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| From Wikicommons |
From Fr Z:-
"From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Bishop Barron has a video reacting to the Pew Research
saying that 75% of Catholics think the Blessed Sacrament is just a
symbol. He talks about the failure of catechetics and educators and
that social justice was made more important than sound teaching.
What say you?
Bishop Barron indeed reacted to the recent Pew Research about
Catholics and their belief in the Church’s teachings about the
Eucharist. He is clearly frustrated. Anyone with any commonsense and
sliver of love left for the Church would be beside himself at the news
that 75% think that the Eucharist is just a symbol (younger Catholics …
drop that to 80%). It’s only a symbol.
Barron quotes Flannery O’Connor’s famous quip and quite properly.
“If it’s only a symbol, to hell with it.” Exactly right. The Eucharist
is the – here comes the non-cliché which must never be allowed to be
used as a cliché – “source and summit” of our lives as Catholic
Christians.
Barron admits that, if 75% don’t believe then something has gone
seriously wrong. It represents a “massive failure” for which “we are all
guilty”.
Sorry, but I’M NOT! I’ve been flogging myself for decades to be
clear as crystal about the Eucharist and I’ve been beaten to a pulp for
my efforts. As I recounted elsewhere, I was thrown out of seminary (the
first time) because of a dispute over the Eucharist. But, as a former
Lutheran, I can “do no other”. As a convert, I made radical choices
knowing what I was leaving and knowing what I was embracing. As a
matter of fact, I did my profession of Faith, from the traditional
Ritual, publicly during Sunday Vespers kneeling in front of the Blessed
Sacrament exposed on the altar. Enough about me.
It could be that Barron’s “we” meant “we bishops”. But, sincerely, I get his point:
many, not all, people are to blame. Hmmm… many… not all….
Bp. Barron underscores that this has been a massive failure on the part of educators, catechists, evangelists and teachers.
Well, yes, but mostly… NO!
Yes, catechesis is important, but more important still is our
liturgical worship, for decades hardly “sacred” liturgical worship.
Lack of belief in the Eucharist is mostly a massive failure in the
way we celebrate the Eucharist! I mean, of course, Holy Mass.
Everything flows from worship and then back to worship.Allow me to affirm that you can’t say everything in a short video.
There isn’t enough time. So, what you choose to include is probably your
most important position, what you really want to get across. Not a word from Bp. Barron in the video about liturgy, about decades
of the prevailing liturgical style (or the rite itself – the Novus
Ordo). This is so typical of bishops.
Not a word – in that video – about liturgy as either a cause of the
problems we face or as a solution. I listened to it twice and didn’t
hear it. He talks about the danger of placing social justice, etc.,
before doctrine. But, he doesn’t talk about liturgy.
Did I miss it? Please correct me if I did. It may be that he has
held forth at length on the topic elsewhere. I don’t follow him daily. Bp. Barron, in this video, underscores great figures who loved the
“Eucharist” and who would be flabbergasted at the suggestion that the
Eucharist was just a symbol. Exactly so!
However – and I know you know this Bp. Barron – “Eucharist” is not
just the Blessed Sacrament. It is also the way the Eucharist is
celebrated.There’s the Eucharist that is the Host and Precious Blood and there’s
the Eucharist that is the very way by which we have the Host and
Precious Blood, the ultimate “thanksgiving” which is Holy Mass.
Our sacred liturgical worship is our most important action in the
fulfillment of Religion, that orders all other activities and gives them
meaning.The way that Holy Mass is celebrated IS DOCTRINE… it IS CATECHESIS. Liturgy is the principle
locus of encounter which the vast
majority of Catholics have with the Church. It’s Sunday Mass (if they
go) far more than talks, classes, adult education, CCD, etc. Let’s not
even bring up efforts in most homes of your average Catholic to teach
children the Faith.
The way Mass is celebrated is by far the principle influence on how people see and think about the Eucharist.
If the
ars celebrandi of the priest is X, then people will
be guided towards X. Change the liturgy and the belief of people about X
will slowly follow.
Legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi … “
Lex orandi – Lex Credendi” is NOT a cliché, either. It’s the way things work!
WE ARE OUR RITES. Change those rites and you change belief. It is inevitable.
What Pew Research revealed is nothing other than the fruits of the
last 50 years of near total liturgical devolution which enervated and
evacuated the Faith of the overwhelming majority of Catholics. And
soon they won’t even bother calling themselves Catholic.
Tick… tick… tick… tick….
Bp. Barron says that this is a “call to action” in the Church. I agree.
On the other hand, the Bishop doesn’t seem to mean action to change the way we
celebrate the Eucharist, the way we
see the Eucharist, the way we
sing to and about the Eucharist, the way we literally
handle the Eucharist. That is: liturgical worship, how we celebrate Holy Mass.
He wants a “call to action”? Here’s a call to action!
- STOP COMMUNION IN THE HAND!
- Foster kneeling for Communion put in Communion rails.
- Get serious about music.
- Phase out unnecessary lay ministers of Communion.
- Clear the sanctuary of everything that distracts.
- Celebrate ad orientem.
- And the scariest of all … implement generously Summorum Pontificum!
Every one of those will require, yes, catechesis. Lot’s of sound catechesis and patience.
Patience and more patience.
But “it’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”
Let’s not wring our hands and wonder how to proceed “pastorally” to the point that we, again, proceed to do nothing.
“Oh dear, oh dear! Some people might not like
these changes! We have to be sensitive! They’ll… you know… complain!
Then what? We have to be nice, after all. Can’t we get along? Let’s
not fight over these things.”
Not fight? NO! Sometimes we have to have the fight. The fight as come to us, whether we want it or not.
We are, in fact, now in the fight of our Catholic lives!
Bp. Barron has issued a call to action.
I respectfully issue a call and an invitation to Bp. Barron.
Bp. Barron: Think outside the box – which is actually inside the box of Tradition – and talk about
sacred liturgical worship as the key to rebuilding our Catholic identity.
Projects and programs and pamphlets and videos… yeah… great. It’s
liturgy all along. It’s has always been about liturgical worship.
Also, in my capacity as the President of the
Tridentine Mass Society of the Diocese of Madison,
I invite you
to come to talk to us here about all these matters and – please! – also
to celebrate a Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form either at the
Faldstool or, with Bp. Hying’s consent as he wishes, at the Throne.
I am convinced that you will do well as celebrant. It isn’t has hard
as one might imagine. In fact, celebrating traditionally as a bishop
is about as easy as it gets in the Roman Rite on either side, because
you are surrounded by ministers who do just about everything. All you
have to do is be a little docile, pray, and preach well. We do the
rest.
Please consider coming. Your welcome will be warm and sincere and you will set an example of “action”."
