Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

Last week, CNS ran an article of an interview with the prefect for the CDW, Cardinal Arinze, and his expectations for liturgical “house cleaning” under Benedict XVI’s papacy. For those who were surprised that B16 did not come out with guns a-blaz’in in the days after his installation, or who were surprised by his first encyclical…they will also probably be surprised by Cardinal Arinze’s thoughts. For those not surprised by B16, there probably is nothing surprising in the interview either. Nevertheless, it is still worth comment.
Among the Cardinal’s predictions:

1) B16 will continue to be firm about the correction of abuses through exhortations and teaching but he will not use the “ecclesiastical hammer.”

2) A large priority will be trying to get Catholics back to faithfully attending Sunday Mass, especially through catechesis and “faith-filled liturgies.”

3) Other areas mentioned were more authentic liturgical music, the tone set for Mass by the celebrant (focusing on the transcendent rather than the mundane in his words and gestures) and homilies that are centered on Scripture and theology rather than infused with secular references.

4) The current translation of the new Missal will continue on track, with Vox Clara maintaining its function as it had under JPTG. The goal is to have the vernacular translations within the next couple of years.

The Cardinal makes a very important point in number 3. I would suggest that in their attempts to relate to the laity and their lives, celebrants too often keep the liturgical focus on a horizontal, worldly level through mundane introductions (Arinze’s example of bringing up sports is a good one), overly casual demeanor, mundane homilies, less than transcendence evoking liturgical music, etc.

One of the biggest complaints that people used to give about the current rite was the loss of the sense of mystery which came with it. I think that this can be explained to a large degree, though not completely, by the issues the Cardinal points out. More substantive concerns aside, I believe that within the current rubrics there is much that can be done very easily, to regain this sense of the transcendence of Mass. This renewed experience of the transcendent in itself would go a long way toward helping to reorient people’s expectations from the Mass’s “entertainment” value (or lack thereof) to one of entering into an experience of awe and wonder. Some of the “reform of the reform” I have mentioned before to expect: ad orientum, reintroduction of some Latin into the Mass, return to Gregorian chant as a regular feature of Mass, etc. can be done within the current rubrics.

I believe that B16 and Cardinal Arinze are on the right track. It will take much more to return the Mass to a faith-filled experience than the (legitimate) demand that the rubrics be followed and the faithful granted their right to authentic liturgy. It will take prayer for the change of some hearts and the re-catechizing of a good many of our current liturgists and priests who were schooled under the mistaken notion that good liturgy means illicit innovation, personal expressions of creativity, insipid music, and the forcing of unauthorized “welcoming” gestures upon the congregation.