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Nineteenth Sunday of the Year
9 August 2009
The Fifth Principle of Evangelical Catholicism is:
“The sacred liturgy, through which the seven Sacraments are celebrated and the Hours of praise are prayed, makes present to us the saving mysteries of the Lord Jesus. The liturgy must therefore be celebrated in such a way that the truth of the Gospel, the beauty of sacred music, the dignity of ritual form, the solemnity of divine worship, and the fellowship of the baptized assembled to pray are kept together in organic unity.”
Since the late 1960’s, the Catholic Church has been convulsed by a great internal struggle that might fairly be described as “Liturgy Wars,” and like all wars, this one has left devastation in its wake. Instead of the renewal of the Church’s interior life which was called for by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council when they set into motion the reform of the sacred liturgy, what most dioceses, parishes, religious orders, and seminaries have experienced for the past 40 years has been chaos, division, confusion, and exhaustion. In all too many places, the liturgy is experienced more as a preview of purgatory than a foretaste of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the result is that the Church is rendered a bare ruined choir; this is one of the many reasons why vocations to the priesthood and religious life are so scarce in many places.
Since my ordination over 16 years ago, I have labored with all my might to celebrate the sacred liturgy according to the mind of the Church, in complete fidelity to the Second Vatican Council and all of Catholic tradition, and the practical result of this effort is experienced in the pews of St. Mary’s at every Mass. This is not what happens, however, in the vast majority of American parishes, and so what you experience at St. Mary’s is probably not what you have seen elsewhere. The shape of the liturgy here has been applauded by most, reviled by a few, and misunderstood by others, but what I ask everyone to grasp is that the way in which we celebrate the sacred liturgy (and sacred music) is not a matter of personal taste; it is the result of adherence to ancient principles and the constant teaching of the Church. And one result of that fidelity is the flowering among us of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
For those interested in understanding more deeply why the Church asks us to pray as we do, I recommend three short texts. Sacrosanctum Concilium is the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council; it is only a few pages long, and the text is available online. The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Looking at the Liturgy by Aidan Nichols, OP are slender but profound volumes (both published by Ignatius Press and still in print) which explore in greater depth the themes sounded in the Fifth Principle of Evangelical Catholicism. The psalmist sings that we are created “to worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness,” and the sacred liturgy is meant to lead us to Jesus. An essential part of the New Evangelization is the full and faithful celebration of the sacred liturgy, and here at St. Mary’s that is what we strive for in all our prayer. If you know someone who is befuddled by this, I hope you’ll encourage them to stop complaining and start reading. Let us go together to the source and summit of the Church’s life and find a glimpse of the New Jerusalem. Father Newman