Fr Peter's newsletter notes - August 2007

Week of Ordinary Time - Sunday 1st August 2007

The Motu Propio of Pope Benedict XVI will depoliticise the debate over the Liturgy

Just this last week the City Planners along with central government passed the planning application for the so-called ‘walkie-talkie’, a twisted cartoon like structure that will disfigure the city skyline for the next fifty years. This is probably the architectural low point of recent years. The construction of this building will lead to another cluster of skyscrapers, adjacent to Fenchurch Street station, to add to the numerous others that are being constructed and planned at the moment. The city is going through one of its periodic building booms, and the buildings of the immediate post-war era are making way for a new generation. Those post-war buildings were probably eye-sores to the minds of those who remembered a pre-war London of Georgian and Victorian buildings, but today look part of a longer tradition of British building. A few years ago I remember a photograph in the Evening Standard of John Betjeman sitting on the platform of Broad Street station with the, then, newly built Drapers Gardens tower in the background. Both have now given way to new buildings, and very soon it will be impossible to remember the vista of many city streets at the time of the Millennium.

The shock of the new has always made the immediate past look so much better in comparison. Nowhere is this more true than in relation to the Mass. The liturgical changes implemented by the Second Vatican Council were imposed on a largely unsuspecting Mass attending Catholic population. The celebrant now facing the congregation, the change from Latin to English, the paring down of the Offertory and reduction in the number of prayers, gave the impression that so much of the mystery was being lost. Forty years later this sentiment can be confirmed as being largely true but, for accuracy, recognition must be made of what was gained. This was not very apparent at the time. The reorganisation of the readings at Mass has allowed a greater access to the Scriptures and the solemnity of the liturgical actions of the Roman Rite has become more obvious in the Mass established at the Second Vatican Council.

The Holy Father, in the explanatory letter to his recent Motu Proprio concerning the more widespread use of the Tridentine Rite, emphasised the misused ‘creativity’ which accompanied the introduction of the new form of Mass in the 1960s, and which obviously distressed countless Catholics at the time. These creative endeavours now look very dated, and out of place.

This is now the right time to allow for a more widespread use of the Tridentine Rite, and both that and the new rite are to be seen as two forms of the one Roman Rite. The Pope’s action has de-politicised the issue by allowing any priest to celebrate the Tridentine Mass in the parish depending on local circumstances. The permission of the bishop cannot be withheld, so the Tridentine rite can no more be used a rallying cry against the liberal establishment, nor against die hard liturgists who believe that the guitar, and high pitched ditties are the sole means to worship God. An outbreak of sanity over all these liturgical issues will be welcomed by many throughout the Church.

The Sacrament of Marriage (Part 2) (CCC 1609-16)

The biblical understanding of marriage has evolved through the application of the Law and the inspired critique of the prophets. Moses allowed divorce owing to the hardness of heart, but the Law did protect, to a limited extent, wives from the arbitrary domination by their husbands. Subsequently the prophets developed their vision of marriage by comparing it with the exclusive fidelity of God to His chosen people. Jesus Christ brings this comparison to its fulfilment because He unites, through his humanity, all people to Himself and, through His presence at Cana, demonstrates that the goodness of marriage is also a sign of His presence.

The insistence on the indissolubility of marriage is not an impossible demand because Christ gives the necessary grace to restore marriage to its original place in creation. The couple participate in this grace when they ‘take up their cross’ in imitation of Christ. The grace is given but the struggle remains to create a harmonious union and so the relationship between spouse and Christ remains critical.

The Catechism emphasises that where appropriate a marriage between two Catholics should take place during Mass, because the Eucharist is the expression of the new covenant between God and humanity, in which marriage participates. Unlike the other sacraments of the Church, no visible sign is used. Instead the spouses confer the sacrament on each other through their consent in front of a priest or deacon. The Holy Spirit is called down upon the couple through prayers and the Nuptial Blessing. The consent of each spouse is an act of will that has to be both free, and not be impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law such as a previous union. It is the lack of consent, amongst other reasons, which makes a marriage invalid. If true consent was not given then this marriage may be declared null and void, in the sacramental sense, and this is called an annulment.