As early as 1967, and upon first witnessing the new
"normative Mass" that was to be promulgated by Pope Paul VI,
concerns were raised regarding an innovative increase
in emphasis on the readings and singing during the Liturgy of the Word.
Cardinal Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, given only 5 minutes to present
his observations on the new order of the Mass, put it very
concisely:
"1. The rule of prayer is the rule of faith. If there
is to be more emphasis in the Mass on Bible readings than on Eucharistic
prayer, the faith of both clergy and people will be weakened.
2. There is more need than ever today to stress the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. No change in the Mass should be made which might seem to throw doubt on this doctrine." ( I copied these from Fr. Ray Blake's blog)
2. There is more need than ever today to stress the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. No change in the Mass should be made which might seem to throw doubt on this doctrine." ( I copied these from Fr. Ray Blake's blog)
As recently as 2010, "pew surveys" have provided
evidence justifying Cardinal Heenan's concerns. (U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey )
Over 30 years after Cardinal Heenan's statement, and having
observed three decades of innovations and novelties imposed upon the liturgy,
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who would become Pope Benedict XVI) acknowledged a
need for restoration of the liturgy in his forward to his book, The
Spirit of the Liturgy:
"In fact (the liturgy) is
threatened with destruction, if the necessary steps are not taken to stop these
damaging influences...what is imperative is a new reverence in the way we treat
it, a new understanding of its message and its reality, so that rediscovery
does not become the first stage of irreparable loss. My purpose in writing this
little book, which I now lay before the public, is to assist this renewal of
understanding."
While Cardinal Ratzinger provides instruction on many
aspects of the liturgy and "rite" in the pages of his "little
book," pertinent to this blog post is his section on
"Active Participation" and the necessity of distinguishing the
actions inherent to the Liturgy of the Word from those of the Liturgy of the
Eucharist. When considering the central action in which we are called to
participate during the Liturgy, he offers this:
"The study of the liturgical
sources provides an answer...By the actio
of the liturgy the sources mean the Eucharistic Prayer...
"...But this is only just a
hint of the central issue. This oratio—the
Eucharistic Prayer, the 'Canon'—is really more than speech; it is actio in the highest sense of the word.
For what happens in it is that the human actio...steps
back and makes way for the actio divina,
the action of God. In this oratio the
priest speaks with the I of the Lord—‘This is my Body’, ‘This is my Blood.’ He
knows that he is not now speaking from his own resources but in virtue of the
Sacrament that he has received, he has become the voice of Someone Else, who is
now speaking and acting. This action of God, which takes place through human
speech, is the real 'action' for which all of creation is in expectation. The
elements of the earth are transubstantiated, pulled, so to speak, from their
creaturely anchorage, grasped at the deepest ground of their being, and changed
into the Body and Blood of the Lord...
"...The uniqueness of the
Eucharistic liturgy lies precisely in the fact that God himself is acting and
that we are drawn into that action of God. Everything else is, therefore,
secondary.
"...By the same token,
participation in the Liturgy of the Word (reading, singing) is to be
distinguished from the sacramental celebration proper. We should be clearly
aware that external actions are quite secondary here.
"...If the various external
actions (as a matter of fact, there are not very many of them, though they are
being artificially multiplied) become the essential in the liturgy, if the
liturgy degenerates into general activity, then we have radically misunderstood
the “theo-drama” of the liturgy and
lapsed into a parody." (from pp. 171-5, _The Spirit of the Liturgy_.)
I would like to join my prayers to those of many who hope that the re-assertion of fundamental
liturgical truths, such as expressed so eloquently by Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and others with a similar awareness of the liturgical
tradition, will be the catalyst for the liturgical restoration at the parish-level that, in the end, is essential for the true "renewal of understanding."
