RENEWING THE CELEBRATION OF
THE EUCHARIST
CONSIDERATIONS IN LIGHT OF THE REVISED GIRM
Reverend Jeffrey M. Kemper
INTRODUCTION
I imagine that there is a wide range of opinion
in this room concerning the new GIRM. Some of us
think it is the best thing that has happened in 30
years, others of us think it is the worst thing in
30 years. Probably most people are thinking that
they don’t have a clue, since they haven’t read it
yet. Wherever we stand on this topic, one thing is
certain: the new GIRM will not save the Church, nor
will it destroy it. The GIRM is a set of rubrics,
and rubrics in and of themselves do not make a
worthy celebration of the Mass. Rubrics can be
followed perfectly, but the liturgy can still be
lifeless. Rubrics do serve to keep us
faithful to the belief of the Church and true to the
meaning of the act we are celebrating. Rubrics
contribute to a sense of unity among the believers,
because they allow the assembled believers to
participate in the action because they know the
pattern of the liturgy. Yet, rubrics are the
structure - the skeleton
- of the liturgy; they
are not its spirit. The spirit of the liturgy comes
from the Holy Spirit who is manifest in the attitude
and understanding of the participants of the
liturgy. The new GIRM offers us an opportunity to
examine our understanding of and attitude towards
the Eucharist, as well as examine who we celebrate
the Eucharist, and that takes us beyond the rubrical
changes in the new GIRM.
THE CONCERNS OF GIRM 2002
When one looks at the revised GIRM, four concerns
shine forth. First, that the Mass be a source of
grace and renewal to all who celebrate it. (This is
not new to this edition of the GIRM; it was a
concern of the 1970 GIRM and a concern of the Missal
of Pius V.) Second, that the Eucharist be celebrated
with reverence and respect. (Once again, not a new
concern.) Third, that the roles of the participants
be clear and valued -
those of the ordained ministers: bishop, priest, and
deacon, as well as those of the lay ministers and
the assembly. Fourth, that music be understood as
integral to the celebration of the Eucharist. (You
will notice in GIRM # 40 that Sunday Mass with out
music is not considered an option.)
QUALITIES NECESSARY
FOR A FRUITFUL CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST
In light of these four concerns, there are two
qualities of the liturgy, especially the Eucharist,
which are indispensable for it to bear fruit in the
lives of the participant: 1) that it be celebrated
reverently, and 2) that it be celebrated
relevantly.
Reverence
What is reverence? The attitude that what we are
doing is sacred -
important. In the Eucharist we are engaged in the
act that changes the destiny of the universe. We are
engaged in the action of the Redeemer in our midst
for our salvation. (Note, we are engaged in
the act, not simply recipients of it by residual
effect.) If this is the case, the Mass’s
significance must be revealed in all that we do when
celebrating it:
w the quality of
the place in which we celebrate the Eucharist;
w the quality of
the appointments we use: the altar, ambo, chair,
vessels, vesture, books, etc.
(Note: Cost is not
a determinant of worth. You can pay a lot of
money for some pretty tacky stuff made of
silver or gold; craftsmanship, beauty, and
worthiness of materials as authentic are
also considerations. At the same time, one
cannot dismiss objects made of silver and
gold as automatically ostentatious and
therefore unworthy.
the quality of the hymnody and
musical elements
the quality of the proclamation of
the liturgical texts
the quality of the preaching
the quality of the participation of
the assembly and the ministers.
If these are done with a sense of their ultimate
significance, then those who participate in them can
more easily realize the value and worth of the
elements individually and the Eucharist as a whole.
If the value of the act is apparent, it is so the
easier for people to enter into the liturgical act
and into the realities the liturgy leads us to.
The issue of reverence leads us to the question
of how is the sacred expressed? In the
Catholic tradition, the sacred actions and sacred
objects are not disconnected from this world, but
are found in the ordinary elements of this world
which are raised to the significance God intended
for them. One has only to look at how God chose to
save us: by becoming one of us! Jesus is God who
became human in the fullest sense of human, as God
intends us to be. The sacramental life God gave us
uses ordinary, everyday objects and actions to
bestow grace: water, bread, wine, oil, touch, meal,
bath, story (of salvation) and the ancillary
- assisting
- symbols: light, color,
music. Sacrality is not what is distant and
unrelated to life; rather it is found in the
elements of life that put us in touch with God who
created them.
Granted, it would easier to sense the sacred if
it were detached from our reality, unrelated to
life, because the distinction between the sacred and
the ordinary would be so obvious. But this is not
Christian belief. Given this reality of God’s mode
of operation, it falls to the ministers of the
liturgy to make God’s saving work evident and
actualized in our midst through the language people
speak and comprehend and through actions which are
not alien to life. Using the best objects we have,
in the best building we can provide, the best words
we can sing and speak, the best demeanor we can
muster, will serve to reveal and effect God’s work
in our midst.
Relevance
The second quality for fruitful celebration that
I mentioned - relevance
- may sound jarring at
first, or at least reminiscent of the 1970s. Yet it
is not so strange when you think about it.
What is relevance? It is the connection of one
thing to another so that the first may have value.
No one engages in actions that are insignificant to
them. Somehow, any action we engage in has some
significance to us. For example, a healthy heart in
and of itself is not seen as that important for an
individual until that individual realizes that
his or her healthy heart will keep them
alive. A healthy heart becomes relevant when it is
connected with our own lives. The liturgy must be
relevant to people’s lives for them to see its
value. Therefore, it falls to the ministers of the
Church to make the liturgy speak to people who live
in a "real" world. The liturgy must be able to show
it has significance "here and now" and "there and
then" (in life in the world to come). What fulfills
the truest need of the Christian besides the
celebration of Eucharist? Nothing! Somehow, this
needs to be communicated to the faithful, so that
they come to the Eucharist not because external
canon law demands it, but because their internal
conviction directs them to come together with others
to do what Jesus, who died that we might live,
commanded the Church to do in His memory.
The relevance of the Eucharist is manifest in
several ways:
through
worthy and dignified celebrations that take
into consideration the lived situation of
the community that is gathered-
the age,
talents, abilities, size, and theological
stance and acumen of the community;
reflection on and teaching the meaning and
significance of the actions taking place in
the liturgy;
homiletically -
through mystagogical preaching.
Mystagogical preaching
looks at the rite (or an element of it),
reveals its meaning, and shows why it is
relevant to people’s lives. It leads people
to ask, "So what?" "So what?" in the sense
of "So what do I do know, in light of what I
have done in the liturgy?" So how must I see
the world differently in light of what I
"saw" in the liturgy?" Mystagogical
preaching does not set necessarily ignore
the readings, but can draw the scriptures,
the rite, and life together. (In late July
and through August of 2003, the Athenaeum
preaching website -
www.mtsm.org -
will have mystagogical homilies available as
models.)
educationally -
through talks, courses, retreats, parish
missions, and bulletin announcements.
Religious relevance should never be confused with
the avant garde or that which is purely
contemporary. Because religion deals with the
deepest dimensions of life, there is an agelessness
to it that is expressed in archetypes
- ancient symbols:
bathing, eating, drinking, touching, anointing,
telling the story. Because our faith is rooted in a
historical act, tradition and traditions play a
significant role. Relevance, therefore, is often
manifested in ancient acts that reveal meaning, just
as reverence is often manifest in contemporary acts
and objects.
But what is it that nurtures a sense of reverence
and relevance?
QUALITIES THAT FACILITATE
A SENSE OF REVERENCE AND RELEVANCE
I. Mastery of the "Genius" of the
Rite and Its Parts
The first thing that is necessary to nurture a
sense of reverence and relevance is that the
ministers must come to understand the "genius" of
the rite and its parts. "Genius" in this sense does
not mean "intelligent" or "smart;" rather it means
the inner logic or the dynamic of the rite
- what the rite is all
about and trying to accomplish. This is obviously
much more than rubrics, although rubrics can help to
reveal the genius of the rite.
Mastering the genius of the rite in the case of
the Mass involves an understanding of the
Eucharist in a holistic manner. One
therefore has to comprehend the reasons Christ gave
us the Eucharist.
1. to unite the members of the Church to
Christ as branches are grafted to a vine,
and to unite them to one another as the
parts of a body are united together. (Note
it is both of these that are at play
in the Eucharist. As Thomas Aquinas answered
to the question about the res et
sacramentum or the ultimate purpose of
the Eucharist, it is to unite individuals to
Christ and his Church. People
- not stones and
mortar or institutions -
are the Church.)
2. To fulfill the command of Christ to do
this in his memory. The object of his memory
is ultimately his Paschal Mystery
- his Passion,
death, and resurrection (and his ascension
and gift of the Spirit).
3. To participate in the priesthood of
Jesus Christ by being joined to his ONE
saving sacrifice to his Father: the Paschal
Mystery.
We achieve these purposes through gathering as
the Church, hearing the Word of God, offering the
sacrifice in a context of grateful remembering, and
receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord. Notice,
these three purposes are not disparate, isolated
ends, but are related and reciprocal.
Mastering the genius of the rite also involves
understanding the relationship and purposes of the
various parts of the Mass. Some questions which
can help us with this are:
What is the
connection between the Liturgy of the Word and the
Liturgy of the Eucharist?
What is the
connection between the Eucharistic Prayer and the
Communion Rite?
What is the
purpose of the Eucharistic Prayer?
Is it simply to consecrate bread and wine
into the Body and Blood of the Lord, or is it to
give thanks in obedience to the Lord’s command
to remember his redemptive acts? If it is the
latter, (which it is), then we must understand
that Christ is not simply present to us under
forms of bread and wine, but rather that Christ
leads us in this act of thanksgiving, so that we
may offer to his Father the sacrifice of Calvary
and thus participate sacramentally in his
Paschal Mystery by offering and receiving the
Lord’s body and blood.
v Do we
understand that the Communion Rite is not simply
a private intimate act with the Lord, but a most
communitarian intimate act with the Lord/
Do we understand
that it is Christ who leads us in this act of
Eucharist?
through the power
of the Holy Spirit he has gathered us as his Body
he speaks to us
through the proclamation of the Scriptures
he leads us in
the great prayer of thanksgiving and offering
- the Eucharistic Prayer
he feeds us with
his very self
What
difference does this understanding make in
celebration, as opposed to simply thinking
that we do this act and offer Christ to the
Father, as if by our own power?
What
difference does this understanding make to
our concept of what being a minister means?
We are stewards of Christ, making
decisions appropriate to the concrete
situation according to the will of the
Master - Christ,
not according to our own whim or fancy, nor
according to the whim or fancy of the
community.
Are the
various actions of the Mass understood to be
disjunctive acts that are simply thrown
together, or is the relationship between the
individual acts evident?
Do we
understand that there is a hierarchy of
importance to the elements of the liturgy? For
example, the breaking of the bread is a
significant act (after all, it is one of the
actions the Lord himself did at the Last Supper)
which is often performed all too hastily, yet
the sign of peace can go on forever.
Do we understand
why music is important to the liturgical act?
Because it
expresses the reality of faith that words alone
cannot express;
Because it
expresses the deeper significance of the mystery we
celebrate;
Because it draws
the community together in a common act;
The
new GIRM #39-40 stresses the importance
of singing; it does not envision Mass on
Sundays or feast days being celebrated
without singing.
How does the
whole celebration and its parts relate to the
life of the Christian at the beginning of the
third millennium?
Do we
understand and appreciate the significance of
ritual and the dynamics that are involved in
ritual activity - the
style of liturgical language, the sense of
movement, the characteristics of liturgical
music, and the attitudes of the participants?
We can never assume that just because we have
passed a course, had hands laid on our heads, or
have performed a rite over a long period of time
that we have a mystery of the genius of the liturgy.
We need to continue:
to study
- read, attend
talks and workshops, ask questions and
seek answers from credible sources.
(Note: not everything in print, on TV,
radio, or the web is a credible source!)
to
reflect and meditate on the Mass and its
parts. Wonderful sources for meditation and
reflection are the Eucharistic Prayers.
When the genius of the Mass is "mastered" (as if
it ever could be truly mastered!), it becomes much
easier to:
function ministerially in a manner that is reverent
and relevant because we understand more
fully what is happening when we celebrate
the Eucharist;
choose
appropriate texts (choices of greetings,
penitential rites, opening prayers, general
intercessions, Eucharistic Prayers and
prefaces, blessings) and music that draw out
the meaning of the Eucharist and the feast
or season;
determine how to
arrange and decorate for feasts and seasons;
to preach
and teach on what we are doing and why we
are doing it, as well as the significance of
the feast, season, or liturgy to our lives;
show the
significance of the Mass in living Christian
life and Christianity’s significance to the
world.
II. Mastery of the Disciplines
and Dynamics for Celebrating the Eucharist
The second quality that facilitates a sense of
reverence and relevance for the Eucharist is a
mastery of the disciplines and dynamics for
communicating the significance of what we are doing
at Mass as one act in Christ, as well as in the
various elements that make up the Mass. Key to
mastery is understanding that the dynamic of
ritual activity is that it is "heightened" activity.
Ritual uses ordinary human actions, but raises their
significance.
Religious ritual deals with what is of ultimate
importance, not with trifles. Our demeanor, posture,
and movement, as well as our mode of speech
say more than our words to. Several years ago on my
way out of town, I attended Mass on the Solemnity of
Corpus Christi at a parish. In his homily the pastor
bemoaned the lack of respect shown to the Eucharist.
Yet, when he prayed the Eucharistic Prayer, he
recited it in a monotone voice that conveyed that a)
he didn’t have a clue as to its significance or b)
he couldn’t have cared less. He distributed the
Eucharist in haste, continually saying "Body of
Christ. Body of Christ. Body of Christ"
- two or three for every
host he distributed - and
distributing hosts like he was dealing a poker hand.
I am sure he was sincere in his mourning the loss of
respect for the Eucharist, but he actually
contributed to it by his sloppy actions. In another
situation, One may ask whether beginning Mass with a
secular "Good morning!" and then rotely saying "The
Lord be with you." communicates the significance of
the liturgical greeting. When you think about it,
does not "The Lord be with you." said with
expression speak much more eloquently than "Good
morning"?
Religious ritual is intrinsically hopeful and
joyful but it is not frivolous. The use of jokes or
sports reports within the liturgy or the homily for
no specific liturgical or theological purpose tends
to deflate the action we are doing, as does any
belittling of the ritual.
Communicating the meaning of the Mass demands
that one has the ability to communicate not only the
text - the words
- of the liturgy, but
also their meaning through inflection, pacing, voice
tone and quality.
First,
though, the texts must be proclaimed so that
they can be heard and the words understood. If
the pronunciation of the text is unclear, what
good will inflection or pacing do? If the text
can’t be heard, what good is articulation?
Pastors must make sure that churches are
acoustically sound (pardon the pun) either in
their design or by the assistance of a speaker
system. Those speaking must know how to use the
microphones effectively.
Second, the
speaker must master the text, so that it is
clear who is speaking to whom about what. For
instance, is the presider speaking to God in the
name of the community? Is he addressing the
assembly? Eye contact makes a big difference
here. If you are speaking to God and looking at
the people, it doesn’t make sense; or if you are
speaking to the people but not looking at them,
it doesn’t make sense. When something doesn’t
make sense, it has no credibility. (This loss of
credibility is very subtle. Now, people don’t
consciously say, "Oh, that doesn’t make sense."
In the back of their minds, however, it
registers as non-sensical. The speaker has to
prepare the text, making an effort to set aside
presumptions. For example, during the
institution narrative (commonly called the words
of consecration) in the Eucharistic Prayer, most
presiders look at the people when they say the
words of the Lord. However, if one reads the
text, these words are being spoken to the
Father, not the assembly: "…he took bread, gave
bread, gave you thanks…" It is in the act
of thankful remembering addressed to the
Father that these words are spoken.
Third, what
are we doing in the text? Are we thanking,
praising, asking, acknowledging sinfulness,
offering? They all do not sound alike.
Hopefully, "We come to you with praise and
thanksgiving." sound different than "Lord, we
have sinned against you."
Fourth,
pacing helps communicate meaning and the
relationship of what is presently being said
with what preceded and what follows. Commas,
semi-colons, periods, paragraph spacing all
denote various levels of pauses.
Inflection is
also important to communicate meaning. A basic
ground rule of the hierarchy of stress in a
sentence is as follows: first, action verb; then
subject of the action , then object of the
action, then modifiers. Yet, the context of the
texts may (and very often is) determined more so
by the context of the text
- what precedes and
follows, the readings just heard, the feast or
season, and the true theology of the Church. For
example, in Eucharistic Prayer III we proclaim,
"Father, you are holy indeed and all creation
rightly gives you praise.’ Depending on the
context, it may be proclaimed: "Father, you
are holy indeed…" in order emphasize "holy"
in light of the Sanctus just sung. Or, "Father,
you are holy indeed, and all creation
rightly gives you praise" in order to manifest
the worship of God by the cosmos. Whatever is
the case, the one way of proclamation that is
not acceptable is: "Fatheryouareholyindeedandallcreationrightlygivesyoupraise."
Flat and dead don’t cut it!
If these qualities are important in the
proclamation of prayer texts, how much more
important is the proclamation of the word of God,
which is living and active like a two-edged sword!
Are readers (including deacons and priests, who are
at times the worst readers) well-trained in the art
of proclamation so that they hold the assembly’s
attention and communicate the meaning and spirit of
the text? There are some excellent tools for
readers, among them, Liturgy Training Publication’s
Workbook for Lectors and Gospel Readers.
(Every sacristy, of course, should have a
pronunciation guide handy.)
Music, which can no longer be understood as an
accessory to the Eucharist as it once was, demands
that the choice of text and tune reflect the dignity
of the liturgy, lead people into a deeper
understanding and appreciation of the rite, feast,
or season, not to mention that it must reflect sound
theology. Not all religious music is liturgical
music. Much music is inspirational and appropriate
for non-liturgical prayer and meditation. (This does
not make it second class religious music; it just
means it is not intended for liturgical use.) Just
as the proclamation of the spoken text is important,
so to is the leading of music, which must be led so
that the assembly can more easily participate.
Cantors, instrumentation that enables singing, a
viable schema of new music over a period of time
(which will vary from parish to parish) as well as a
method of teaching the music that works for a
specific community are the tools for helping a
parish become a singing parish.
A word about time. Rushing denotes a lack
of importance. It tells people there is something
more pressing to do. I have researched the
liturgical documents since the invention of the
clock, and I can find nowhere legislation that Mass
must be 40 minutes or 50 minutes! While we need not
dally around, we do need to take the time to
celebrate fully and reverently. This is all the more
important in light of the new legislation that only
ordained ministers may assist in the breaking of the
bread and the pouring of the cups. Will we sacrifice
Holy Communion under both forms because we do not
want to take three more minutes to prepare the cups?
(By the way, it is worth noting how often the
revised GIRM mentions the significance of receiving
Communion under both forms.) Yet, we must also
recognize that "empty" time -
that is, time wasted because proper preparations for
the liturgy were not made or useless activity is
occurring - is an enemy
of good liturgy as well.
Finally, what we perceive ourselves to be doing
may not be what the assembly perceives. If you have
a chance, watch yourself on video tape and see how
you come across. It may be humbling, but it may also
be affirming. If you can’t do that, ask a group of
people to discuss the liturgy with you. Ask
questions about what they perceive to have been
communicated by the music, the readings, and
prayers. This may reveal as much about the mode of
proclamation as it does about the text.
CONCLUSION
Why is all this important? Because Christianity,
especially Catholicism, believes that God works
through the human faculties -
hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, imagining,
thinking, feeling. For the liturgy to be effective
in the sense of touching human lives (what we
traditionally refer to as "bearing fruit"), we have
to take full advantage of the rites in the best ways
possible to draw people into the life of Christ so
that, through the liturgy -
the source and summit of Christian life
- they may come to full
stature in Christ and eternal life.
What I have mentioned here covers only a small
part of the whole picture; however, I think it
offers enough of an agenda to keep us busy for a
while.
This presentation served as an overview to the
Renewing the Celebration of the Eucharist offered by
the Worship Office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati
in March, 2003 as preparation for the implementation
of the revised General Instruction of the Roman
Missal.
