Fr. JC Maximilian

Since I did not get to preach this weekend, I thought I would share just a few reflections that occurred to me as I prayed about today’s Solemnity this past week.

I love the liturgy. I cannot say it any plainer than that. I love the liturgy; so much so that it truly pains me to see liturgical abuse. I am not talking about mistakes or carelessness (although needless carelessness in the liturgy bothers me too). Rather, I am talking about the self-centered, “I’ll do it my way”-attitude that is way too common. One of the principle reasons for the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council was to remove the various things that had been added to the Mass over the centuries. There was a desire to get back to the simple Roman Rite (too often there was a failure to keep the “noble” with the simplicity which has been characteristic of the Roman Rite). Many of the more “vertical” or Divine oriented actions were scaled back. However, in just 40 some years we seem to have added so much that the liturgy does not call for, almost exclusively of the “horizontal” or human level. There are few places where the GIRM says that a priest can “say this or in similar words” (and there is no place where the deacon can “in similar words”) to modify the text of the Mass. The Mass is not about the priest or deacon or the laity. It is for us; it is our entering into the work of salvation accomplished by the Trinity. The liturgy does not belong to us, but rather to the Church, and that is why no one is suppose to just alter the Mass on their own. Obedience to the “rubrics” is a way of living out what Jesus lived, as He says so often in the Gospel, “I only do the work my Father gives me to do” or “I only say the things my Father tells me to say.”

In my prayer this week I came to realized why a poorly prayed Mass (which for me means is more people doing it their own way) is so upsetting for me. What husband would not get upset to see others treat his wife abusively? Being ordained “in persona Christi capitas” when I celebrate Mass it is Christ working through me, and the Church is His Bride. Liturgical abuse is like watching a person abuse my wife. And to see the neglect and lack of respect that I often witness to the most Blessed Sacrament is the worse of the abuse.

How great a gift is the Eucharist, yet so many come to receive with a lackisdasical attitude. I cannot tell you how often people come with filthy hands to receive our Lord. Of course there are many, and probably the majority of regular Mass goers, who are very reverent, and they give me joy to see. The deacon who preached at the Masses I celebrated this weekend, captured that well when in his hommily he talked about the joyful eagerness that the sick he visits often have when he brings them the Eucharist. All of us should tremble in awe of “so Great a Gift.”

I am hopeful, however. As you may know, this week the US Bishops voted on a new translation of the Roman Missal. In the past I was no fan of the International Committee for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), because the translations they did in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s were, IMHO, mundane and lacking in sacredness. We should bring our best to Mass (remember when we dressed in “our Sunday best” for Mass? If you can buy your kids an iPod or Gameboy, you can get them something better to wear at Mass than a tee shirt and jeans). And that should include our language. Well, in the late 1990s ICEL was given a facelift, and the new translation that they developed for the Missal is much more faithful to the Latin text and much more noble and beautiful. It will take some getting used to, but as Archbishop Chaput noted, it will provide us priests and deacons an opportunity to teach people about the liturgy, so that they can fall in love with it all over again. As another bishop put it, “we will learn to speak Bible.”

There were other things I was going to say in this post, but between being called away to help jumpstart someone’s car, and some other interruptions, I have forgotten. If I remember I’ll write some more.