Recently, I was reading a proposal from a grassroots collection\nof Orthodox people seeking to implement reforms in the Church. The proposal\nincludes an appeal for Eucharistic renewal, since Communion remains infrequent\nand the laity seem to be disengaged at the Liturgy. One of the theologians\nbelonging to the cohort wrote me privately and said, \u201cwe desperately need the\nkind of Eucharistic reforms implemented by the Orthodox Churches in North\nAmerica.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a plethora of literature covering the\naccomplishments of the liturgical movement in the Catholic, Protestant, and\nOrthodox Churches of the twentieth century. Catholics and Protestants\nimplemented three-year lectionaries, restored the Old Testament reading to the\nEucharistic Liturgy, composed new Eucharistic prayers representing the broader\ntradition of the Christian world, encouraged frequent communion, and\nessentially demanded the active participation of the laity. The Catholic Church\nauthorized vernacular translations of the Mass. Attempts were made to revive\nthe largely dormant office of the deacon. Seminaries and theology schools\nemphasized the art of preaching, and liturgical inculturation was widely\nembraced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Orthodox Church also witnessed to a veritable liturgical\nrenewal in many places, with appeals for reading the prayers aloud, publishing\nmodern translations of the Liturgy, promoting assembly singing, emphasizing\nparticipation in the Liturgy of the Hours and Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts,\nand encouraging the frequent reception of Holy Communion. In general, it is\ncustomary to attribute these achievements to Alexander Schmemann, but he was\nnot alone in inspiring a liturgical renaissance, as Alkiviadis Calivas, Paul\nMeyendorff, and the Monks of New Skete offered their own contributions in\nAmerica, while the Church of Greece inaugurated a series of serious synodal\nstudies of liturgical renewal. Liturgical renewal appeared in diverse places\nsuch as Russia, Serbia, Romania, and Finland, and liturgy plays a crucial role\nin missionary efforts led by the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reading the literature presenting the account of the\nliturgical renewal of the twentieth century, it would seem that all of the\nChurches are self-congratulatory. Here, we have lay persons distributing\ncommunion, there we have an entire generation of faithful who receive communion\nevery Sunday. In our epoch of quantitative assessment, we can point to be the\nnumber of new prayers composed and communicants to claim that the liturgical\nmovement accomplished its objective of providing yeast for the body of Christ\nto arise from a state of inertia, for the Church as mother to give birth to\ndisciples who will be witnesses to the kingdom of God in this world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A quantitative assessment will not tell us the whole story,\nhowever. Serious pastors, theologians, and laity are called to be self-critical\nand test their fidelity to the covenant with Christ required by the\ndiscipleship given in Baptism and anointing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Momentarily putting aside the resurgence of a vertical\necclesiology that distances clergy from the laity, there is plenty of\nqualitative evidence exposing the challenges confronting the Churches. Small,\ntraditional seminaries and schools of theology that produced pastors to serve\nin regions are closing and trying to survive serious financial strains.\nDemographic changes and attrition result in parish closures and the merging of\ncongregations. Many communities cannot support full-time pastors. Churches are\nrocked by large-scale institutional scandals, as the recent sex abuse reports\nnot only threatened the reputation of Pope Francis himself, but reintroduced\nthe spirit of mistrust and disillusionment into the Catholic Church. Careful\nreading on mainline Protestant Churches disclose their own troubles in the\nmidst of the ranks, while the Orthodox Churches are continually caught in the\ncrossfire of medieval Byzantine polemics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the national and international levels, people are fully\nengaged in the age of anger. Frightening acts of racism, anti-Semitism,\nIslamophobia, homophobia, and human trafficking result in a common ritual of\nshaking heads, shedding tears, and perpetuating the blame game. There is no\nlack of people of good will in the depths of the sea of bad news. The retired\ngeneration recognizes the return of the hatred, violence, and ugly politics of\nthe 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s. Participants in the liturgical and ecumenical movements\nremind us that Church reform was never about visible and audible aesthetical\nchanges we could celebrate as our accomplishment, but reforming the Church in such\na way so that we would allow God to change us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we explore beneath the surface of the liturgical movement and lay aside our worship wars (at least temporarily), we can see that the aspirations of the pioneers of this movement were quite bold. In his pithy review of the stages of the liturgical movement, Mark Searle recalled that the pioneers of the first stage \u201cfocused on liturgical formation and social transformation, bringing people to the liturgy so that they might be empowered to go out and change the social order\u201d (Called to Participate<\/a><\/em>, Order of St. benedict, 2006, 12). In his mystagogical treatise of the Divine Liturgy, Alexander Schmemann reflected on the exchange of the kiss of peace, writing that it has the capacity to liberate us from our \u201csecluded corners\u201d and \u201cself-absorption,\u201d leading us to the love of Christ that \u201ctransforms the stranger into a brother\u201d (The Eucharist<\/a><\/em>, SVS Press, 1984, 138-9). David Fagerberg receives Aidan Kavanagh\u2019s Mrs. Murphy and reminds us that the ordinary lay person is the real theologian, whose liturgical participation enable them to \u201cunderstand the world and shape their own lives,\u201d and ultimately to \u201cread the world\u201d and \u201ctell the world the truth about itself\u201d (Theologia Prima<\/a><\/em>, LTP, 2004, 141, 151-2). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Liturgical participation allows one to become an authentic human person, one who is becoming like God through a liturgical process of theosis, <\/em>as argued by Schmemann in his treatise on Baptism and Chrismation (Of Water and the Spirit<\/a><\/em>,<\/a> SVS Press, 1974, 79-82). The spirit of baptismal ecclesiology is God\u2019s vision of the human person, described by Schmemann as anthropological maximalism<\/em>. Liturgical participation initiates us into an encounter with the Triune God who remakes us in the divine image. Through participation, we become priests, prophets, and kings, saints, christs, and Christ-bearers who are called to witness to the kingdom in everyday life and to act consistently for the life of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This brief summary is only a scratch beneath the surface of\na chorus of voices who claim that we can change, and that our transformation\ncan change the world. This world can become one of equality, human dignity, responsible\nstewardship for the earth, radical charity (especially for aliens, orphans, and\nwidows), and the daily practice of forgiving seventy times seven. Liturgical\ntheologians admonish us to remember that Liturgy is primarily an act of God,\nand we are only done unto in this act. There is no question that God is acting:\nthe question is, why is change so often only visible and audible in the\naesthetical dimensions of liturgical performance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aware of the limitations of liturgical causality, there are\na number of reasons that we are not witnessing to more tangible, large-scale human\nflourishing as the result of Church reform. The Church\u2019s missionary and\npastoral vision is too often confined to carefully delineated communal spaces\nthat separate the local Church form the world. Furthermore, the process of\nliturgical theosis<\/em> is enormously\ncomplex as God\u2019s remaking us is an act that is never completed in this lifetime,\nso transformation requires constant vigilance and effort. These two aspects of\nliturgical theology deserve much more expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Churches that value liturgical renewal, especially\nin the Eucharist, perhaps we can conclude with one final reflection. The\ninitial stage of the liturgical movement remains a work in progress, because in\nthe popular piety of the people, we continue to define the Eucharist as a gift\none can earn. In other words, each Christian is unworthy, and some combination\nof practices leads one to gradually ascend to a state of worthiness that merits\nreceiving the body and blood of Christ in communion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When failure occurs, it might not only lead to a break in\ncommunion, but also result in a sense of despondency that one can never really\nescape their own depravity and tendency to sin. Pastoral instruction that metes\nout punishment on account of sin can deepen a sense of futility, fear of\napproaching the sacrament, and alienation from the Eucharistic assembly. The\nsinner whose shame shuts them out of the Church is compatible with the general\nsense of alienation that breeds anger, hatred violence, and the perpetuation of\nthe blame game. This is especially true when the Eucharist becomes a polemical\nweapon to demonstrate ecclesial legitimacy or spiritual superiority over more\nsinful cohorts of people. And excommunication, both official and self-imposed,\nremains a staple feature of Church life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it not possible to accentuate the Eucharist as the\nhealing of the human person, body, soul, mind, and spirit, that all require to\nend brokenness and become whole? The Christian tradition presents numerous\nimages of a God with inexhaustible forgiveness who implores the disciple to\napproach, over and over again. The one who admits their brokenness and needs\nhealing desperately needs to approach and receiving the divine medicine that heals.\nThis will be possible only if everyone acknowledges their brokenness and adopts\nthe identity of the first among sinners, including the popes, patriarchs, and\nmost respected and beloved Christian pastors in the Church. The tradition of excommunication\nwas designed in part to alert the sinner to their destructive acts and begin\nthe process of confessing sin. Everyone is a sinner, and the act of confessing\nis eased when it becomes a journey undertaken together, spiritual counselors\nand confessors standing side-by-side with the most egregious sinners,\nconfessing their sin, and becoming human again by the Lord\u2019s act of forgiving\nseventy times seven, giving us his body and blood. \n\nThe process of healing broken society begins\nwhen our engagement of the blame game results in an honest admission that we\nare contributing to the problem. Society cannot be healed if we refuse the Lord\u2019s\nhealing or deny it to those who might otherwise approach. Offering the\nEucharist as healing for the life of the world is one small step the Churches\ncan take in furthering the enterprise of Eucharistic renewal. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Real liturgical reform: Offering the Eucharist as healing for the life of the world <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":42044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3118,19,619,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-mass","category-liturgical-movement","category-liturgical-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n