By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
For a properly formed priest, nothing he does is more important for the People of God than his proper and reverent celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As a newly ordained priest preparing for my first parish assignment in 1992, however, I braced myself to enter a liturgical “no-man’s land” where anything goes and in which my study of and my understanding of the liturgy were not valued and would be easily rejected.
As one who valued the liturgy as the way to God which makes every church the “house of God and gate of Heaven,” I had to find a way to negotiate through a Catholic world disoriented away from the Lord and horizontalized as a celebration instead of all things human. Humanity is wonderful, but self-celebration is not the primary reason for the liturgy. If “first things” do not remain first, then all else that should follow will end badly. God is first for faith and man is saved only by preserving this truth in Christ.
Young priests today are very well read when it comes to the liturgy. They know what the Vatican II documents say and what they do not say. They know that the Bugnini committee’s seizure of the implementation process, as described in the book The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber, following the council was an illegitimate “Trojan horse” that destroyed more than it restored the liturgy. They know that banishment of Latin and imposition of a table that forces the priest to face the people at the altar are two of the most egregious violations of the principles which underlie the Mass.
These young priests are joined by quite a few older clergy who are well read in the works of Benedict XVI, the premier Catholic theologian of our age. They have learned from him about the true orientation of the Roman liturgy which, being in Christ, is directed always to the Father. The cosmic movement in Christ from Earth to Heaven is powerfully symbolized by the leadership of the priest at Mass, in particular leading the people forward as he does to the altar and to the Lord who becomes truly present there. The high altar in the extreme apse of our churches always symbolized the proper cosmic direction of both priest and people in Christ to a destination beyond this world.
The reality in many parishes is quite different, with an orientation not toward Heaven and the Father but trapped into a closed circle of priest and people, horizontal and limited rather than opening toward Heaven. This arrangement of priest and people at the supreme moment of the liturgy, when Christ becomes truly present in the Eucharist, disserves the spiritual movement of priest and people together through Christ to the Father. It has also served to erode faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament through numerous distractions, among them a focus on the face and personality of the priest at this moment of heavenly intervention into our world.
Many young priests are locked weekly into a liturgical “nightmare”: a distant pastor, parish Masses handed over to control of liturgy-Nazis who insert more and more lay participation as a good in and of itself, sanctuaries crowded with superfluous extraordinary ministers. A “professionalism” is evident in lay functionaries whose identity is so deeply clericalized that they will attend Mass once only per week in order to take Communion to the sick, rather than take Communion to the sick as flowing from a deep eucharistic devotion expressed in daily Mass attendance.
When something extraordinary to the lay vocation, such as distributing Communion when there are insufficient priests, becomes more exciting for the Catholic than receiving the Lord eucharistically, we are faced with a serious imbalance.
For many, the Mass has lost its cosmic meaning, the deep reality underlying the event of the Mass that involves the marriage of Heaven and earth in Jesus Christ. Our faith should always have as its background something more than a mere worldly event that takes place in our churches as the priest and people celebrate the liturgy of the Mass. The Mass is not a town hall meeting where the priest “takes roll” of the parents present for credit toward reception of the sacraments by their children.
Any intermediate goal which displaces the ultimate reality of our entrance into the “heavenly Jerusalem” in Christ truly present must be challenged so that our people will deepen their faith.
We do not go to Mass to earn anything, even something so wonderful as the sacraments; we do so first to meet, know, and worship Jesus Christ our Lord.
That people think it strange for everyone to turn and face the Lord together at Mass is a symptom of the deep disorientation that so many suffer.
So, what is a newly ordained or newly assigned priest to do if he finds himself in a parish with a worldly and self-limiting liturgical life that celebrates man and the world in the place of Heaven and God? He can use the ad orientem “starter kit” which I developed and have used over 22 years of priesthood.
These liturgical “baby steps” can be employed to educate and form our laity into a proper understanding and deeper appreciation of the importance of the liturgy for their proper growth in the faith.
Follows these steps for the ad orientem “starter kit”:
1) During the opening hymn process up the aisle immediately and stand facing altar to sing the balance of the opening hymn together with the servers, lectors, and other assistants.
2) Venerate the altar toward the East, that is, toward apse, crucifix, and/or tabernacle.
3) Cross the sanctuary for the Gospel procession on the congregation side of altar, crucifix, and tabernacle and bow for preparatory prayer facing liturgical “east.”
4) Recite the Gloria facing “east.”
5) Preach about and explain what you are doing so that members of the congregation can begin to appropriate for themselves this deepest significance of the action of the risen Christ in and through the liturgical action of the priest and people.
6) During the Creed turn toward liturgical east to bow as directed during the words: “came down from heaven,” etc.
7) Turn “east” to offer the opening and closing orations for the general intercessions.
8) End the Mass by singing the balance of the final hymn while standing and facing the altar and crucifix together with the servers and ministers, genuflecting and turning to process out only for the final verse.
Offer these suggestions to your priest and report back on the results to mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com.
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