By James Monti —
The afternoon session on Day Two of the Sacra Liturgia 2015 conference in New York City brought to the podium the symposium’s co-organizer Dr. Jennifer Donelson, an associate professor of sacred music and choir director at Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York and managing editor of the journal Sacred Music. Describing her presentation as an “examination of conscience,” she outlined her premise that liturgical art, architecture and music must satisfy a threefold criterion of being not only well-intentioned but also theologically sound in its conception and truly good in its artistic technique. Noting how modern-day iconoclasm as manifested by the denuding of our churches “stunts our ability to draw souls to Christ”, she explained that the iconoclast mentality is refuted by the very nature of the Incarnation whereby the material world has been elevated through the Son of God uniting the matter of human flesh to His divinity. In light of the role of matter in the conferral of the Sacraments (water, blessed oil, etc.), an attack upon the use and veneration of images constitutes, in addition to a direct attack upon God (what He has done in the Incarnation), an attack upon how grace is imparted in the Church. The matter of each Sacrament (wine and water for the Eucharist, water for baptism, etc.) is not arbitrary, but rather a fitting sensible manifestation of what each particular sacrament effects. Similarly art cannot simply be an arbitrary representation according to an artist’s whims, but rather it must possess “fittingness”. An image must in some real way befit what it portrays, and a work of music must somehow point to what it is expressing. Genuine liturgical symbols, developed not arbitrarily but instead suitably over the course of time, possess this “fittingness.” For example, kneeling is an inherently fitting expression of humility, for there is a certain vulnerability to this posture that images our vulnerability before our all-powerful God. Hence liturgical art must be fitting, it must be beautiful, for Dr. Donelson concluded, “God speaks to us through the physicality around us.”
At the end of Day Two Father Sean Connolly, a young newly ordained priest for the Archdiocese of New York, celebrated with the utmost reverence a solemn Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. Most of the dozens of priests in attendance wore their birettas for this liturgy. As a Vatican decree was read granting at Father Connolly’s prior request a plenary indulgence to all attending the Mass, at the pronouncement of the Roman Pontiff’s name (Francis), the priests in unison spontaneously doffed their birettas – a touching show of reverent fidelity to the Successor of Saint Peter. As an unexpected surprise, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who was scheduled to make his first appearance at the conference on the following day, rushed from the airport to attend Father Connolly’s Mass.
The proceedings of Day Three (Wednesday, June 3) began with one of the most memorable presentations of the entire conference, a talk by His Grace Archbishop Cordileone that addressed the liturgical renewal in the context of contemporary battles to uphold the Church’s moral teachings on marriage in the face of a hostile “hyper-sexualized” culture. Describing the Sacraments and the liturgical rites by which they are conferred as “the invisible made visible through the physical”, he focused upon the rich nuptial symbolism of veils in the liturgy (the veiling of the chalice, the tabernacle, the altar, etc.) as imaging the veiling of the sacred with regard to the human body. Stressing that we always veil what is sacred, he explained how the veiling of the inner sanctum of the Temple of Solomon, the Holy of Holies, was carried over into the Christian liturgy by the placement of veils or cloths round about the altar, a practice that early Christian theologians likened to the veiling of a bridal chamber. In matrimony the husband and wife keep the sacred inner sanctum of their bodies veiled, a veiling that is only opened for the consummation of their marital union. In this context he cited Saint Paul’s instruction concerning the veiling of women in church (1 Cor 11:5-16 – a practice that many devout women continue to observe), noting that far from demeaning women, this observance is an affirmation that women possess “a special sacred status because they are the bearers of life.” The unveiling of the sacred in the conjugal act of marriage is in turn an image of the consummation of the marriage between God and mankind wrought by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, as evinced by the Latin rendering of Our Lord’s final words on Calvary, “Consummatum est” (Jn 19:30: “It is finished”, i.e., consummated), and the unveiling of the Holy of Holies in the Temple that immediately ensued (“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom…”- Mt 27:51). The inherently and inviolably heterosexual nature of marital union images God taking as his bride the human race as “other than Himself” (hetero, Greek for “other,” “different”).
Harvard graduate Mathew Menendez discussed his reasons for founding Juventutem Boston, an association of young people committed to the evangelization of their peers through the promotion of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite Mass, accenting his presentation with both humor and moving anecdotes. Recollecting the instructions his parents gave him regarding the Blessed Sacrament, he stressed the importance of parents training their children in the faith. He told of a dying ninety-year-old woman who despite the supplications of her family adamantly refused to be reconciled with the Church. But when a priest visiting her posed to her the traditional catechetical question, “Why did God make you?”, the woman, evidently recalling this question from her childhood, suddenly broke down in tears and immediately asked the priest to hear her confession. She received the sacraments and died soon afterward fully reconciled with God.
In light of the theme of Archbishop Cordileone’s earlier talk, it was providentially fitting that the ordinary form Roman Rite Mass with which the day’s events concluded, with His Grace as the celebrant, and concelebrated by numerous priests attending the conference, was indeed that of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, the Holy Martyrs of Uganda, who died in defense of chastity. The homily was given by one of America’s foremost contemporary preachers, Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a prelate whose passionately delivered exhortations are virtually a life-changing experience. HIs sermon was nothing short of an utterly compelling call to holy battle in the spiritual realm, summoning those in attendance to bear an unshakeable witness to Christ and His teachings without compromise, willing to undergo a slow, dry martyrdom at the hands of a culture hostile to our faith. The celebration of this evening liturgy, with all but the readings in Latin, showed the ordinary form Mass at its very best, adorned with beautiful chants, magnificent polyphonic music and splendid traditional vestments. The audible recitation of the Roman Canon highlighted a sacred text that is the crown jewel of both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman liturgy.
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