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Wednesday 21 February 2007

Save the Liturgy, Save the CHURCH

I was, I admit, tickled pink that Fr Z picked up on the phrase, "save the liturgy, save the world," but more accurately, I should have said Save the Liturgy, save the Church.
(I was, of course, trying to be funny/snarky with the Heroes reference.)
But the "World" can mean many things, some good, some bad, some immaterial (in the sense of "irrelevant," because the irrelevant aspect of the world is , of course, very definitely made of matter.)
"World" might refer to all of us, all of humanity (I think that is the sense of the pop catch-phrase,) to Terra/Gaia/3rd planet from the sun, mostly harmless; or to the big, bad, tempting, secular playground.In any case, when the world is spoken of, it might be in a sense that does not merit saving.
But the "Church", upper-case "C," well, that's a different kettle of fish.The word too has its ambiguities, but however we define it, which ever of the Dullesian models we are expressing -- the Church not only should be saved, but is standing in great need of salvation.
And as the Liturgy goes, so goes the Mystical Body of Christ.
Despite the expressed optimism of many a Fr Pangloss, Sr. Rose Glasses or Catechist Happy Talk, the Liturgy, on the ground, is in a bad way.And its infirmities find their reflection in those of the hierarchy, of the Pilgrim People, of the maternal the purveyor of Sacraments... of the fractured Mystical Body anyway you want to look at it.
Shawn Tribe on TNLM says, "Liturgy and catechesis are closely tied together. Sometimes people are tempted to think it does not matter, and yet it does, because it is there that many experience the Faith and see the faith of the Church expressed, and are brought to an interior movement of prayer and worship."
I agree with him completely, but strangely, I think the expression of this truth, that the Liturgy is catechetical, is responsible for some of the greatest problems we encounter in current liturgical praxis.The tunnel vision that sees only this (secondary) purpose of the event whose primary goals should be the Worship of God and the Sanctification of the Faithful has led to all manner of abuses and (comically, were it not tragic,) a degradation of practice that has the exact opposite of its intended effect!

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