Today we
make a big change in moving the 9 a.m. Mass 15 minutes earlier to 8:45. This
may not sound like a big change, but when you start messing with liturgy,
people tend to get upset. So I would like to address another possible
liturgical change. You may have heard that earlier this month Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Vatican’s
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, urged priests and bishops
at a liturgical conference in London to start celebrating Masses “ad orientem,” or facing away
from the congregation, beginning the first Sunday of Advent this year. Those of
us with long memories can remember as children the priest celebrating Mass with
his back to the people. This is a call to return to that posture.
Very quickly the
Vatican distanced itself from this suggestion, and the appeal for priests to go
back to the old way of celebrating Mass rather quickly died. So don’t look for
Frs. Dick or Rich or myself to don fiddle-back vestments and turn our backs on
you at Advent. Still, some liturgical purists were very happy to hear such an
important Roman official make this suggestion. And I have come across an
article by one of them (Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry) who makes his case for the
priest celebrating with his back to the congregation in an article wittily
titled, “The vast majority of Catholic
priests are facing the wrong way.” If you would like to read it, you can
find it online at:
http://theweek.com/articles/635387/vast-majority-catholic-priests-are-facing-wrong-way
I probably am doing Mr. Gobry an injustice, but to me the
crux of his argument for the priest to stand with his back to the congregation
comes down to his assertion that the Mass is “not about you.” The Mass is about
God. Mr. Gobry states that the priest facing the same way as the people “says, loudly and clearly, ‘This is not
about you.’ The Mass is supposed to be about God — an act of worship of God.
The priest does not have ‘his back to the people,’ traditionalists say. He
faces in the same direction as the rest of the people: toward God, to worship
Him.” In other words, we are all
worshipping God together, and so we all face the same way.
I look at it differently. For me the Mass is a dialogue
between the Father and the Son. The structure of the Mass is dialogic. This is
why the responses of the congregation (priest included) are so important.
Joined to Christ, we are entering into this holy dialogue. The priest faces the
congregation to facilitate dialogue. We form the Body of Christ. This is why it
is more correct to call the priest the “presider” rather than the celebrant,
because we ALL are celebrating the Mass. We form the Body of Christ, and that
is the objective of the Mass. In Thomistic theology the goal (the res et sacramentum) is for us to
form the Body of Christ. As an aside, this is why I never understood the custom
of people standing facing the tabernacle till after it was closed following
Holy Communion. The objective is not the Sacrament reserved but the Sacrament
in us, transforming us into the Body of Christ. At Holy Communion each of us
becomes a tabernacle, and the emphasis should be on us forming the Body of
Christ by receiving the Body of Christ, not on the Sacrament reserved in the
tabernacle.
Because we as a community are called to become the Body of
Christ and enter into the dialogue of the Father and the Son, I believe this is
best facilitated by our gathering around the altar table, not all facing in the
same direction.
Mr. Gobry is correct that the Mass is most certainly not
about us. But it is about our being formed into the Body of Christ. And
dialogue is important to that.
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