The Sacred Liturgy

The Sacred Liturgy is the means by which the Church carries out the priestly office of Jesus Christ and by which it sanctifies not only the Sacred liturgy itself but by the use of outward and visible signs it symbolises the sanctification of us as members of the Church and therefore of the mystical body of Christ. It is the means by which the Church offers complete worship to God in the name of the Church uniting all its members through actions and worship approved by ecclesiastical authority. It is what makes us, wherever we live in the world, members of the one Church and therefore of the body of Christ. The Eucharist unites us in the sacrifice of Christ and the Divine Office “sanctifies the day and all human activity”.

Because the Church authorises the form of the liturgy and the manner in which it is celebrated it not only sanctifies but also unifies the People of God. It is not, therefore, a private devotion the form and celebration of which can be decided upon by any individual or group of individuals, but unifies the people by their presence and, where appropriate, active participation. Liturgical actions, therefore, are normally celebrated in the presence of the people although, of course, a private Mass for instance can be of benefit to the whole community since the celebration of the liturgy through its nature and form authorised by the appropriate authority in the name of the Church unifies all members, present or not. If this unifying function is to have meaning then the liturgical actions called for must be regulated by a single authority. It would clearly make a nonsense of the unifying aspect of the liturgy if it were not so, since over time the form and actions would so diverge between different communities that eventually they would be unrecognisable from one community to another.

As provided for in canon law it is the prerogative, but one could also say the duty, of the Apostolic See not only to regulate the liturgical practices of the Church but also to be watchful to ensure that the regulations are universally observed (Can.838). One means of doing this is to ensure that the liturgical books which are approved by the competent authority are faithfully followed in the celebration of the sacraments so that no person may on their own initiative add to or omit or alter anything provided in those books (Can.846).

Having very briefly looked at the nature and purpose of the liturgy it is interesting to consider the means by which the liturgy is communicated and within which it is expressed. As in all human communication it is primarily idiomatic but is remarkable in its extraordinary richness and breadth of the forms of communication, not only the musical and linguistic forms but also architectural, iconographic and conceptual contexts which lend shape, colour and richness to that communication.

It is not within the scope of a paper of this length to consider in detail each of these idiomatic forms. However it is worth letting one’s mind range over the accumulative effect of these various means of communication . A vital function of the liturgy is to communicate transcendent ideas and this can be aided by the effect on the senses of the architecture within which it is celebrated, the beauty of the language and music, the richness of colour and other visual effects. All these things should transport us beyond their immediate presence so that our minds and hearts are open to the perception of ideas and truths that might not come within our conscious thoughts in our everyday surroundings, or to the perception of them in a different, deeper way.

Here, unification is key so that the whole is greater than the assembled parts. The unifying factor between the various idiomatic means of expression is, I believe, beauty. Human beings naturally strive for and respond to beauty. Beauty can stem from the simplest of constituents or can be the result of great complexity. However, it is rarely accidental. It can derive from an infinite variety of origins, nature, love, goodness, mathematics, human endeavour in the field of music, art etc or it can simply arise out of ideas that inspire. For us these things are all divinely inspired and enabled and since all that is beautiful is given to us by God everything we wish to give to God should be made as beautiful as possible. It is, after all, to God we offer the liturgy, not ourselves.

The liturgy of the Church should be no exception. Within it the Church should endeavour to offer the greatest beauty that she can summon and this includes the idiomatic forms through which worship is offered. These should be entirely directed towards God. It is He to whom we owe all our being and we should not risk allowing the form of the liturgy to make us self regarding or inward looking by trimming it to fit the limits of expression or appreciation of any group. By this I mean that the celebration of the liturgy should not become something of a theatrical performance despite the element of theatre inevitably present. Each action, each prayer, each anthem, and all our being should be directed towards God. The great danger in, for instance, the westward facing Mass, is that the celebration of the Eucharist could become something which an individual congregation sees as a thing which it is celebrating within itself for itself, whereas with an eastward facing Mass, there can be no doubt that the congregation headed by the priest as Christ’s representative are presenting themselves to God in the sacrifice of the Mass in the name of Christ.

Great care should be exercised when trying to ensure that the liturgy is appreciated by all as a pathway to heaven so that we are not ensnared in the trap of believing that this can only be achieved by making it “accessible”. What does this mean? Accessible to a University Professor, a doctor, a shop assistant, a person with learning difficulties, a child….? In my view the latter is quite as likely to appreciate the mystery of, say, the Mass as many a Professor and this stems from an openness to the mystery rather than much learning. On the face of it the word “accessible” seems the represent the laudable aim of ensuring the liturgy is understood by all. However, understanding is another thing entirely. It comes in many forms and at many levels and in no way is governed by education, age, class or nationality. It is dependent entirely on the point any person has reached in their journey along the pathway to heaven. A child has every chance of reaching a level of understanding of the sacrifice of the Mass greater than that of an adult of any age – the child often carrying much less baggage that could obstruct his view- the adult often having neglected for long periods to “stay awake”. People on that journey need to see ahead of them the mystery towards which they travel, not become stranded in a foggy liturgical forest where the trees themselves appear to become the object and destination of the journey

Thus we do a significant disservice to the Body of Christ when we attempt to dumb down the celebration in any of its idiomatic forms. Dull buildings, music of little merit, conversion of the celebration into a cosy camp-fire chat, sloppy visual or verbal presentation – all no doubt intended to make everyone feel at home and safe, merely serve to block the view of heaven represented in the liturgy itself and obscure the essential nature of what is to be communicated – the transcendence of the Christian message. It is not exclusively one of cosiness and safety – we forget that at our peril!

Let us then strive to offer the BEST of every means by which we express that message so we may endeavour to offer our entire being to God through media that are the best that human society can offer; that, in the transcendence of the liturgy we may ourselves transcend our everyday failures in this endeavour.

Carol Lewis

An Oblate of Douai Abbey