Part III:

   During one of my parish visits after Easter, I was talking to a parishioner about this series on the liturgical renewal. He told me that these articles triggered many memories about the way Mass was celebrated years ago, before the Second Vatican Council.

   Some practices, which people never gave a second thought to, now seem hard to understand in light of what that parishioner now knows about the Liturgy. Specifically, he recalled the way communion was distributed at the Sunday morning Mass in his urban parish. This is what he told me:

   "Right after the consecration, the associate priest of my parish would come out and begin distributing communion, using hosts from the tabernacle, as the pastor continued with the Mass. The pastor would do the same for the associate when he was celebrating Mass."

   Most people accepted this practice as a practical way to cut down on the time for distributing communion. Nearly half of the congregation could receive before the regular time. Mass could be over in 30-40 minutes, which took the pressure off those large urban parishes that had to schedule Sunday Masses on the hour. (Remember, this was a time when there were no Masses on Saturday night or Sunday evening. Everything had to be done on Sunday morning. And, to be honest, more people were going to Mass in those days).

   I want to use this example as a starting point for this third and final part on the liturgical renewal to highlight how we have grown in our understanding of the Liturgy during these past forty years since the Council. Clearly there were some things that we did in the past which today would strike most of us as strange, given our present understanding of the Liturgy.

   Why is that? What do we know about the sacraments and the Liturgy of the Church that would call such a practice into question?

   What we now know is what Pope Pius XII told us 20 years before the Second Vatican Council in his 1943 letter, Mystici Corporis. He reminded us that the sacraments are not something the priest does by himself as the representative of Christ.

   Rather, as he put it, the Church acts in the sacraments as "an organically structured priestly community" forming "as it were, one mystical person" with Christ, the head. "The sacraments are 'of the Church' in the double sense that they are 'by her' and 'for her.'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1118.)

   Pius XII was not inventing a new teaching. From the earliest centuries of the Church, the Fathers spoke of the Eucharist in terms of Christ joining the sacrifices of our lives with his own on the cross.

   One of the Church Fathers used this very helpful image: Just as God took part of the side of Adam to make Eve, so God took the blood and water from the side of Christ to fashion the Church and its members through baptism and the Eucharist into the one Body of Christ.

   The Eucharist, then, is an event in which Christ refashions us into what we receive.

   St. Leo the Great explained it this way: "The effect of our sharing in the body and blood of Christ is to change us into what we receive."

   Christians do not come to the Eucharist as onlookers, participating only to the degree of receiving something. Such a narrow understanding downplays the part we have in joining our sacrifices to Christ's own for the salvation of the world.

   The Eucharist is, in fact, not a one- way street, something given to us. We, too, give. Our sufferings, our sacrifices, as joined to Christ's, contribute to the great work begun on the cross.

   That is the great gift of the Eucharist. Christ lets us share in what he did on the cross. He gives our suffering, our sacrifices the fullest meaning by joining them to his own on the cross so that we share in his redeeming work.

   Pope Pius XII recovered this very ancient understanding of the sacraments. His insights helped pave the way for a rethinking of the Church, sacraments, the Mass, priesthood, the laity. In sum, he paved the way for the Second Vatican Council.

   Once we understand this central idea, it is easy to see why the Council called for a renewal of the Liturgy that would shift the emphasis away from seeing the sacraments as ceremonies conducted by the priest which we attend passively only to receive something.

   If this were the case, we could receive the Eucharist at any moment in the ceremony. Everything changes, however, when we view the sacraments as the action of the Church, "an organically structured priestly community" forming "as it were, one mystical person" with Christ, the head.

   It now becomes important:

1) to stress the full, active and conscious participation of the community in every Liturgy, 2) to see the Liturgy as an event of dialogue involving proclamation and response between God and His people, 3) to reform the Liturgy so that the rites and symbols of worship are clear and simple to understand by those participating, and 4) to define the diverse but unified ways in which each person participates.

   These, in fact, are four major principles which continue to guide the Church in the ongoing renewal of the Liturgy.

   I think it would be helpful at this point to give some examples of how each principle was translated into specific changes that have become familiar to you in the past forty years.

At the same time, I want to point out how some of the adjustments you will see in the new Roman Missal are a further opportunity to give greater clarity and emphasis to these principles.

It is understandable that as we enter the fifth decade since the Council, the Church is reflecting on that experience and looking for ways to reinvigorate the renewal of the Liturgy begun in the 1960s.

1. Full, active and conscious participation in every Liturgy.

   Participation is necessary because the Liturgy is an action of the Church, with Christ as Head of this Body. For all the members to participate fully, actively and consciously, some very basic changes had to be made at the Council.

   The language had to be understandable to all, thus the change from Latin to the vernacular. Churches were redesigned to foster interaction among the people. Likewise, rituals, such as the sign of peace, expressing that interaction, were introduced. Care was also taken in establishing norms for postures and actions that promoted a sense of unity among the members of the community. The revised Roman Missal highlights this principle even further and clarifies the nature of our participation in a number of ways.

   First, more emphasis is given to the importance of silence during our worship so that we reflect on what we are really doing. We come together not as just another social group interacting in a way that builds human ties. Rather, we are those united in one Body with Christ as our Head, joined in His great act of salvation for the world. We need occasional quiet pauses in our worship as a means of keeping that in mind and letting it soak into our awareness (e.g., after the readings, after communion); otherwise, our worship can easily be reduced to mere social interaction.

   Secondly, the revision appeals to building unity in the community through similar posture. As a rule, we are to stand for all of the presidential prayers, that is, the opening prayer, the prayer over the gifts, and the prayer after communion.

   The only exception is the Eucharistic prayer. We have decided to keep the practice of kneeling from the Holy Holy Holy until the Great Amen.

   Finally, the Roman Missal also places more emphasis on the ancient practice of processions. For this reason, we open Mass with the procession of the Gospel Book, a procession that continues as the deacon or priest takes the Book from the altar to the ambo to proclaim it as the Gospel reading for the day.

   The procession of gifts, by which we make our offerings along with the bread and wine, continues in the communion procession as we come forward to receive from what we have offered. This is why the bishops recently decided to have a uniform posture at the time of receiving communion.

   When we come to communion, it is a procession of the community, not an individual act. That is why we stand to receive after making a slight bow of the head to show reverence. I ask that people keep these norms in mind when coming to communion and avoid anything that disregards the directives established by the bishops.

   Individual actions of prostration or genuflection only tend to draw more attention to the person performing them. The emphasis should be on the presence of Christ in the one communion we share and how we become, as St. Leo said, what we receive.

2. The Liturgy is an event of dialogue involving
proclamation and response between God and His people.

   The Council stressed this principle in a number of ways. We now have more access to the entire Bible with a three-year cycle of readings on Sundays and a two-year rotation for weekdays. The assembly responds to this Word in the psalm and other verses. The Eucharistic prayer, lead by the priest, belongs to the entire assembly as they respond with acclamations and the Great Amen.

   The new Missal adds emphasis here by insisting that the proclamation of the Word, even at weekday Masses, be followed by a homily, even if it has to be brief. The Word proclaimed is for the people present. Here and now it is being fulfilled, received and accepted.

   The new norms also remind priests and others to plan the Liturgy with the people in mind. That means attending to cultural background, and their particular needs and levels of understanding. It is a reminder of the ancient Roman principle that "sacraments are for people."

3. The rites and symbols of worship are clear and simple
to understand by those participating.

   Anyone familiar with the old form of the Mass recalls the multiple signs of the cross and repeated genuflections and other actions which for the most part were not understandable to people. The Council recaptured the Roman tradition of a worship that was both noble and simple in form.

   It also restored the use of the cup for the assembly, called for Eucharistic bread that looked more like bread, and restored the importance of the altar as a symbol of Christ in the Church.

   For this reason, the tabernacle was to be taken off of the altar and placed in a separate space or room within the Church. This was not to de-emphasize the reserved sacrament. Instead, by calling for a place apart from the altar or even a separate room, the Church is giving special attention to the reserved sacrament and at the same time stressing the importance of the altar.

   In any church renovation or new building in our diocese, I will help our pastors and parishes properly interpret this norm and keep a balance. The altar is to be given its space, as is the tabernacle, without any confusion or lessening of importance of one over the other.

   At the same time, I want to make sure that when Catholics enter one of our churches, they know that the Eucharist is reserved and where it is.

   The revised Missal, in restating these norms, adds some clarification:

   First of all, it counsels ordinarily that the Eucharistic bread distributed for communion be that which is consecrated at that Mass.

   Secondly, when coming to the altar at the beginning of Mass, if the priest and others with him genuflect to the tabernacle, that they not repeat this act of reverence if they cross in front of it during Mass.

   Thirdly, the sign of peace should be done reverently and simply, without any attempt to greet every person at Mass nor in a way that detracts from the dignity of the Liturgy.

   Fourthly, materials for the altar and other appointments should be of worthy quality and solidly constructed.

4. The diverse but unified functions of the assembly.

   In response to this principle, the Council opened up the possibility of various roles for the laity within the Liturgy. Cantors, readers, special ministers of the Eucharist, greeters, servers and others have become commonplace in our liturgies. Many people have generously come forward not only to serve but to be trained for the good of the community.

   The new Missal encourages all of this again, but reminds everyone that the various roles should not be confused.

   For instance, those helping the priest distribute should not receive when he does. The priest should not do the readings if there are qualified people to do them. Musicians and cantors should be given special consideration so that they have a chance to receive communion along with the rest of the community.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

   My aim in this series has been to highlight what the Council called us to do forty years ago. I also wanted to show how some of the adjustments you will see are part of a renewed effort to reform the Liturgy and the Church. Admittedly, I have mentioned only some of the things that you will see when the new Missal is published, since I intend to come back to this issue of renewal at that time.

   In the meanwhile, I have asked our priests to follow the new norms we have received already and provide you with an explanation from time to time. For the most part, the adjustments you will see in the latest revision are minimal and are designed to reaffirm the original principles of the Council.

   As I end this series, I see that I have recounted a good deal of history and background on the reforms of the Liturgy. From a merely human point of history, the Council was a watershed event for the Church which has brought about enormous change for the Church and the world.

   In a particular way, the renewal of the Liturgy has enriched our parishes and each one of us. We have achieved much in these past four decades. The revised rites do work. They make our communities vibrant and alive, allowing each of us to express in our lives and manifest to others the saving presence of Christ in the world. This was the goal of the Second Vatican Council.

   But it would be a mistake to read this history only in terms of human progress or change. As I noted earlier, Pope John Paul II called the liturgical renewal a movement of the Holy Spirit in the Church. He is saying that the renewal is what God wants. It is prompted by the Spirit of Christ and the providence of God for our time.

   His words echo what the Fathers said at the Council: "Zeal for the promotion and restoration of the Liturgy is rightly held to be a sign of the providential dispositions of God in our time, as a movement of the Holy Spirit in His Church. It is today a distinguishing mark of the Church's life, indeed of the whole tenor of contemporary religious thought and action." (Constitution on the Liturgy, 43.)

   Imagine. The effort we put into the renewal of the Liturgy according to the Council is what God wants us to do. Not often do we have such a specific, clear and authoritative statement about what God wants us to do, but here it is in words that are unequivocal and uncompromising.

   Let that be our source of encouragement as we commit ourselves to the renewal of the Liturgy once again with Spirit-filled zeal. to mere social interaction.