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Fifth Sunday of the Year
7 February 2009
Dear Friends in Christ,
Last weekend I was in Omaha, Nebraska for the annual conference of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, an interdisciplinary group of scholars from many fields (theology, canon law, sacred music, architecture, etc) all of whom are dedicated to the ongoing work of liturgical reform in the spirit of what Pope Benedict XVI has described as a “hermeneutic of continuity.” This fancy phrase simply means that we must understand the Church in our time as being in complete continuity with the Church in all previous times, rather than thinking of the Second Vatican Council and the various agitations of the 1960’s as some kind of radical break with everything that came before. This frame of mind is critical to a proper understanding of the development of Christian doctrine and to a proper celebration of the mysteries of faith in the sacred liturgy, and it is this “hermeneutic of continuity” which shapes the pastoral practice of the clergy, religious, teachers and staff of St. Mary’s Church and School.
When you visit other parishes or dioceses you may well find that the preaching of the Gospel and the celebration of the sacred liturgy are quite different from what you find here, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Within the great compass of the Church’s life, there is ample room for authentic diversity, and each culture and language contributes its own genius to the transmission of the Church’s faith. But some of the practices you may observe flow from a “hermeneutic of discontinuity” rather than from legitimate diversity of expression, and someone who is well formed in the faith can usually tell the difference. There is a supernatural “sense of the faith” which allows a faithful Catholic to know as if by instinct when something is amiss in the preaching of the Gospel or the celebration of the sacred liturgy, and you should trust that instinct. Bishops, priests, and deacons who are charged with teaching, sanctifying, and governing the Church undertake these tasks not in their own name and authority but in those of the Lord Jesus. For this reason, promises of many sorts are made by those who are ordained to preach the Gospel and celebrate the sacred liturgy exactly according to the mind of the Church, and when they fail to do that, they are substituting their own opinions and tastes for the Faith of the Church. During the 44 years since the end of the Second Vatican Council, so many things have changed in the life of the Church that not a few Catholics came to think of everything as negotiable and changeable, but that is simply not the case. The form of the Church, the content of her doctrine, the rule of her faith…these are things given to us by the Lord Jesus, and we may not change them. The eight principles of Evangelical Catholicism that I use here as a catechetical tool are designed to help us understand the practical consequences of the truth that the Lord Jesus and His Gospel are the same today, yesterday, and forever, and I encourage you to go back to these principles time and again as you seek to follow the Way of the Cross, teach your children to do the same, and invite your friends and neighbors to join you.Father Newman