Pastoral Liturgy Formation and Resources for Lectionary-Based Worship

Advent-Christmastide-Ordinary Time November 2017 – February 2018 Year B Vol 48,1

Founding Editor – Russell Hardiman Editors – Angela McCarthy Pastoral Liturgy A Publication of the School of Philosophy & Theology, The University of Notre Dame Australia. Pastoral Liturgy is published three times per year in January, June and October. Essays are refereed by members of the International Peer Review Committee according to their respective disciplines. Accredited as a Refereed Journal by the Department of Education, Science & Training Canberra, ACT Australia ISSN 1446-0661

International Peer Review Committee Very Revd Andrew McGowan Dean and President, Berkeley Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven CT 06511 USA

Assoc Prof Gerard Moore School of Theology, Charles Sturt University, Uniting College Campus, 16 Mason Drive, North Parramatta NSW 2151

Rev Fr Eugene Trainer 83 Stearns Road, 2 Brookline, MA 02446 USA

Rev Dr Tom Ryan SM Marist Community, 2 Mary Street, Hunters Hill, NSW

Editorial Board Dr Angela McCarthy, Editor The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle Campus, WA Fr Vincent Glynn, Editor The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle Campus, WA Prof Peter Black The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle Campus, WA Sr Clare Scieinski The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle Campus, WA

Founding Editor Rev Dr Russell Hardiman

Editor Dr Angela McCarthy

Assistant to the Editors Liz Roff – 08 9433 0138

Logo “The Mustard Seed” designed by Iris Rossen (architect) Contents 4-5 From the Editor 5 The Origin of the Four Masses of the Nativity of the Lord Anthony Doran 70 Musicians’ Appendix: Abbreviations and Explanations 71-72 Our Contributors

Formation 6-10 Reflection on the Love and the Reason Relationship* 11-13 The Unique Nature of Sacraments Asterix denotes a fully peer review/article

Book reviews 14 The Sacraments: Historical Foundations and Liturgical Theology 15 A Body of Broken People: Divorce, Remarriage, and the Eucharist 16-17 Longing to See Your Face

18-19 Advent Wreath Year B

Resources for Lectionary Worship Year B, 2017-18

Table in Sundays and Feasts 20 First Sunday of Advent 3 December 23 Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 8 December 26 Second Sunday of Advent 10 December 29 Third Sunday of Advent 17 December 32 Fourth Sunday of Advent 24 December 35 The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) Vigil 24 December 38 The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) Midnight Mass 24 December 41 The Nativity of the Lord Mass in the Day 25 December 43 The Holy Family (Sunday) 31 December 46 Mary, the Holy Mother of God (Monday) 1 January 48 Epiphany (Sunday) 7 January 50 The Baptism of the Lord (Monday) 8 January 52 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 14 January 54 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 21 January 57 Australia Day 26 January 60 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 28 January 63 The Presentation of the Lord (Friday) 2 February 65 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time 4 February 68 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 11 February

Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 | Page 3 From the Editor Dr Angela McCarthy

Editor: Dr Angela McCarthy

Advent draws us into the new liturgical year. Hopefully, of Advent and you will notice that it is the colour of the there is much to look forward to and much for which cover of this issue. Another flower that bursts into the we can thank God. As we think about Advent it is same colour at that time of the year is the agapanthus, always helpful to get in touch with the past as we another non-native plant, but one that flourishes and consider ways in which we will prepare for this season. has entered into the collective imagination. In this post Vatican II era we have been blessed, or Advent, then, in the Catholic Tradition is a time of hope confounded by, a considerable amount of liturgical for the Second Coming of Christ while we wait for the commentary and historical research. Anchoring our celebration of the birth of Jesus. The focus shifts on understanding in history does however, help us to December 17 when we begin the Christmas novena understand what we are doing today and then to and enter into the story of Mary as she waits for the understand it better. birth of Jesus. This helps to prepare us for the birthday Originally in Rome, Advent was only a day long fast of Jesus and it is a time to begin to sing Christmas and Lent was a similar one-day fast before the Easter carols in the liturgy and to hold carol services.5 1 festival. The development of this liturgical season was It is also a time for using the Advent wreath, a practice different in the East and West with the East focusing that first developed in Germany, where four candles on the Epiphany of Jesus and his baptism in the are lit over the four Sundays of Advent. Since this Jordan and hence an emphasis on preparation for practice comes from a climate that is entering into the 2 baptism beforehand. This allowed a penitential flavour darkest days of winter, it does not of itself have any to develop. Rome did not share this baptismal tradition sense of the Second Coming of Christ. However, the and was more closely focussed on an eschatological blessing of the wreath that is included in this issue orientation. In the West there was a continuing practice has been adapted to use the scriptural texts of each to ‘borrow’ celebrations from the pagan culture that Sunday so that it draws us into the Liturgy of the Word surrounded the Christian communities and since the that is to follow. You will find this blessing, which can pagan feast of ‘adventus’ celebrated the coming of a also replace the Penitential Act, on page 18-19. god to the temple, or the coming of a god as emperor, there is a decided joyous sense to the season. This Professor Tracey Rowland has provided us with continues in the way the Christians of the West an article about love and reason which came from hopefully and joyfully await the Second Coming – an address that she gave to staff at Notre Dame when Jesus Christ will return as King and Judge.3 Fremantle. While this is not liturgically based, it is a very worthwhile consideration of our Catholic In Rome December was also the time of the fast before intellectual tradition and strikes a chord with the book the celebration of the olive harvest so there is a sense by Tom Scirghi that is reviewed in this issue. If we are 4 of a penitential atmosphere there. As it was also the to connect in this increasingly secular world, then we time of the onset of winter and all the difficulties that have to understand the value of what we are doing were to be faced in the cold and darkness, there is a and what we believe. Professor Rowland’s article gives sombreness attached to the season. In the southern some very sound insights. hemisphere it is hard to associate with that original flavour. In some local cultures in Australia there are Cora D’Souza has provided a paper on the secular festivals because it is the time of the beautiful Sacraments. Our founding editor, Fr Russell Hardiman, Jacaranda trees flowering. Although not native to made it a practice of this journal to publish students’ Australia they flourish in some of our cities and the pale work. Cora won the Pastoral Liturgy Award for 2016 purple colour has been adopted for use as the colour because of her excellence in a unit on sacraments and so one of her papers is published here. Well done Cora!

Page 4 | Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 The Origin of the Four Masses of the Nativity of the Lord by Anthony Doran

The book review of Frank Moloney’s A Body Broken Tom Scirghi’s latest book, Longing to See Your Face, is for a Broken People: Divorce, Remarriage, and the also very accessible and a valuable parish resource for Eucharist feeds into the discussion around marriage clergy, seminarians, lay preachers and parish members and divorce that has been put onto the table because wanting to know more about the art of preaching. of Pope Francis’ initiative in the Synod on the Family Fr Vincent is enjoying long service leave as we go to and his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. I found it print and so he will only return with issue 3 of very moving to read his exegesis of the texts relating to this volume. We wish him well in his very well the Last Supper and who was invited. As in his title, it deserved leave. shows that it was the broken ones who came and so this important book offers us sound scriptural material Dr Angela McCarthy for considering the question of divorce, remarriage and reception of the Eucharist. In the next issue we will 1 G. Gebbie, “History of Advent and Christmas,” in Come Lord Jesus, ed. F. be considering this issue through the work of Fr Tom O’Loughlin and G. Gebbie (Melbourne: Diocesan Liturgical Centre, 1982), Ryan, a valued contributor to this journal. 3. 2 Hayne Newton Ahern, “The Season of Advent,” in The Years of the Year, Kevin Irwin’s book, The Sacraments: Historical ed. Russell Hardiman (Fremantle: Pastoral Liturgy Publications, 1997), 1. Foundations and Liturgical Theology is also 3 Ibid. reviewed and is an excellent reference text about 4 Gerard Moore, Earth Unites with Heaven: An Introduction to the Liturgical the sacraments and he offers material that is very Year (Northcote, Victoria: Morning Star Publishing, 2014), 34. 5 Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Ordo 2017 (Brisbane: Liturgy accessible, well documented and thoroughly Brisbane, 2016), 129. researched. Unfortunately he does not deal with the sacrament of marriage in any thorough way. Both of these books are valuable resources.

The Origin of the Four Masses of the Nativity of the Lord by Anthony Doran

The earliest celebration of Christmas in Rome was a This, then, is the origin of three of the Christmas very simple papal mass at St Peter’s Basilica. During masses: Mass During the Night (St Mary Major), this mass, the Prologue of John’s Gospel was read – Mass at Dawn (St Anastasia), and Mass During the as a counter to the Arian heresy. This mass celebrated Day (St Peter). the eternal Word made flesh. In addition to these masses, the Lectionary and In Bethlehem, there was a mass in the night for Missal contain a Vigil Mass for Christmas. The Gospel Epiphany which was celebrated at the cave of the Reading for this is the Genealogy of Jesus (Matthew Nativity. From the fifth century onwards, this night 1:1-25). mass was also celebrated at the Basilica of St Mary The texts for the vigil mass need not be used at an Major in Rome which held a relic of the Crib. The evening Mass on 24 December – the texts for Mass Gospel Reading was the story of Jesus’ birth at During the Night may be used. Indeed, very few Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-14). parishes in Australia would use the Vigil texts at Vigil 25 December was also a feast day for the Greek Masses on 24th December. community in Rome, with a mass, celebrated by It is important, though, that the Christmas Mass the Pope, at the Church of St Anastasia (Holy formularies be used at the correct time of day: this Resurrection). The Pope celebrated this mass, structure highlights the key theme of night giving way which included a reading of the Gospel about the to day; of light breaking through announcement of the good news to the shepherds the darkness. (Luke 2:15-20).

References: Days of the Lord: Volume 1 – Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991, pg. 192. The Ordo: The Celebration of Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours in Australia and New Zealand, Brisbane: Liturgy Brisbane, 2017.

Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 | Page 5 Reflections on the Love and Reason Relationship1 by Professor Tracey Rowland

All the great Catholic universities of the world were as “IQ” and I want to do this by reference to some founded on the belief that the human person is a of the statements in the theology of Pope Benedict, creature made in the image and likeness of God not because he is a pope Emeritus, but because he since the book of Genesis, the very first book of the is a Catholic scholar who constantly emphasized the Bible, makes this claim. It is a belief that Jews and importance of the love and reason relationship. Christians share. Most theologians agree that being Lots of scholars have written about faith and reason made according to this divine blue-print means that we but Joseph Ratzinger wrote quite a lot about love have all been endowed with rational intellects with a and reason. capacity to discern truth, free wills with an appetite for In November of 1999 to mark the arrival of the goodness and an affective dimension of our spiritual millennium the Sorbonne University held a colloquium selves with a capacity to love, most commonly known entitled Deux mille sans après quoi? Eighteen as the human heart. Our spiritual dimension also speakers were invited, including Cardinal Ratzinger, includes a memory and an imagination. as he was. His address was framed by the question of When the great medieval Catholic universities were how Christianity originally saw itself in the marketplace founded these beliefs were taken for granted. The of religious traditions. He began by observing that in medievals would have found it odd to set up an the year 2000 Christianity is in deep crisis, especially academic institution in which people study, argue in Europe. He further identified the foundation of and conduct research if there were no such thing as the crisis as the loss of belief in the idea that reason truth to be pursued. The Dominicans, who along with and religion have anything to do with one another. the Franciscans, helped to staff many of these early He also noted the popularity of the Buddhist fable universities like the Sorbonne, Oxford, Cambridge, promoted by Leo Tolstoy that compares the different Bologna and Salamanca, even took as their motto faith traditions to different perceptions of an elephant the Latin word Veritas meaning truth. Their logo was as given by blind men, some having caught hold of the black and white dog with a firebrand in its mouth. its trunk, others its tail, others its ears and so on. The The general idea was that these black and white dogs fable is often quoted by people who believe that there (a visual pun on the name Dominican which can be is no possibility of one true religion. There is simply a translated as canines of the Lord) were to spread the human quest for contact with something divine, some truth of Christianity throughout the villages of Europe force that is supra-human. Different religious traditions beginning in the great centres of learning. merely represent different human experiments fostered As the centuries rolled by Catholic academics would by this basic psychological need. Human beings have argue among themselves and then after the 16th no capacity to understand the supra-human, century they argued with Protestant academics and no faculty for contact with the divine. They are like then after the 18th century they argued with so-called blind men grasping parts of an elephant or so the rationalists and deists, then finally in the twentieth fable goes. century there came the debates with Marxists, In his response to the fable, Ratzinger suggested Nietzscheans and a wide assortment of post- that the best place to find an answer to the question moderns. The difference between the Marxists and the of how Christianity originally saw itself in the market Nietzcheans and all those post-moderns who follow place of faith traditions, is in St. Augustine’s work Nietzsche is that the Marxists still believed in truth, on the philosophy of religion according to Marcus while the Nietzscheans regard the mere belief in truth Terrentius Varro (116-27BC). Varro identified 3 as an oppressive idea. different approaches to theology: what might be At the University of Queensland which was founded in termed mystical theology, political theology and 1909 by an Act of the Queensland parliament, not by natural theology or physics. Within Varro’s framework, the Catholic Church, the building which is the home to the classical poets were the mystical theologians, the social sciences departments, known as the Michie they composed hymns to the gods. Their natural Building, is made from Halidon sandstone. Chiseled habitat was the theatre which in classical times was into the sandstone in letters about a metre high are the thoroughly religious and cultic in character. According words “Great is Truth and Mighty above all Things”. to popular conviction theatre shows were established So a century ago even so-called secular universities in Rome on the orders of the gods. The content of saw themselves as being in the business of the pursuit mystical theology was thus the myths of the gods. of truth. The natural theologians were the philosophers, those who went beyond the mundane and searched to My paper today however is not simply about how understand reality as such. Their natural habitat was Catholics are into truth because you all know this. in the academies and the content of their theology What I want to explore is the broader fact that focused on the subject of the nature of the gods. Catholics believe that human beings have both an The political theologians were those whose natural intellectual and an affective dimension, a heart as well habitat was found in the organs of government and the as a head, or in contemporary parlance “EQ” as well content of their theology covered cult worship.

Page 6 | Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 Reflections on the Love and Reason Relationship1 by Professor Tracey Rowland

From these sets of distinctions Varro concluded that In other words, the triumph of Christianity over the natural theology deals with the nature of the gods pagan religions was not merely founded on a linking of and the remaining theologies deal with the godly faith and reason but on the triadic relationship of faith, institutions of men. Civil theology does not ultimately reason and love. have any god, only religion; while natural theology has In a more recent work Truth and Tolerance: Christian no religion, only some deity. Within this triad the order Belief and World Religions, Ratzinger observed that of worship, the concrete world of religion, does not there are essentially three ways of moving beyond belong to the order of reality as such, but to the order the realm of primitive human religious experience and of mores, or customs. The gods did not create the myth. He identified these as mysticism, monotheistic state, rather the state instituted its own gods, and their revolution and enlightenment. He further argued that worship is important to the state in order to maintain the real questions concerning relations between the good conduct of its citizens. According to this religions arise between mysticism and monotheistic view, religion is essentially a political phenomenon or revolution and that no choice can be made in favour what today would be called an ideology. Ratzinger of one or the other on rational grounds since to do so noted that within this triad of theological types, St. would be to presuppose the absolute validity of the Augustine placed Christianity into the realm of physical rational way. Accordingly, the choice is, in the final or natural theology. Christianity therefore has its analysis, one of faith, albeit, in the case of a choice antecedents in philosophical rationality, not in mythical for monotheistic revolution, a faith that makes use of cults which have their ultimate justification in their rational standards.3 political usefulness. Ratzinger identifies the difference between the mystical From this foundation Ratzinger concluded that and monotheistic ways as a different understanding of precisely because Christianity understood itself as the God. For the mystical traditions, such as Buddhism, triumph of knowledge over myth, it had to consider God is entirely passive and the decisive element is itself universal – ‘it had to be taken forth to all peoples human experience, whereas for the monotheistic not as a specific religion elbowing its way among traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, others, not through any sort of religious imperialism, God is active and in some sense invites the person but as truth which makes illusion superfluous’. Since it into a relationship.4 What results from this difference did not concur with the relativity and changeability of is that the beliefs of the monotheistic traditions are the civic gods it frustrated the political usefulness historical in character, whereas the mystical traditions of religion and as a result its adherents were are unhistorical in character.5 Therefore Ratzinger subjected to successive waves of persecutions by emphasizes that Christianity is essentially faith in an Roman emperors. event, in the Incarnation of Christ which we celebrate Nonetheless, while Ratzinger, following St. Augustine, at Christmas and in the Resurrection of Christ which classified Christianity under the banner of a natural Christians celebrate at Easter, whereas the mystical religion, he observed that with Christianity there is a traditions believe in the existence of an eternal world profound modification of the philosophical image of that stands in opposition to the world of time.6 God: the God in whom the Christians believe is truly The fact that the Christian God invites his creatures a natural God, in contrast to the mythic and political into a relationship means that they have to have a gods; but not everything which is nature, is God. God means of relating to him. The theological answer to is God by his nature, but nature as such is not God. this is that they relate through their knowledge and There is a certain separation between all-embracing their love, and indeed that they were created in such nature and the Being which affords it its origin and a way that their intellects were made to receive the beginning. Further, this God is not a silent God. This truth and their hearts were made to love the truth God entered human history and revealed to humanity and to love God and all of his creation. From this the fact that God is love. principle Ratzinger concludes that ‘love and reason’ According to Ratzinger’s reading of history, Christianity are the ‘twin pillars of all reality’ and accordingly any was convincing precisely because it joined faith and understanding of the human person needs to pay due reason and because it directed action to caritas, to regard to the intellectual and affective dimensions of charity – the moral practices which were a part of the human action. Christian package placed an accent on the loving care The medieval scholars understood this when they of the suffering, the poor and the weak: said that “reason has a wax nose”. As any barrister In the conception of Early Christianity the notions of can attest, the human intellect can be used as an human nature, God, the ethos [of institutions] and instrument to argue all kinds of cases. A person with a religion were inextricably linked to one another and sharp intellect and a heart closed in on itself is a social precisely this bond helped Christianity to navigate pest. Highly intelligent people who lack empathy are clearly amidst the crisis of the gods and the crisis capable of extreme anti-social and even psychopathic of ancient rationality.2 behavior. Therefore both the intellect and the heart need a good formation.

Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 | Page 7 Reflections on the Love and Reason Relationship1 by Professor Tracey Rowland

The mid-twentieth century Catholic philosopher Ratzinger began Deus Caritas Est with the passage Dietrich von Hildebrand devoted a number of his from scripture so emphasized by Balthasar (1 Jn publications to this theme of the formation of the heart. 4:16) – ‘God is love and he who abides in love abides He was a leading intellectual opponent of the Nazis in God and God abides in Him’ - and he noted that and famously caught the last train out of Vienna before it is very difficult to find texts of this kind in other the Anschluss. He certainly believed in truth but he religions, that this notion is an element that is peculiar also thought that those whose understanding of the to Christianity.10 In the first paragraphs of Deus Caritas faith was defined by theological propositions without Est he also reiterated the principle he had learned any real interior understanding of the propositions and from one of his lecturers - Romano Guardini - that for without a Christian formation of the heart were simply Christians, truth is a person. According to Guardini: not capable of withstanding social and intellectual This Logos, which is perfectly simple and yet crises such as those which hit mid-twentieth immeasurably rich, is no order of forms and laws, century Europe. no world of prototypes and arrangements, but Similarly, the contemporary work of Fr. Robert Someone, He is the living son of the eternal Father. Sokolowski from the Catholic University of America, We can stand before Him, face to face. We can has drawn attention to the neglect of the importance speak to Him and He answers, indeed, He Himself of the affective dimension of the human soul in gives us the power to stand before Him and He presentations of the natural law such as one finds in can grant our request. We can love Him and He the fields of moral theology and jurisprudence. With is able to give us a communion which reflects the reference to St. Paul’s notion of the natural law being intimacy in which He lies upon the bosom of the written on the hearts of the gentiles, Sokolowski has Father, and which St. John experienced when His argued that the word kardia in the passage from St. Master permitted him to lay his head upon His Paul’s Letter to the Romans (usually translated in the heart. This fact established a contrast to everything Vulgate as cor), does not connote the separation of which natural philosophy and piety can experience heart and head that we take for granted in a world or invent. This Logos, this one and all, steps into shaped by Descartes.7 Sokolowski concurs with the history and becomes man.11 German philosopher Robert Spaemann’s claim that in Therefore, Christians believe not only because the New Testament the heart is taken to be a deeper something is logically coherent but because they have recipient of truth than even the mind or intellect in seen the beliefs embodied in the practices of the lives Greek philosophy since it deals with the person’s of the saints whose love for others is what makes belief 8 willingness to accept the truth. plausible and persuasive and even compelling. Accordingly, Ratzinger concluded that: Statements on this theme can also be found in the Amidst this contemporary crisis of humanity, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a publication of the effort to restore the understanding of Christianity as Holy See which offers a summary of Catholic teaching. the true religion or religion of truth in the classical Paragraph 31 of Catechism states: sense, must be based equally upon orthopraxis as Created in God’s image and called to know and well as orthodoxy. Today as in the past, its deepest love him, the person who seeks God discovers aspect must consist in love and reason converging certain ways of coming to know him. These are with one another as the essential foundation pillars also called proofs for the existence of God, not in of reality: real reason is love and love is real reason. the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but In their unity, they are the real basis and goal of rather in the sense of converging and convincing 9 all reality. arguments, which allow us to attain certainty about This principle was emphasized in Ratzinger-Benedict’s the truth. first encyclical Deus Caritas Est. Many of the themes Moreover in paragraph 30 of Pope Benedict’s to be found in this encyclical can be traced back to encyclical Caritas in Veritate we find the claim that the 1963 work Love Alone is Credible by the Swiss ‘knowledge is never purely the work of the intellect’. theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988). In While ‘it can certainly be reduced to calculation and its preface Balthasar wrote that never in the history experiment’, if it ‘aspires to be wisdom capable of of the Church have Christian thinkers thought it directing man in the light of his first beginnings and adequate to answer the question of what specifically is his final ends, it must be “seasoned” with the “salt” of Christian about Christianity with reference to a series charity’. According to Benedict charity is not an added of mysteries one is required to believe. Instead they extra, like an appendix to work already concluded have always aimed at a point of unity that would serve in each of the various disciplines: it engages them in to provide a justification for the demand for faith. He dialogue from the very beginning. In effect ‘this means further argued that it was only an account of revelation that moral evaluation and scientific research must go based on the notion that God is love which can hand in hand, and that charity must animate them in provide such a point of unity. a harmonious interdisciplinary whole, marked by unity and distinction’.

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The importance of the love and reason relationship In his St. Patrick’s Day General Audience of 2010 is also highlighted in the encyclical Lumen Fidei Ratzinger-Benedict addressed this theme of the which was drafted by Pope Benedict but settled and difference between the Thomist and Franciscan promulgated by Pope Francis. In paragraph 27 of traditions head-on. He began by noting that St Lumen Fidei we find the following words: Thomas and St Bonaventure define the human being’s If love needs truth, truth also needs love. Love and final goal, his complete happiness, in different ways. truth are inseparable. Without love, truth becomes For St Thomas the supreme end to which our desire cold, impersonal and oppressive for people’s day- is directed is to see God while for St Bonaventure the to-day lives. The truth we seek, the truth that gives ultimate destiny of the human being is to love God. meaning to our journey through life, enlightens us He concluded: whenever we are touched by love. One who loves Along these lines we could also say that the loftiest realizes that love is an experience of truth, that it category for St Thomas is the true, whereas for opens our eyes to see reality in a new way, in union St Bonaventure it is the good. It would be mistaken with the beloved. In this sense, Saint Gregory the to see a contradiction in these two answers. For Great could write that “amor ipse notitia est”, love both of them the true is also the good, and the is itself a kind of knowledge possessed of its own good is also the true; to see God is to love and logic. It is a relational way of viewing the world, to love is to see God. Hence it was a question of which then becomes a form of shared knowledge, their different interpretation of a fundamentally vision through the eyes of another and a shared shared vision. Both emphases have given shape vision of all that exists. William of Saint-Thierry, in to different traditions and different spiritualities and the Middle Ages, follows this tradition when he have thus shown the fruitfulness of the faith: one, in comments on the verse of the Song of Songs the diversity of its expressions.14 where the lover says to the beloved, “Your eyes According to this reading the two Church Doctors are doves” (Song 1:15). The two eyes, says William, and their intellectual traditions are not locked into a are faith-filled reason and love, which then become zero sum relationship. It is possible to reconcile the one in rising to the contemplation of God, when Thomist and Franciscan traditions if one operates on our understanding becomes “an understanding of the principle that ‘love and reason are the twin pillars enlightened love”. of all reality’. Thomist veritas needs Franciscan caritas The English convert-author G.K. Chesterton indirectly et amor and vice-versa. Problems arise both at the addressed the love-reason relationship in his personal and ecclesial levels if one or other ‘pillar’ biographical sketches of St. Francis of Assisi and is obscured. A major challenge of contemporary St. Thomas Aquinas. According to his own self- theological anthropology is thus to present an account description St. Francis was a ‘troubadour’, a lover. of the human person which pays due regard to both St. Thomas was clearly an intellectual. The charism of the cognitive and affective dimensions. St. Francis had a liberating effect on the imagination, The contemporary relevance of sustaining the while the studies of St. Thomas had a liberating effect cognitive and affective dimensions of the human on the intellect. St. Francis gave Catholic culture the person in a mutually auxiliary relationship can also nativity set, St. Thomas gave Catholic culture an be gleaned from the following exchange between intellectual synthesis of Greek and Patristic learning. two very prominent continental philosophers, Gianni Both saints wrote hymns of enduring beauty. St. Vattimo and René Girard. Vattimo remarked that he Francis emphasised ‘the love of nature; the love of views the ‘trajectory of contemporary philosophy – animals, the sense of social compassion’, while St. from Wittgenstein’s language games to the idea of Thomas understood that to be a Christian means Being as an event in Heidegger to Richard Rorty’s believing that ‘deity or sanctity lies attached to matter particular version of pragmatism – as a passage from 12 or entered into the world of the senses’. Chesterton veritas to caritas’. He added that ‘truth matters nothing concluded that if ‘St. Francis was like that common to me except in relation to some particular goal’.15 or garden donkey who carried Christ into Jerusalem, To this statement Girard responded: St. Thomas, who was actually compared to an ox, rather resembled that Apocalyptic monster of almost Personally, I agree with Vattimo when he says Assyrian mystery, the winged bull’.13 One was an that Christianity is a revelation of love, but I don’t example of what the human heart is capable of if exclude that it is also a revelation of truth, because in love with Christ, the other was an example of the in Christianity truth and love coincide and are capacity of the human intellect illumined by Revelation. one and the same. I think we ought to take very seriously this concept: the concept of love, which in Christianity is the rehabilitation of the unjustly accused victim, which is truth itself, which is the anthropological truth and the Christian truth.16

Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 | Page 9 Reflections on the Love and Reason Relationship1 by Professor Tracey Rowland

If Vattimo’s hostility to truth represents the current state 1 This paper was written as a professional development lecture for staff members of the University of Notre Dame in May, 2017. It represents a of much contemporary post-Christian scholarship, redaction and synthesis of two earlier publications: “Christianity in the then the principle that ‘love and reason are the twin Marketplace of Faith Traditions”, chapter 6 of Rowland, T, Benedict XVI: pillars of all reality’ becomes the standard under which A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Bloomsbury, 2010): 114-128 and Rowland, T, “Joseph Ratzinger’s Friendship with Augustine, Bonaventure Catholic scholars need to rally. Reason and dogma and Aquinas”, Logos et Musica: In Honorem Summi Romani Pontificis without love end in a sterile and pastorally insensitive Benedicti XVI E. Szczurko, et.al. (eds), (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, moralism, while love without reason can be equally 2013): 163-179. 2 pastorally destructive since there are no criteria for Ibid. 3 J. Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions judging the merits of alternative acts and styles of life. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2004): 32. In a Catholic University the responsibility of academics 4 Ibid, 39 5 is to present their students with the truth as best Ibid, 39. 6 Ibid, 40. they see it and for other university employees to offer 7 R. Sokolowski, Christian Faith and Human Understanding (Washington plenty of opportunities for affective development, for DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006): 230. example, through the encouragement of sporting and 8 R. Sokolowski, “What Is Natural Law? Human Purposes and Natural musical societies, the provision of pastoral care and Ends”, The Thomist 68 (2004): 507–29 at 525. 9 J. Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions a chaplaincy service that offers a rich liturgical life. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2003): 183. These aspects of university life are often neglected in 10 J. RATZINGER, Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church (San the big sausage factory universities which no longer Francisco: Ignatius, 2007): 72. seek to educate the whole person but merely to 11 R. GUARDINI, The Word of God: On Faith, Hope and Charity (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1963): 28 prepare people for jobs in the work force. Offering 12 G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi (New York: Image Doubleday, opportunities to develop every dimension of the 1957): 9 and G. K. CHESTERTON, St. Thomas Aquinas (Image human soul is thus one of the hallmarks of a Catholic Doubleday: New York, 1956): 41. 13 university and it is probably for this reason that G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas, 31. 14 Benedict XVI, General Audience Address, March 17, 2010. students rate their satisfaction levels with the University 15 G. Vattimo and R. Girard, Christianity, Truth and Weakening Faith: A of Notre Dame so highly. Dialogue Pierpaolo Antonello (ed), (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010): 39. 16 Ibid, 47.

Page 10 | Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 The Unique nature of Sacraments by Cora D’Souza

Introduction horizon indicates a fire beyond my range of vision. Signs are usually conventional because their meaning The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) #1131 11 states that: is grounded in human agreement. The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, Symbols are also signs. However, they differ in instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by that they are not limited to indicating something which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites beyond themselves; they engage our consciousness more deeply, stimulate our imagination, and stir our by which the sacraments are celebrated signify 12 and make present the graces proper to each emotions. Symbols participate in the power to which they point and “make present” the reality to which sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive 13 them with the proper disposition.1 they point. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta is symbolic of goodness and compassion; reflecting upon her life Using this definition of a sacrament, this paper will brings us into contact with these realities.14 provide an explication under three headings. Firstly, it will explain the essential concepts and theological Rituals understandings that make sacraments what they are. Rituals are actions that use signs and symbols. They Secondly, it will explain why the sacraments are unique are repetitive, agreed upon symbolic actions which among Catholic rituals. Thirdly, this paper will consider are recognised and associated with a particular the role of faith in the action of the sacrament. celebration.15 Comeaux states that Essential Concepts ritual is a means of performing the way things ought to be in such a way that this ritualised Personhood perfection is inserted into the ordinary, everyday, The human person, created in God’s image, is made uncontrolled course of events.16 2 up of body and soul. The soul is that part of the Rituals are symbolic activities during which a human person which is innermost of the person and community expresses its identity and what it is 3 most closely associated with the image of God. It becoming more fully.17 Sacraments also have their animates the body which, according to Gn 2:7, is the particular rituals; they take us out of ourselves and 4 breath of God. The extent to which the body engages place us in touch with God.18 They enable us to with this breath of God in our souls, determines the experience what the sacrament symbolises, i.e. they way we experience God in the world and the way in make present the reality of God in the way particular to which we become an experience of God for others. each sacrament.19 Human Experience Theological Understandings As human beings, we experience that which is beyond ourselves through our senses of sight, hearing, Efficacious Signs of Grace by which Divine Life is smell, taste and touch. Being human is equivalent dispensed to us to human experience.5 Unlike other living creatures, The term “sacrament” has two dimensions, our consciousness is greater than the perception of sacramentum and mysterion. The first dimension is what touches us from our immediate surroundings.6 understood from the Latin word “sacramentum” from Because we are “knowers”, we enrich our world which the term originates.20 In pre Christian times, by interpreting experiences and appropriating their sacramentum was initially understood as the pledge meaning into our personal and communal identities.7 deposited in a temple by the parties to a contract.21 Human experience is important because the Subsequently, it became the promise of allegiance sacraments are performed on the body and bring by Roman soldiers to their commander and their about a transformation of the person. gods.22 Both were two way commitments and involved 23 Principle of Sacramentality religious rituals of initiation. Around 210 CE, Tertullian appropriated this understanding of a two way promise Just as “knowing” comes from experiencing through by using sacramentum to describe the baptismal our senses, God’s presence and activity is mediated ritual where an individual was initiated into a new to us in the same way.8 We experience God through way of life and made a promise of fidelity to Christ.24 the universe, people, events and things.9 This is the Subsequently, sacramentum came to refer to the principle of sacramentality. For those with faith, these outward rite which used signs and symbols, e.g. water, experiences are understood as encounters with oil and blessings, to signify grace.25 The grace received God and their deeper meaning appropriated into from God follows from the promise made by the one’s identity. person to God because God is always faithful to his Signs and Symbols promises. Thus, within the framework of the promise of fidelity made to God, sacramentum is understood Cooke definessigns as “that kind of reality which, in terms of efficacious signs of grace where the in being themselves known, lead us to know about outward ritual effects the promise of God’s grace. something beyond themselves”.10 Smoke on the

Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 | Page 11 The Unique nature of Sacraments by Cora D’Souza

Provided that the recipient has the right disposition, presence of the divine (Christ) becomes sacramentally grace strengthens their resolve to live as Christians.26 present for us to receive in the Eucharist. Efficaciousness will be discussed later in this paper in Why the sacraments are unique among terms of the uniqueness of sacraments. Catholic rituals The second dimension of sacrament is understood The sacraments are unique among Catholic rituals from the Greek word “mysterion” meaning something because they are always efficacious. The Catechism 27 hidden or secret. In pre Christian times, the principle of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1084 states that ritual of Greek religious cults was known as mysterion “By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy 28 since it was hidden from those outside the cult. Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace Only those initiated into that religion understood the that they signify”.38 CCC 1127 emphasises that this 29 mysterion. Although in the New Testament both efficaciousness derives from Christ who is at work in sacramentum and mysterion do not refer to Christian the sacraments.39 Given that Jesus is the sacrament rituals, as a Greek speaker, Paul understood mysterion of God, and that through the Paschal mystery, the 30 in these terms. Hence, he wrote of God’s secret Church which is the Body of Christ on earth, has plan of salvation (Eph 1:9 10), but more particularly become the sacrament of Christ, CCC 1127 states that it is the mystery of Christ that had been hidden that God, the Father, always listens to the prayer of from previous generations but has now been revealed his Son’s Church which, in the sacramental ritual, 31 through the Spirit (Eph 3:3 6). St John Chrysostom, in expresses her faith in Christ and the power of the Spirit writing on mysterion in the fourth century CE, states: to effect a transformation into divine life.40 There is a mystery when we consider things other The efficaciousness of sacraments is not to be than those that we see ….. The non believer who understood in terms of magical action.41 It does not sees Baptism thinks that it is only water. I, not just depend upon the righteousness of the celebrant considering what I see, contemplate the purification or recipient but rather upon the power of God.42 of the soul brought about by the Holy Spirit. (Homily When the ritual is performed by the minister with the 32 1 on 1 Corinthians, PG 61, col. 55) correct intention, the action effects God’s grace in the Chrysostom is highlighting that the sacramentum, sacrament, i.e. the sacrament is effected ex opera the outward baptismal ritual, brings about a operato, (by the work worked) although to bring the transformation, which is the mysterion, whereby the grace to fruition, the recipient must have the right person’s soul is purified from sin and becomes a child disposition.43 Christ, through the celebrant, is the of God. The sacramentum is performed by the minister principal minister and the sacraments are efficacious on the human body which consists of body and soul. because Christ always keeps his promises.44 The sacramentum is the effective means by which the Another aspect of the efficacious nature of the mysterion, the deeper reality of life in Christ, i.e. divine sacraments is their link to important marker points life is dispensed to the person. The mysterion can in human life.45 God’s grace is especially adapted only be comprehended by a person of faith. to these points.46 For example, the outward rites Sacraments instituted by Christ and entrusted to (sacramentum) by which the Anointing of the Sick the Church is celebrated signifies and makes present the grace We understand from the principle of sacramentality (mysterion) proper to it. In being anointed with oil and that God’s presence and activity in our lives is by participating in the ritual prayers with the priest 47 mediated through the universe, people, events and and her family present, my friend, Mary, received the things.33 Within this framework, we know that the grace of forgiveness of sins and the spiritual comfort theology of Creation has joined with the theology of and strength of the Church to accept her illness and the Incarnation to reveal God through the humanity journey to God, just as Christ accepted his redemptive 48 and divinity of his Son, Jesus.34 In being the revelation suffering. Paradoxically, the efficaciousness of the of God, Jesus is the primordial sacrament; through his sacrament was most visible during Mary’s lowest redemptive ministry on earth Jesus is the Sacrament points during which she, and her family, demonstrated of God; and upon his return to the Father, the newly a sustained peace, dignity and strength. Thus Baptism formed Church becomes the sacrament of Christ on celebrates entry into the Christian community, earth.35 Although the scriptures do not contain explicit Confirmation celebrates Christian maturity, the references to the institution of all the sacraments, the Eucharist celebrates the need for nourishment and sacramental nature of the newly established Church community, Holy Orders and Marriage celebrate life enables us to understand that Christ, through his commitment, Penance celebrates forgiveness, and the redemptive ministry, instituted all seven sacraments.36 Anointing of the Sick celebrates God’s presence 49 These sacraments entrusted to the Church are the in illness. ways in which it continues to reveal the grace offered to us by God in the sacramentality of Christ.37 For example, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the

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The role of faith in the action of the sacrament 10 Cooke, Sacraments and Sacramentality, 45. 11 Ibid. 45. 50 Faith is the key to opening the “doors to the sacred”. 12 Knox, Theology for Teachers, 217. If the recipient does not possess faith, the sacrament 13 Ibid. 217. is likely to be a “sterile symbol” that signifies 14 Ibid. 217. something but does not effect the gifts needed for 15 Ibid. 221-222. 16 Christian living.51 This is highlighted in relation to the Garrick Comeaux, “The Practice of Christian Initiation: Ritual Studies,” Liturgy 31, 2 (2016): 45. faith of parents whose children are to receive First 17 Joseph Martos, Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Communion, and the struggle of faith formation Sacraments in the Catholic Church. Vatican II Golden Anniversary Edition programs to engender life long catechesis as the heart (Missouri: Liguori, 2014), 125-126. 18 of faith.52 Rather than an encounter with Christ, First Knox, Theology for Teachers, 221 222. 19 Knox, Theology for Teachers, 217. Communion has been reduced to a cultural event 20 Martos, Doors to the Sacred, 3. 53 which parents approach with a consumer mentality. 21 Ibid. 3. Without faith, it is doubtful whether children and 22 Ibid. 3. parents will engage with their commitment to being 23 Ibid. 3. members of the Body of Christ. 24 Ibid. 31. 25 Ibid. 31. For those participating with the right disposition, the 26 Knox, Theology for Teachers, 226. sacraments introduce and intensify the appropriation 27 Martos, Doors to the Sacred, 25. of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, into their lives.54 28 Ibid. 25. Mary had been baptised according to the Anglican rite. 29 Ibid. 25. 30 After fifty eight years of marriage and the witness of her Ibid. 26. 31 Ibid. 26. husband’s faith, Mary was confirmed into the Catholic 32 Philipe Beguerie and Claude Duchesneau, “The Sacraments in the Church. Being critically ill, she received the Anointing of History of the Church,” In Contemporary Catholic Theology: A Reader, the Sick. Thus Mary’s was an active, deepening faith. eds. Michael A Hayes and Liam Gearon (Continuum: New York, 1999), 493. The grace specific to anointing is comfort, strength https://books.google.com.au/books?id=6032-LR4scgC&printsec=fr and support of the faith in time of health crisis when ontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false one can easily succumb to anxiety, despair, guilt, and (accessed 7 May 2016). 33 loss of faith.55 Mary’s faith enabled her to engage with Knox, Theology for Teachers, 214. 34 Susan K. Wood, “The Liturgy and Sacraments,” In Blackwell the sacramentum and mysterion, and in embodying Companions to Religion: The Blackwell Companion to Catholicism, eds. grace, brought healing and faith, to herself and others James Buckley, Frederick C. Bauerschmidt and Trent Pomplun (Oxford: 56 Blackwell Publishers, 2011), http://ipacez.nd.edu.au/login?url=http:// implicated in her suffering. Mary comprehended the search.credoreference.com/content/entry/bkccath/the_liturgy_and_ mysterion and brought that grace to fruition. sacraments/0 (accessed 27 April 2016). 35 Conclusion Ibid. 36 Ibid. This paper has explicated the definition of sacrament 37 Kurt Stasiak and Thomas P. Walters, Sacramental Theology: Means of contained in CCC 1131. Firstly, it has looked at the Grace, Ways of Life. (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2002), 21. 38 CCC, n. 1084. essential concepts that underpin the sacraments, 39 CCC, n. 1127. namely personhood, human experience, the principle 40 CCC, n. 1127. of sacramentality, signs, symbols and rituals; it has 41 Wood, “The Liturgy and Sacraments.” then explained the theological understanding of 42 Ibid. efficacious signs of grace sacramentum( ), by which 43 Ibid. divine life is dispensed to us (mysterion), and that 44 Ibid. 45 the sacraments have been instituted by Christ and Knox, Theology for Teachers, 226. 46 Ibid. 226. entrusted to the Church. Secondly, this paper has 47 Mary is not her real name. demonstrated that the sacraments are unique among 48 Wood, “The Liturgy and Sacraments.” Catholic rituals because they are efficaciousness. 49 Knox, Theology for Teachers, 226-231. Thirdly, it has argued that approaching the sacraments 50 Martos, Doors to the Sacred, 12 13. in faith enables the person to bring the grace of the 51 Ibid. 12 13. 52 Jo-Ann Metzdorff, “Catechesis for First Communion,” Liturgical Ministry sacrament to fruition. 18, Winter (2009): 12. 53 Ibid. 12. 1 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., (Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls 54 Martos, Doors to the Sacred, 130. Publications, 1997), n. 1131. 55 Bruce T. Morrill, “Anointing of the Sick as Sacrament within a Larger 2 CCC, n. 362. Pastoral Process of Faith,” Liturgical Ministry 16, Fall (2007): 186. 3 CCC, n. 363. 56 Ibid. 182. 4 CCC, n. 364. 5 Bernard Cooke, Sacraments and Sacramentality. Rev. ed., (London: Twenty Third Publications, 1994), 27. 6 Ibid. 11-12. 7 Ibid. 27-28. 8 Ian Knox, Theology for Teachers. Rev. ed., (Ottawa: Novalis, 1999), 214. 9 Ibid. 214.

Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 | Page 13 The Sacraments: Historical Foundations and Liturgical Theology Kevin W IRWIN | New York: Paulist Press, 2016. | Reviewed by Angela McCarthy

In his introduction, Irwin places his work in the Catholic Part Two: Method opens with the historical precedent intellectual tradition and describes Catholicism as a upon which liturgical theology is based – that the theological tradition, not a fundamental religion. This liturgy is the place where faith is articulated. What provides clarity for the stance that he takes and the we celebrate is what we believe, therefore how we way it is anchored in sound theological argument. As celebrate is critical in forming our belief. This of course he declares, there is no such thing as one book on arises from the experience of the early Church where sacraments. There have to be many as they are such it was in the proclamation of the oral tradition of the a complex area of our lived tradition that we need early community that their understanding of the work to recognise that there has been a long historical of Christ and therefore the work of the Church was development within our Tradition that needs to be developed. constantly aligned with contemporary needs. Part Three: Theology binds the previously developed Liturgy is defined as “what communities of faith ‘do’ in ideas into a useful whole. St Augustine assigned “the response to God’s initiative when they celebrate the term sacrament to hundreds of sacred realities”5 but liturgy”.1 This is a very useful way to describe liturgy in our contemporary understanding we are limited but when Irwin goes on to develop an understanding to seven as described by Lombard in the twelfth of the different kinds of liturgies that we celebrate he century and doctrinally bound by the Council of Trent. causes confusion. In the Catechism of the Catholic However, a rich understanding of sacramentality is Church liturgy is described as being one of three valuable which echoes St Augustine’s understanding kinds: Liturgy of the Hours, Liturgy of the Word and of “a sign of a sacred thing”.6 “Sacramentality is based Liturgy of the Eucharist. Liturgy of the Word and on the goodness of creation and the engagement Eucharist of course is what we commonly refer to of humans in worship, especially through the primal as the Mass, but some of the sacraments (Baptism, elements of earth, air, fire, water, and light/darkness”.7 Anointing of the Sick, Marriage) can be celebrated in Creation can be destructive as well as constructive either a Mass or a Liturgy of the Word. Confirmation and this inherent ambiguity is not lost in the symbolic in extreme need can also be celebrated outside of associations made with the things we use, such as the Mass, and Reconciliation is usually in a Liturgy of water, and the way we celebrate. the Word. The important issue is that all sacraments Towards the end of Part Three, Irwin considers are celebrated within liturgy. The sacramental rites all the God of relationships as experienced through belong in liturgy from the simplest Liturgy of the Word the Trinity. This upholds our belief of a personal during the Anointing of the Sick, to the full communal relationship with God through the way in which we celebration for a parish when children are initiated name God and celebrate liturgy in the name of the into Confirmation and Eucharist. In Australia, most Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We marriage rites are celebrated in a Liturgy of the Word offer the Mass to the Father, through the Son and in and this might well be the experience in other places in the power of the Holy Spirit. This engagement with the world. I would therefore dispute Irwin’s declaration the Trinitarian relationship that is God, is beautifully 2 that “all sacraments are liturgies”. exemplified in the Sacrament of Marriage but Irwin Irwin divides his material into three parts: history, has not engaged with this sacrament at all. This is method, and theology. Part One: History, is a concise a surprise and a disappointment in an otherwise and useful history from the Scriptural, and therefore immensely valuable addition to the contemporary Jewish, foundations to the Second Vatican Council. works written about the sacraments. This is a very When speaking of the Eucharist in the Early Medieval good summary for introductory studies in this area and Period, he describes the change from the Patristic therefore a launching place for further development. understanding of the action of the changed bread and Parish communities who wish to develop a greater wine, and hence the change in the communities that understanding of the sacraments for their own parish participated in this action, to the development of using programs will benefit from this book as well as school a different understanding of symbol. The loss of the communities who assist in the preparation of children Patristic understanding of symbol as something that for the sacraments of initiation. we do that is the richest and fullest way to participate in the heavenly reality3 meant that there was a 1 Kevin W. Irwin, The Sacraments: Historical Foundations and Liturgical struggle to find “adequate terminology to describe Theology (New York: Paulist Press, 2016), 13. 2 the sacrament”.4 The important Eucharistic debates Ibid., 14. 3 Ibid., 73. are described in a helpful and illuminating way. The 4 Ibid., 75. concluding section to Part One is on Vatican II. This is 5 Ibid., 209. a very useful summary for the sacraments and Irwin 6 Ibid., 210. gives a careful description of the important aspects 7 Ibid., 211. of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy which every student of Liturgy and pastorally active clergy and laity must understand.

Page 14 | Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 A Body Broken for a Broken People: Divorce, Remarriage, and the Eucharist Francis J.MOLONEY | New York: Paulist Press, 3rd ed., 2015. 303 p. | Reviewed by Angela McCarthy

The first edition of this book was published in 1990 to encourage the Markan community because of their own view the pastoral problem of divorce and remarriage fear and struggle with their own sense of failure. In Mark and access to the sacrament of the Eucharist. Francis 8, the second feeding miracle shows the disciples still Moloney’s exegetical work allows the problem to be not able to understand the meaning of the loaves and so viewed in relation to the Good News. The foreword of the “disciples of the Markan community – the audience that edition was written by Xavier Léon-Dufour SJ and to whom this story is proclaimed – are warned that they used again in the third, most recent edition. Dufour should be careful not to repeat such hardness of heart, saw Moloney’s exegesis of the issue of inclusion in the the blindness of an exclusive understanding of the Lord’s Eucharist as a courageous work and it still is today. The table”.3 third edition was prompted by the issue being brought In the fourth chapter Moloney examines Matthew’s to the fore by Pope Francis’ courage to call a Synod of gospel with the claim that it is mostly derived from Mark Bishops on the Family in 2014 to examine this pastoral but given different focus by the change in emphasis on problem. It was published in 2015 before the final Synod the disciples. The Matthean community is struggling as a source of New Testament material to support the with the post-war era after the destruction of the Temple. argument for the inclusion of those people broken by “They know that Jesus is the risen Lord among them till divorce and remarriage to be healed and included in the end of the ages, but they are people of little faith and the celebration and reception of the sacrament of the still doubt”.4 These are also a broken people called to Eucharist. Pope Francis wrote a post-synodal apostolic share in the breaking of the bread and then go out to all exhortation, Amoris Laetitia that was released in March the world. 2016 following the Synods on the family that were held in 2014 and 2015. Chapter Five examines Luke which has a thematic emphasis on meals but with a different focus. The meals In his introduction, Moloney raises the questions relating centre round a major theme of journeying. The first half to this serious pastoral issue. He describes how he of the gospel accounts for their travels with Jesus to considers the Tradition to have been distorted and Jerusalem and then afterwards their journey continues manipulated over time and turned into something that but is completely changed. The post resurrection story does not echo the Gospel. He describes the Eucharist of Emmaus shows the disciples to be confused and as “the celebrated and lived expression of a love so great afraid, as are those in Jerusalem hiding behind locked 1 that we have never been able to match it”. In its initial doors. The “eucharistic presence of the Lord” is set “in form as meals with Jesus it was the broken ones who the midst of many of the followers of Jesus who could be were called to share. After 2000 years we have learnt described as ‘broken’: sinners, unfaithful disciples, failing how to exclude those who are broken and so we need apostles, the physically impure, the marginalized, and to question if we are authentically responding to Gospel Gentiles”. 5 Yet, these are the twelve apostles who are the teaching and example. future missionaries, who will feed all the nations. The second chapter examines the sections of the First The Fourth Gospel is analysed in Chapter Six. Even Letter to the Corinthians that have been used to provide though the Eucharistic elements are not present in the exclusions from sharing in the Eucharist (10:14-22 and same way that they are in the synoptic writings, the 11:17-34). Since the letter to the Corinthians is one of the story of Jesus’ gift of the Eucharistic morsel to Judas earliest pieces of Christian writing about the meal shared “is central to the overall and larger message of the on the night before he died, it is very important to put it Johannine Jesus, who summoned the Church to a new in the historical, literary and theological context in which quality of love”.6 it was written before declaring it as a basis for excluding people from the Eucharist. Moloney’s examination This work gives a thorough understanding of the gift of through exegesis does not support such exclusionary Eucharist being focussed on the broken people whom determinants. “The determining context for the correct Jesus calls and therefore discounts any possible exclusion interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:27-28 is not the Council from the bread broken for all of us in the way that God of Trent’s Decree on the Eucharist (DS 1646), but the unreservedly loves us. Moloney has extensive endnotes First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians”.2 for each chapter that are very valuable for the wider setting of this work. There is also a substantial bibliography Chapter Three is devoted to an exegesis of Mark’s plus NT sources as well as other ancient sources. This gospel, the earliest gospel. Mark seems to be very harsh is a powerful addition to the scholarly field that links on the disciples of Jesus and persistently portrays them Scripture and doctrine in a pastoral manner and therefore as people who do not understand what Jesus is doing immensely useful for informing the current discussion. and who completely desert him, betray him and deny him in the end. The concluding words of the original 1 Francis. J. Moloney, A Body Broken for a Broken People: Divorce, gospel portray the women who witness the resurrection Remarriage and the Eucharist (New York: Paulist Press, 2015), 5. as broken people: “So they went out and fled from 2 Ibid., 43. 3 the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; Ibid., 82. 4 Ibid., 107. and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” 5 Ibid., 152. (Mk 16:8). Moloney suggests that this brokenness is to 6 Ibid., 189.

Pastoral Liturgy Vol 48,1 | November 2017 – February 2018 | Page 15 Longing to See Your Face Thomas Scirghi | Collegeville Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2017 Reviewed by Angela McCarthy

‘Preaching is the act of talking to people about Jesus Chapter Three engages with the issues around Christ’.1 This very simple definition is stated at the preaching in an increasingly secular world. Nones beginning of Scirghi’s book and as the title suggests, are the fastest rising group – those with no religious the work of the preacher is to bring to the people affiliation.6 This is the case in both Australia and the who long to see God’s face an understanding of the United States. What are the common questions to Good News of Jesus Christ. For those of us who sit which all people seek answers, not just religious in the pews, we have heard many ordinary homilies, people? How often do we question why we do the a few disastrous ones and some brilliant ones. We things that we do? Such reflections bring us to focus remember the brilliant ones and the disastrous ones on what we want to hear in a homily or what we want but unfortunately there are many homilies that we just to say. Scirghi uses Paul’s speech on the Areopagus do not remember. This means that the work of the where he names the unknown God to assist with the preacher or homilist requires the critical skills needed development of an approach in today’s secular world. for this very important pastoral role. Scirghi has held The preacher must have both the language of the classes in preaching across the United States, here culture and the language of the Catholic Tradition if he in Australia as well as in Asia and Africa. While he is to make sense. has been a visiting scholar at Notre Dame on two In Chapter Four Scirghi develops the central focus of occasions our community has been blessed with all preaching – the paschal mystery. There is no other his homilies and they are truly memorable. So what ‘theme’ or story that can displace the paschal mystery. is needed? Scirghi unlocks what is needed in this This is the reason for us to gather, to sing and to pray. important book. It is written for clergy and seminarians, The preacher or homilist is charged with the duty and for lay ministers who preach in the absence of a priest, the responsibility to make this come alive, to know that and for the laity so they might better understand we are part of this story. Having been nourished by what is spoken and perhaps how to offer the Liturgy of the Word we move to the Liturgy of the constructive feedback. Eucharist where we are fed and fully become one in This book is divided into two sections: Part 1 offers a the Body of Christ. All gathered have to in some sense theological grounding in the purpose and the matter of experience what that means so that when missioned preaching. Part 2 presents practical advice. In section to go into the world it actually matters and becomes one Scirghi begins with St Augustine’s statement that a reality. 2 eloquent speech should teach, delight and move. In Part II of this valuable book, Scirghi develops the That means that those of us in the pews should ‘hear ‘how’ of preaching. The first section is about sitting an old story in a new way and understand how to down before preaching – praying and preparing what 3 adapt it to’ our lives. This makes eminent sense. The to say and how to say it. One of our former parish power of words is not simply in the words themselves priests told us that he always began his homily on but in the way in which the hearer is engaged, Tuesday. He would begin by reading the scripture enlivened and then moved to see things or do things for the following weekend and then work on what to differently. Scirghi develops this understanding in say and how to say over the coming days. He still is Chapter Two. Even after hearing the Word for all of an excellent homilist and it is rooted in his humble our lives we can still be opened to something different preparation. The second section is about this kind of when we are drawn into it in a new way so that it reflection. Starting with the scripture allows the ‘two opens for us again. As the Constitution on the Sacred edged sword’ of the Word to work in the heart and Liturgy says, Christ is truly present with us in liturgy in mind before adding human words, knowing what four ways: the person of the priest, the sacred species scripture says in your own heart first. In Australia of his Body and Blood, the Word, and as a people many parishes have priests whose first language is 4 assembled in prayer and song. As we leave the liturgy, not English. If that is the case, their preparation should missioned to take Christ into the world, the way in include a friend or fellow priest who is able to help which we are moved by the homily, the music, the with ensuring that the language is culturally relevant welcoming nature of our community and the reception and correctly pronounced. The next step is mining of sacrament, should give us the fire in our belly to the text – researching what it is about, uncovering make a difference. valuable information. I remember a homily that Scirghi ‘When God speaks, something happens’.5 As Scirghi gave in our University where he talked about some develops this statement he emphasises that our words new information that he had just found about Paul’s do matter. They are not cheap unless we cheapen preaching in Acts 17:22-34. He has used it in this them. Hearing a homily that involves a joke that is book7 and shows the value of researching the material not worth telling is a way to cheapen words so that so that something meaningful and enlivening can they lodge in the hearer in entirely the wrong way. It is be said well. The next section is about finally writing good for a congregation to laugh and to open up their something down, mapping the homily. Some of the imaginations but not at the expense of hearing God most forgettable homilies are due to nothing being and receiving God’s grace. written down and so the waffle continues to irritate

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or just float away unheard. The final section in Part II 1 Thomas Scirghi, Longing to See Your Face (Collegeville Minnesota: is about rehearsing. Musicians have to do it, readers Liturgical Press, 2017). 2 Ibid., 11. have to do it and so does the homilist or preacher. 3 Ibid., 12. Rehearse and time it – one would think that these are 4 Second Vatican Council, “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” (1963), http:// essential elements of providing a valuable service to www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat- the community. ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html. 7. 5 Scirghi, 22. Part III of Longing to See Your Face moves into 6 Ibid., 28. practical elements involved in particular preaching 7 Ibid., 31-32. needs – funerals and weddings. Scirghi has been 8 Ibid., 101. requested many times to offer advice for these difficult occasions where there will often be many people who are entirely unchurched. Good preaching in these circumstances will ‘name grace and announce the presence of God in the midst of the assembly’.8 This is a very valuable book for all those named at the beginning: the clergy and seminarians, lay people called upon to preach, and the gathered faithful who want to know more about what good preaching entails.

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