanted by nature, is to return to its source. And since God is the source of our souls and has made it alike unto Himself, therefore this soul desires above all things to return to Him." There is one place where we can begin to rediscover the sacred."