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. [Sacrosanctum
Concilium 21]
The changes willed by the approximately 2700 to 4
vote of the world's Catholic
bishops in the document cited above can be summarized as 1) restore the active
participation of the people, 2) remove accretions and duplications which crept into the
Roman Mass in millennium before Pope Pius V
imposed it on the Latin Church, and 3) manifest the proper sacramentality of the Mass as an act of Christ, Head and
Body. These were legitimate and long over-due reforms, as the virtually
unanimous vote of the hierarchy shows. Other goals of the
reforms can be read in Sacrosanctum Concilium.
1. Active Participation (Vatican II, Sacrosanctum
Concilium 14-20). In the context of the Reformation the essentialism
of the Missal of Pius V makes sense. The emphasis is on the theologically
essential participant, the priest, without whose power the Eucharist
cannot be confected. The role of the laity, who through baptism is a
member of the Body of Christ, tended to be passive. The lay person's role
in the effecting of the Eucharist was accidental (in the
philosophical sense of not being "of the essence"), though the
rubrics required the presence of at least one layman (to complete the sign
of Christ, Head and members). As a consequence, the people were left to
pray privately, their active role fulfilled by the servers. Put another
way, their Mass participation was primarily devotional (the rosary, prayer
books etc.), as opposed to liturgical (giving the responses, following the
prayers devoutly etc.). One of the key reforms of the Council was to
restore the properly liturgical role of the people to them. Even before
the Council the trend favored lay missals with Latin-English, and dialogic
Masses, where the people give the responses, over praying private
devotions during Mass. Contrary to the assumption of many Catholics,
liturgical piety is more meritorious than personal devotion. Certainly,
the quiet and peace of nearly silent Masses fosters a feeling of
devotion; however, objectively, through active liturgical participation we
exercise the priestly office of Christ Himself conferred by baptism and
thus share in His merit. Of course, interior spiritual participation must
also be present, and not just external activity, for active liturgical
participation to be authentic. Participation in the Pascal Mysteries is
not primarily a matter of feeling, or even external doing, but of FAITH
and CHARITY.
2. Accretions and Duplications (SC
21-25). The Holy See had long encouraged the study of the nature of the
liturgy and the historical origins of its parts. The findings of
theologians
such as Fr. Joseph Jungmann (The Mass of the Roman Rite, 3 vols.,
Christian Classics, 1950, 1986), clearly reveal the mutability of the Mass
from the time of the earliest known Roman sacramentaries (5th and
6th century). Rather than being a static form, the Roman Rite had absorbed
customs from other local Churches (e.g. Gaul), as well as developed it's
own, an evolution that ended with Pius V and Trent. What had once been
"novelties" when first adopted at Rome became fixed parts of the
"immemorial Mass". The only constant being the authority of the
Apostolic See to permit, order and even to impose them. Without judging the virtue of this change or
that following Vatican II, on which there
are legitimate arguments pro and con, the need for the reform of the
Tridentine Mass was certainly accepted by all bishops and theologians.
3. Sacramentality of the Roles (SC
26-32). The Church is the mystical Christ, Head and Body (1 Cor. 12). The
ministerial priest is the sacramental sign of Christ the Head, who acts in
persona Christi capitis (Catechism of the Catholic Church 875,
1348, 1548). The people, though baptism, also exercise an office (CCC
1188, 1273). It is not essential to the confecting of the Eucharist, but is
essential to the sacramentality of the Eucharistic assembly. Together, priest and people,
are a sacramental sign of
Christ's continuing mystical presence in the world through the Church,
which makes possible the perpetuation in time of the One Sacrifice of
Calvary, Eucharistic Communion and the substantial Presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament itself. The
sacramentality of the Church as the Mystical Christ is clearer, therefore,
when both priests and laity exercise their proper sacramental offices as
Head and Members, respectively. |
