Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

With the turmoil that has been stirred up of late in regard to the Holy Father’s lifting of the excommunications on the SSPX bishops, I thought that it would be timely to do a brief exposition of the Holy Father’s thoughts on the deformations in liturgical reform that have been one of the sad marks of the post-conciliar age. For anyone who is not hopelessly naive on ecclesial affairs, it is plain to see that the bitter animosity expressed by Catholics toward the SSPX, and toward the Holy Father’s extension of an olive branch to them, has little to do with Bishop Williamson and much to do with the contemporary Church’s aversion to sacrality.

Frankly put, many Catholics, even those whom one would hope would know better (George Weigel comes to mind)  are not comfortable with an “overly” religious Church. Sacrality has its bounds or limits for them: it is okay as long as it does not become obtrusive or unseemly in one’s life. The sacred should not, for these Catholics, interfere with secular affairs, or obtrude too deeply into the horizontal domain of everyday communal interaction. The SSPX, natural allies to the Holy Father in his desire to renew the Church’s Sacred Liturgy, are bitter enemies of those who are comfortable in a profaned Church. It is not so much their rebellion that draws ire as their preservation of the ancient liturgy of the Church, in which the sacred shines forth in reflection of the divine source and redeemer of all things and bids us to become transformed in its ambiance.

These criticisms I make of secularized Catholics may seem like extreme words, but the Holy Father has himself been quite ”extreme” about the matter of liturgical desacralization in the post-conciliar era. It would be worthwhile to do a close examination of his pre-papal writings on the issue, when he was freer to express his concerns publicly. But I thought that a good way to give a brief exegesis on the Holy Father’s thinking about the sacred and liturgy would be to provide a translation of a brief article from the French-language edition of the international journal Communio, from 2006.

The article was written by a French Jesuit priest, Jean-Francois Thomas, in an issue of the journal commemorating the life and work of the French Oratorian theologian, Louis Bouyer, who died in 2004. Bouyer was himself a great theologian of the liturgy, and his work was influential to the Holy Father. The article gives a beautiful reflection, drawing on some of the writings of Bouyer and Ratzinger, on the essential place of the sacred in Christian liturgy and in Christian life as a whole. But, be forewarned: the respective admonitions of Bouyer and Ratzinger toward the post-conciliar liturgical destruction are well-represented in the article.

I would note, before we begin, that this is a rough translation, and that I do not provide the article’s footnotes. For those, you would have to consult the original article. Here is the bibliographical information: Jean-Francois Thomas, “Notes sur le sacre et la liturgie chez Louis Bouyer et Joseph Ratzinger,” Communio, XXXI, 4 — July-August 2006, p. 45-62.

We shall break the posting of the translation into five parts, providing the first part today. We start today simply with the brief introduction. In the next part, Thomas expounds some of Bouyer’s most important ideas. Ratzinger’s voice will first be heard in the following part. But the two voices are concordant. They flow seamlessly into one another on the question of liturgy.

Remarks on the Sacred and the Liturgy in Louis Bouyer and Joseph Ratzinger

The pages which follow have no other pretension than to propose a gathering of considerations which do not proceed from the pen of a theologian, a specialist of the authors in question, or of the idea of the sacred, but of notes drawn from readings, at random visits in libraries, and which rest on the basis of a priestly conviction: the major and terrifying crisis traversed by the Church for more than 40 years will only be surmounted by a return to the sacred, of which the liturgy is the eminent expression. Such an affirmation can immediately be accused of being reactionary, conservative, or integrist.

The two theologians who concern us have not escaped and do not escape at all this kind of critique, thrown by the very ones who have replaced their catechism with tolerance. It seems to us most fruitful to listen attentively and humbly to these two following, concordant voices in order better to grasp what is the essence of Catholic liturgy.