Arinze thoughts on the Liturgy

I’m really beat today and won’t be writing much, but I wanted to link to this piece on Cardinal Arinze, and his thoughts on the Liturgy. A breath of fresh air!

The Mass is a moment of reflection and encounter with God, rather than a form of entertainment, says Cardinal Francis Arinze.

In an interview with Inside the Vatican magazine, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments made a comprehensive assessment of the recent Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist and of developments in liturgical practice 40 years after the Second Vatican Council.

Regarding “music in the liturgy, we should start by saying that Gregorian music is the Church’s precious heritage,” he said. “It should stay. It should not be banished. If therefore in a particular diocese or country, no one hears Gregorian music anymore, then somebody has made a mistake somewhere.”

However, “the Church is not saying that everything should be Gregorian music,” the cardinal clarified. “There is room for music which respects that language, that culture, that people. There is room for that too, and the present books say that is a matter for the bishops’ conference, because it generally goes beyond the boundaries of one diocese.
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Referring to a negative tendency in the Western world, the cardinal revealed that an increasing number of Catholics have “a more Protestant concept of the Eucharist, seeing it mainly as a symbol.”

The “synod fathers recognize that many Catholics don’t have correct faith in the real presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist,” he said. “This was mentioned in one of the propositions as well.

“It was recognized so much that many of the synod fathers suggested that there be themes suggested for homilies on Sundays. Seeing that for many Catholics the Sunday homily is about the only religious instruction they get in a week, the synod fathers suggested that the four major areas of Catholic faith should be covered by the homily in a three-year cycle.”

The four areas correspond to the parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“First part, what we believe,” Cardinal Arinze said. “Second part, how we worship, i.e., sacraments. Third part, what we live, life in Christ, so the moral law, the Ten Commandments, the Christian life lived; and the fourth part, prayer.”

Therefore, “although the homily should be on the Scripture readings and the other liturgical texts, some way has to be found to cover the whole area of Catholic faith in a period of three years because many Catholics are really ignorant of fundamental matters. That is a fact nobody can deny.”
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“There has been a bit of neglect of the holy Eucharist outside Mass,” he said. “A lot of ignorance. A lot of temptations to showmanship for the priest who celebrates facing the people.

“If he is not very disciplined he will soon become a performer. He may not realize it, but he will be projecting himself rather than projecting Christ. Indeed it is very demanding, the altar facing the people. Then even those who read the First and Second Reading can engage in little tactics that make them draw attention to themselves and distract the people.

“So there are problems. However, some of the problems were not caused by Vatican II, but they were caused by children of the Church after Vatican II. Some of them talking of Vatican II push their own agenda. We have to watch that. People pushing their own agenda, justifying it as the ‘spirit of Vatican II.'”

The Vatican prefect continued: “So, if only people would be more faithful to what has been laid down, not by people who just like to make laws for other people, but what follows from what we believe. ‘Lex orandi, Lex credendi.’ It is our faith that directs our prayer life, and if we genuflect in front of the tabernacle it is because we believe that Jesus is there, and is God.”
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Cardinal Arinze concluded that the liturgy “is not the property of one individual, therefore an individual does not tinker with it, but makes the effort to celebrate it as Holy Mother Church wants. When that happens, the people are happy, they feel nourished. Their faith grows, their faith is strengthened. They go home happy and willing to come back next Sunday.”

Amen! He’s got it so right! Folks are hungry to see some chant and some old hymns brought back and some (most) of the utter garbage that passes for “contemporary liturgical music” left to the campfires from whence they came! Folks WANT instruction in the faith – I never see Catholics sit up and pay attention to a homily more than when they are actually LEARNING something they have either forgotten or never heard before, thanks to the lousy catechetics of the last three-plus decades. People who are re-introduced to the Truths of the Eucharist end up spending lots of time in Adoration – the de-emphasis of the Eucharist has been a real travesty, and it seems like this is finally being corrected! Hurrah!

And even my dear, liberal li’l brother Thom has serious concerns about the “performance” aspect that has evolved from the priest facing the people.

Not to say everything should be scrapped…but as Arinze said…after thirty years of people mucking things up “in the spirit of Vatican II,” we are all ready, finally to take a look at the documents and see that – no – the baby was never supposed to have been thrown out with the bathwater!