NOTES FROM NOTRE DAME SYMPOSIUM ON LITURGY & LIFE 1: "On Jesus Christ and the Liturgy"

First set of notes from the June 19-23 symposium at University of Notre Dame. Videos of the talks will  be posted on the McGrath Institute for Church Life YouTube Channel.

"On Jesus Christ and the Liturgy" Fr. Khaled Anatolios, PhD
Fr. Kahled is a priest in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and Professor of Biblical Studies/Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity at University of Notre Dame

"There is one thing I ask of the Lord: to dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 27
Christ is the point of human encounter with God. Two natures together in one person.

Church Fathers referred to Psalm 85:10  "Truth has sprung up from the earth..." - with the incarnation God is no longer just in heaven (Augustine)

Liturgy is the event in which the encounter of God and humanity become available and we can participate in it. It is a Christological encounter. A multitude keeping festival = the Church. In the liturgy we become one body, one spirit in Christ. We encounter each other in Christ.

Liturgy as Exodus.  Every liturgy is Passover. We pass over to freedom in the spirit from death in sin. It begins as soon as we begin our preparations for going to Mass.  But it doesn't happen through our efforts.  Christ doesn't wait for us. He goes out to accompany us.  It begins with the family preparation. But also within spiritual preparation. What do we need to be liberated from?

Liturgy as Kingdom.  In Eastern Church, we begin "Blessed is the kingdom in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Jesus came to say that "the kingdom is among you" (literal translation of the Greek)

PENITENTIAL RITE AND DOXOLOGY (The "Gloria")
If the liturgy is a Passover, we begin by leaving something behind. In the Penitential Rite we declare our liberation from sin in Christ and announce the kingdom. (Repent!) And leave behind what is not the kingdom.

Christ never receives our confession, because he has already given his grace to us and has repented on our behalf. He leaves behind all that

LITURGY OF THE WORD
Epistle to the Hebrews opening.  Continuity - God the Father gathers up all the ways he has been speaking and places it in Christ. Scripture is communication of the incarnation. The opening of the Epistle clears the way for the proclamation of Christ. When we hear Jesus proclaimed in the Gospel, we encounter him.

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Liturgy as sacrifice - we need to recover the meaning.  Last Supper:  "This is my Body" = This is my Life. "This is my Blood" = This is my death. Christ can do this because he is in command of his life and death.  (John 10:18)  This communicates the sacrifice.

See Hebrews 10:1-14
Jesus's self offering is his whole will to the Father.  He offers all of us in himself. Perfects for all time those who are sanctified.  It is a love covenant with God - "here I am to do your will."

What happens to sin in the middle of that offering?  How does Christ take away the sin of the world? (As Lamb of God.)  In real sacrifice, you have to enter into - to empathize with the other.  Christ enters into our humanity with all its messiness and becomes part of it... His pain was greater than any human pain because he suffered all the woundedness of the world because he empathized and took on all our suffering. He did this while in the Trinity, so it becomes part of the holiness of the Trinity.

Eucharist needs to be spiritually digested because it's spiritual food - it is digested spiritually by contemplation and through reflection on Scripture.

EPICLESIS
The Holy Spirit is the "extrovert" member of the Trinity.  It comes down and transforms the bread and wine and then it transforms us.  Every Eucharist is a Pentecost.

GO IN PEACE
Jesus never says "Peace be with you" except after the Resurrection.  The peace of Jesus is a definitive peace.  The peace of a fullness of communion, of encounter between God and humanity. Humanity is fully integrated into the life of God - and we are sent to bring this peace to the world.

Q&A
Pope Benedict in Sacramentum Caritatis... we bring the pain and suffering of the world and offering them with the gifts.

We lift up our hearts with Gods help.  We get new hearts from God at the liturgy.

In Which I Discover Why Biblical Literacy Is Important to Understanding the Mass

Last Monday night, I spent two hours with the catechists in my parish, teaching Part 2 of From Mass to Mission in a bilingual format. (See my post about the experience of Part 1 here.) The room was nearly twice as full as it was for the previous session. More catechists came, and some even brought their teenage children. I sort of expected that. since typically Hispanic folks invite their friends and family to things they get enthusiastic about. Have to admit, it made me smile to see so many there. I was determined to make the night worth their while.

The subject for the evening was Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Concluding Rites of the Mass. I went through the Offertory and taught them about how to offer themselves with the bread and wine - how to offer their hearts and lives to the Father to be changed with the Gifts at the Epiclesis. We worked our way through the Eucharistic Prayer and they learned about joining in the Liturgy of Heaven,  remembering the Last Supper, transubstantiation, Real Presence and such.

Then, we got to the Lamb of God. I asked if anyone knew why Jesus was Cordero de Dios, the Lamb of God.  Not really. So, I mentioned the Passover, the blood of the lamb on the doors of the Israelites and the concept of being saved by the Blood of the Lamb. About that time, a few looked confused, and one woman asked for clarification. It seems they didn't know the story of Moses, the Pharaoh, the plagues, the Angel of Death and the death of the Egyptian firstborn children that ultimately resulted in the freedom of the the Israelite people.  Luckily, my DRE, who speaks Spanish fluently, got up and in 5 minutes, told the entire story.  Then, they understood. The lights went on.

The rest of the evening went pretty much as expected as we learned about receiving and being changed by the Eucharist and being sent forth on the mission to evangelize. Those present expressed gratitude at the end for what they had learned.

In reflecting later on what had happened that night, I realized that when teaching about the Mass, one cannot assume people have the Biblical literacy to understand the connection between the Last Supper, the Passover and the Lamb. It also occurs to me that the image of the angels and saints worshiping in heaven along with us might be less-rich for those who don't know the images from Revelation, although they do hear about that at Sunday Mass upon occasion. There are probably more issues about understanding the Mass that lack of familiarity with basic Bible stories would affect.

In short, I learned something else I cannot assume when teaching about the Mass.

Sacrosanctum Concilium: The Renewal of the Liturgy has a Long Way to Go

Last night, I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Timothy O'Malley of the University of Notre Dame Center for Liturgy speak on "The Work of Our Redemption: A Liturgical Theology of Sacrosanctum Concilium" wherein he noted that this Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was aimed not so much at "reform" but "renewal" of the liturgy.

He noted two important things in particular about that infamous "full, conscious and active participation" mentioned in SC that I will have to spend more time with: that the combined voices of the people at Mass are the voice of Christ, lifting up the prayer of the Mass to the Father and that the people are there to offer their lives, along with Christ, to the Father with the sacrifice of the Mass - to become a sacrifice of "self-giving love," as O'Malley emphasizes in his book.

Certainly, neither concept is new to me. However, in reflection on what I heard last night, I am even more convinced that these are two areas in which we have almost completely failed  in typical parish catechesis. Many of our young people leave behind  practice of the Mass after Confirmation (current stats are that only 22% of young adults regularly attend). Why? They think Mass is boring and repetitive. They don't see the point in going. This is not just true of young people, but of many in previous generations as well. Even those in the pews tell me that they really don't fully understand the role of the Assembly (the people in the pews) at Mass.

Most parish catechesis does a reasonably benign job of helping people understand the missional actions of love which Christ calls us to - those works of mercy expressed so well in the words of St. Teresa of Avila:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

What's missing from this equation?  Christ has no voice but yours - no voice to lift his sacrifice of praise to the Father. We don't teach people that their voice, in word and song at Mass, is integral to their identity as members of the Body of Christ.  Why else would people attend Mass passively, not singing or responding, only mimicking the postures and gestures of everyone else in the room? (Yes, I see that - as a cantor, facing the people. I see parents not participating and kids beside them, learning by example not to participate.)

Parish leaders and catechists think that preparation for lifelong participation in the Mass is complete after they prepare someone for their First Eucharist. We have, often, a congregation of people who have not progressed a whole lot in their level of appreciation or participation beyond a second-grade level. They sit, stand and kneel on cue, and most at least stumble through the Creed and say the "Our Father" but may do little else. Why?  Because they have never seen their "job description" for full participation in the Mass. This needs to change. Want to look at that "job description?" This might help.

That second point, offering their lives to God at the Mass, is key, but it, too, has gotten little attention. When I tell people about paragraph 901 in the Catechism, it is often the first time they have heard that when the bread and wine are offered on the altar, they are to offer their lives:

 "Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvellously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit - indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born - all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. and so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives."  (CCC 901)

That consecration of the world is the real goal of the work of the people that is the liturgy. Growing in holiness themselves through participation in the sacrifice and taking it beyond the church doors to sanctify the world through their actions of self-giving love - none of that happens if they are simply sleepwalking through the Mass.  We have work to do!

If you have been reading this blog or know the book project I just completed with Liturgy Training Publications, you know it has long been a passion of mine to help people understand their role in the Mass. What I heard last night confirmed that this is crucially important work - something all church leaders need to be about. If we continue to fail to help people see why the Mass is important to them - and they are important to the Mass, we will continue to see a decline in the Church. The time to wake up to the need for good liturgical catechesis at all age levels in parishes is now. The very life of the Church depends on it.