"This Sacred Council"

Forty six years ago today--December 4, 1963--the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) [CSL] was promulgated during the Second Vatican Council. This was the first document of the Council that was approved and promulgated, and its opening lines establish the goals of the Council in general:

This sacred Council has several aims in view: it desires to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church. The Council therefore sees particularly cogent reasons for undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy.

The CSL was the first of four Constitutions promulgated during the Second Vatican Council. The others were on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), the Church (Lumen Gentium), and the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes). Constitutions are the most authoritative documents issued by a Council. The Second Vatican Council also issued three declarations and nine decrees.

There is much division in the Church today over what the Council "really wanted" or what the documents produced by the Council "really said." While it is healthy and good to vigorously debate these important aspects of our faith, I have failed to see a real debate of these issues during the past decade. What I mostly observe is an apologia from this perspective or that, which skewers the opponent and shows the ultimate wisdom and holiness of the "correct" interpretation. In fact, one blog I visited recently referred to those who thought differently as "evil," and said that they want to bring the Church down. While we certainly have issues that must be resolved, I have to say that I have never worked with anyone, regardless of their ideology, who wanted anything less than a flourishing and vital Catholic Church!

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy built upon nearly a century of papal pronouncements. Pope St. Pius X (1903-14) described the necessity of the faithful's "active participation" in his motu proprio on sacred music, Tra le sollecitudine (1903). Pius XII's (1939-58) encyclical Mediator Dei (1947) speaks of the Mystical Body of Christ. During his pontificate the liturgical movement was gaining momentum. While Pope Pius severely discouraged innovation and experimentation at the local level, he allowed for limited use of the vernacular language, outside of Mass and mostly in mission lands, for some of the rites. He reformed the rites of Holy Week (1951, 1954) and reformed the calendar, eliminating all celebrations of the octaves, with the exception of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.

Pope Pius X wrote in Mediator Dei:

The Church is without question a living organism, and as an organism, in respect of the sacred liturgy also, she grows, matures, develops, adapts and accommodates herself to temporal needs and circumstances, provided only that the integrity of her doctrine be safeguarded. (paragraph 59)

This certainly prefigures the opening of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy quoted above. The Constitution goes on to say:

In order that the Christian people may more certainly derive an abundance of graces from the sacred liturgy, holy Mother Church desires to undertake with great care a general restoration of the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become unsuited to it.

In this restoration, both texts and rites should be drawn up so that they express more clearly the holy things which they signify; the Christian people, so far as possible, should be enabled to understand them with ease and to take part in them fully, actively, and as befits a community. (paragraph 21)

This brings liturgical reform, 60+ years old, to its next level and has set the stage for what has followed. I think that any level-headed person sees that the reforms, though often awkwardly implemented, have been a source of grace for the Church.

In my own mind, I have seen two major issues that all of us who prepare and celebrate liturgy need to address. The first is a rather cavalier attitude toward the liturgical texts, rubrics and rituals of the Roman Rite. There is a sense that if something doesn't work or feel right, I will change it. Conversion requires the exact opposite: If something doesn't work or feel right, I must change. I think that this conversion requires a great deal of humility and trust in the Spirit. While often the most visible infractions in this area occur when a priest omits a part of the Mass or changes words, this often manifests itself quietly in the return to practices which were changed or omitted during the reforms, thus nullifying paragraph 21 of the CSL (above). (In any honest approach we have to first remove the plank from our own eye before helping our neighbor remove the speck of dust from his own!)

The second issue has to do with ongoing catechesis for the congregation regarding their important role in the liturgy.

...in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain. Pastors of souls must therefore realize that, when the liturgy is celebrated, something more is required than the mere observation of the laws governing valid and licit celebration; it is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite, and enriched by its effects. (CSL 11)

Notice that the liturgy's effectiveness doesn't depend on the priest, the organist, the choir, the lector, the environment, or any of the myriad of things that we fuss about. It depends on the people in the pew!

Helping people "take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged...and enriched" is not easy and can't be accomplished with a bulletin article now and then. This type of catechesis requires a full-court press in the schools and religious education programs, in adult education, through homilies and, most importantly, through well-celebrated liturgy. It has been my experience that people want to know more about the liturgy and about their faith. We don't want to sell them short.

Finally, I think that we have to acknowledge some inherent tensions in liturgical norms and documents. For example, we know that the Council confirmed Latin as the language of the Roman Rite (CSL 36). At the same time it said that the people should be able to understand the liturgy with ease (CSL 21) and take part fully aware of what they are doing (CSL 11). This creates a tension and no sentence trumps another. We have to reflect on ways to reconcile these two seemingly different approaches.

So happy anniversary. Much has been accomplished but much more lies ahead.

You may want to check out this blog sent to me by a colleague: http://www.liturgicalleaders.blogspot.com/