Reverence

As I am now away on a vacation of sorts, I didn’t know if I would do a post this weekend. Since today happens to be rather foggy and damp where I am, it isn’t the best day for hiking – unless I want to get damp quickly, which I don’t. Besides, there have been a few potential topics that have been dancing around inside my head for a while. Today seems like a good day to explore one of them.

Whenever there has been a significant change in anything, we can expect that this change has brought about some improvements. However, any change can also lead – inadvertently, perhaps – to a loss or a diminishing of something important that was already there. The “law of unintended consequences” makes its appearance. 

The changes in the way Mass is celebrated in the wake of Vatican II are one prime example of this. On the one hand, many people appreciated having the Mass celebrated in their own spoken languages. It was also easier for the congregation to see and understand their own role in the celebration of Mass. However, many other people felt that certain important things were somehow lost in the process. One of these is a sense of reverence. More specifically, a lost sense of reverence for sacred space (such as the sanctuary in the church), for sacred objects (the altar, the tabernacle, the Blessed Sacrament itself), and, ultimately, a loss of a sense of reverence for God. God, in the opinion of some, has become a doting, spoiling grandfather and no longer is the Lord of all creation who seeks justice as well as mercy. Scriptural phrases such as “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” seem to have become almost incomprehensible today. Can a God who is love also be seen as a God who should be revered and even feared, in a sense?

People who have these concerns will also say that our liturgies are too centered on the congregation or on the priest who acts more like an emcee or a standup comic than as “another Christ”. Our Masses, they say, are too wordy, too comforting, and too non-threatening. We need, they believe, a greater awareness of the mystery and the utter transcendence of God.

One recent book that emphasizes many of these points is a recently-published interview with Robert Cardinal Sarah called “The Power of Silence”. For Cardinal Sarah, the Mass is meant to be celebrated in a spirit of silence. Silence, for him, is precisely a form of proper reverence for God. Priests should prepare to celebrate the Mass in silence. A spirit of silence should be encouraged among the whole worshiping community. Silence enables a sense of openness and receptivity to God’s presence – in his word during the Liturgy of the Word and in the Blessed Sacrament during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Cardinal encourages priests to face ad orientem (to the east; priest and people facing the same direction) at some points during Mass as a sign that Mass is not about the priest but about worshiping God.

Surely, we can all benefit from a renewed sense of reverence for God at all times, and especially during the Mass. Reverence for God will make us more open and attentive to the Scripture readings and the message of the homily. It will make us more aware of what is happening during the Eucharistic Prayer, and better prepared to receive the Lord in the Eucharist. Learning such reverence at Mass will help us be more reverent, more receptive to God every day of the week. Surely, a reverent preparation for Mass will help priests approach Mass in a spirit of prayer and thus provide the whole community with an example of prayer.  In these and other ways, reverence and silence can be a great aid to our celebration of Mass and to our lives as Catholic Christians in general.

However…

Without denying anything of what I have said so far, the need to reverence God has implications beyond our attitude to the Mass itself. Our theology tells us that all who are baptized into Christ have become one body in Christ. Jesus pushes this concept to its logical conclusion: “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me”. If this is so, then we reverence God not only in our attitude toward sacred objects, places and times, but also in our attitude toward each and every person we encounter at Mass (and elsewhere, of course).

Holding both kinds of reverence together can be tricky.

First example: I have left the sacristy and am going down the side aisle of the church, only a few minutes before Mass is to begin. According to some, I should maintain a reverent silence before Mass begins. A couple seated near the back makes a humorous comment to me as I pass. I know that they are going through some serious challenges, and are doing their best to face them together. In a spirit of reverence for God, should I ignore their remark, ignore them, or tell them to be quiet? Or should I respond in such a way that they know they are seen, welcomed, and loved by God? I choose the latter. I am not flippant. Nor have I forgotten what I am about to do. Rather, I am, in a spirit of reverence, acknowledging their need to be there and helping to open their hearts to what the Lord may want them to hear. Still, living both kinds of reverence is a challenge.

Second example: a mother comes into a church before Mass with four young children. The children begin to fuss before Mass even begins. The fussing becomes crying and even screaming once Mass has begun. We need to treat the Mass with reverence, of course. But how do we show the same reverence to this mom who wants to help her kids grow in faith, loves them dearly, but who now feels embarrassed and humiliated by their behavior? How do we respond in such a way that does not add to her discomfort and reassures her that she and her kids still belong – even if she finds that she has to take them out of Mass this time?

Third example: a young woman wants to have her baby baptized. She and the father of the child are not married; the father isn’t even present. She knows very well that she has sinned according to the teaching of Scripture and the Church. She wants to have her baby baptized during Mass. Some would say that, in such a case, the baby should not be baptized during Mass, but after Mass or at some other time. They say this out of a sense of reverence for the Mass and for the Sacrament of Marriage. Obviously, we should hold both in great reverence. However, what about the reverence that this young woman and her child might expect? Might an act of graciousness (allowing the baptism during Mass) give the young woman an experience of gracious love that might inspire her to embrace the Catholic faith more fully? Did not Jesus himself offer sinners a gift of gracious love and then tell them to sin no more? If we want people to repent, should we not show them that there is something better for them if they indeed do repent? Something worth repenting for, so to speak?

I do not pretend to have THE answers to any of these questions. Different circumstances may call for different responses. Still, it seems crucial to me that whenever we minister to one another, we keep both kinds of reverence in mind. We revere God in the Mass, the Sacraments, the Scriptures, as well as how we honor sacred objects, places and times. We also revere God in how we treat one another.  May the Holy Spirit help us to do justice to both kinds of reverence, as much as possible.

PS: A Fitbit followup, for those of you who may be interested.

I was maintaining a pace of 26,000 steps per day for a few weeks. However, life has intervened (in the form of greater priorities), and my pace has decreased during the past week. That change in my pace has led me to ask if I really needed to maintain the greater pace. The investment in time was taking me away from other important parts of my life. So, I now expect to adjust my pace to about 15-20k per day. Plenty for good exercise, but not so much that it becomes the proverbial ‘tail that wags the dog’!