Liturgical
Assembly: Keynote Address
by the Most Reverend Stephen E. Blaire
March 16, 2002
Cathedral of the Annunciation
Stockton, California
When I was a little boy I loved to go to Mass.
Before the Second Vatican Council we used to speak about “going
to Mass,” “attending Mass,” “assisting at Mass.” The priest
“said Mass” or “sang Mass” if it was a High or Solemn High
Mass. The priest stood at the altar facing the wall with
his back to the people in a sanctuary separated from the people
by an altar rail. The Mass was the priest’s - with the people
in attendance. The people spoke about “hearing Mass,” and
one had to be present for the Offertory, Consecration and
Communion parts of the Mass in order to fulfill one’s obligation.
Many people participated internally by using the Father
Stedman Missal which had Latin on one side and English
on the other. Others prayed their private prayers or said
the rosary. The bells called their attention to the impending
words of consecration, to the elevation of the consecrated
host and chalice, and to the time for Holy Communion. Any
singing was done by the choir, although gradually a limited
amount of congregational singing was being introduced. In
the seminaries a dialogue Mass was permitted usually on a
weekly basis. The congregation would respond to the dialogue
prayers which had been reserved to the server. When I was
in the seminary one priest was assigned to celebrate the students’
Mass and the others priests said ‘private’ Masses in small
rooms or at side altars. Communion was under the species
of bread alone except for the priest. Many people still received
communion only once a month, and very few received at the
noon Mass because the fast from all food and water had been
from midnight. Mass attendance was good, and people did have
a sense that it was a sacred action and an important one.
Long before the opening of the Second Vatican
Council liturgical renewal was in the works. Scholarly studies
had shown the development of the liturgies of the Church from
earliest times. Frequent communion had been encouraged since
the time of Pius X. The foundation for the Constitution
on the Liturgy had been laid by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical
letter Mediator Dei. The Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday,
Good Friday and the Vigil of Easter had been restored in 1955.
The stage had been set for the Council.
This morning I want to touch on three of the
important components of the liturgical renewal that have found
their place in the liturgical life of the Church today.
The first is fundamental and most important.
The liturgy is not a sacred action celebrated by the priest
with the people in attendance. The liturgy is the PRAYER
OF THE CHURCH united to Christ the head of the Church. Listen
to the words of the Council Fathers: “Rightly, then, the liturgy
is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus
Christ. . . . [I]n the liturgy the whole public worship is
performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by
the Head and His members” (SC, 7). In particular,
the liturgy of the Eucharist is the summit of all the Church’s
work and the source of all that she does. Called together
by God, the assembly celebrates the liturgy, and the priest,
by reason of his ordination, presides over the gathering of
the faithful. All the baptized who are present are called
to full, conscious, and active participation. Each one exercises
his or her proper priestly role united with one another in
Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great High Priest of the liturgy.
The ordained priest stands in the person of Christ as the
leader of the assembly; all the faithful exercise their baptismal
priesthood in worship. Christ in His great act of redemption—His
passion, death, resurrection and ascension—becomes present
on our altars so that we can experience anew the grace of
our redemption and offer ourselves as a Church “through Him,
with Him and in Him in the unity of the Holy Spirit” to the
glory of God our Father. The great sacrifice of the Mass is
the Church’s offering of Christ’s redemption to the Father
and our complete engagement in that act of redemption by faith.
Our fullest and deepest participation comes in the reception
of holy Communion whereby the unity of the Church as brothers
and sisters in Christ is created. All who are present gather
around the table of the Lord. The altar rails that served
as an extension of the altar table are removed because they
have come to symbolize a division between priest and people.
Our symbols must speak to the reality. What makes the Catholic
church building sacred space is the altar table around which
Christ’s living body gathers. How does all this happen? It
is by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Secondly and even more important is to understand
that Christ is truly present to His Church by the power of
the Holy Spirit in different ways. Where two or three are
gathered in His name He is present. Christ is present in
the believers assembled. For that is where God wants to be:
in His people, in their lives, in their hearts, in all their
experiences. It is for this reason that the lay ministers
should sit with the assembly and come forth from them to serve
as lectors or Communion ministers while at the same time remaining
part of the assembly. Christ is in the midst of His people
for one reason and one reason only: so that He may be present
within them as their redeemer and savior, as the one who loves
them.
Christ is also present in His ordained minister
as he presides over the assembly in the name of Christ Who
is THE Shepherd of the flock. As the spiritual leader of
the community the priest preaches the gospel and serves as
the presiding celebrant of the eucharist. He does not speak
some magic words that change the bread and wine into the body
and blood of Christ. Rather he is ordained by the Church
as an instrument of grace, who in the name of the Church invokes
the Holy Spirit over the elements of bread and wine so that
they become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The consecration
is the work of the Holy Spirit. The priest is the sacramental
minister of Christ.
Another manifestation of Christ’s presence is
in His Word. When the Scriptures are proclaimed it is Christ
who speaks to us. The word of God is powerful, and when it
enters our hearts it transforms us. When the word of God
penetrates our being it brings about a conversion that leads
to salvation. The word is the saving word of God. Since
we can only approach Christ with the eyes and ears of faith,
we must open our minds and hearts in faith to receive the
treasure of His word. We must let the word soak into the very
depths of our humanity. The Word enables us to see with the
eyes of faith.
All the ways Christ manifests Himself are real,
but it is His Eucharistic presence in the consecrated bread
and wine that the Church calls real par excellence.
It is the resurrected Christ reigning in the glory of the
Father who becomes present in the celebration of the Eucharist.
Notice the words of consecration: This is my body which will
be given up for you; this is the cup of my blood which will
be shed for you. The Christ present in the Eucharist is a
dynamic Christ. It is the risen Christ who continually offers
Himself to the Father on our behalf. Calvary is finished
historically but lives eternally in the offering that Christ
makes on our behalf in heaven. The death and resurrection
of Christ become present in the celebration of the Eucharist
so that we can enter fully into our redemption. Every time
we celebrate the Eucharist we are lifted up by Christ to the
Father and in union with Christ we offer our lives, all that
we are and all that we do, to God. The fullest way we participate
in our redemption is by receiving Holy Communion that enables
us to live as the body of Christ in the world. Eucharistic
adoration as a solemn devotion in the Church finds its proper
place only with the understanding that Jesus exists in the
Eucharist so that He may be received.
The last point I want to make this morning is
a very brief but extremely important one.
The celebration of the liturgy is the work of
the Holy Spirit. In a sense we do not do the liturgy but
rather we pray the liturgy; we experience the liturgy; we
live the liturgy; we are the liturgy because it is the Holy
Spirit working within the Church. The rubrics provide for
an orderly celebration, but the celebration itself is a mystery,
a profound sacramental sharing in the mystery of God. It is
where earth meets heaven.
I hope that this assembly will be a good step
for all of us in better preparing our parish liturgies so
that they are truly prayerful and beautiful acts of worship
in which the whole assembly participates fully and consciously.
At the diocesan level we try to prepare all our liturgies
so that they serve as a model of the Church at prayer. The
Mass I loved as a child is the Mass I love even more now as
it flowers within liturgical renewal.
Last Update February 28, 2007
|
