In Terrena Liturgia Caelestem Illam Praegustando Participamus

IN TERRENA LITURGIA CAELESTEM ILLAM PRAEGUSTANDO PARTICIPAMUS

“In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy” (Sacrosanctum Concilium nº 8)

I stand before you today as a bishop of 11 years with the experience of pastoral responsibility for a diocese, as a priest of 37 years and as a Catholic who, in my teens, straddled the pre and post Vatican II eras. It is solely on the basis of these credentials that I dare speak to you today.1 My recent involvement with the work of the International Commis- sion for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), spanning the past ten years, during which the new translation of the third typical edition of the Missale Romanum was prepared, has been one of the most privileged periods of my life, despite all the inevitable challenges that came alongside that task. Because of the requirements made by Liturgiam authenticam, the work of translating the Missal began from scratch and was for me a journey of incredible discovery and personal renewal which continues to this day. It unlocked for me, along with my fellow bishops of the Commission and the many scholars who assisted us, the treasures contained in the prayers and texts of the Roman Rite which are deeply saturated with the theological traditions of our faith and which have been handed down to us with such great care by the Church in the Latin language. The entire process was enormously enriching at every level, nourishing faith and deepening appreciation of the Eucharistic Sacrifice so wondrously articulated in the Missale Romanum.

1. The second annual St Bede Lecture sponsored by the Institutum Liturgicum in Anglia et Cambria was given on 14 July 2012 in the Newman chapel of Ealing Abbey by the Most Rev. Arthur Roche, the newly appointed Archbishop Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, who continued to serve the Diocese of Leeds as Apostolic Administrator and who had recently retired from his post as Chairman of the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) responsible for producing the present English translation of the Missale Romanum. For more information on the Institutum liturgicum see: liturgyinstitute.org. 28 Arthur Roche

Many have commented to me that the greatest difference between the Missal published in 1973 and this new version lies in the fact that the language is now more elevated and follows more literally the Latin. I do not believe that to be correct. The greatest difference lies in the fact that our new translation brings more obviously to light the scriptural and patristic patrimony which inspired the prayers of the Missal and connects us with the Church’s faith as expressed throughout the ages. Fifty years on from the Second Vatican Council, it can rightly be said that the vision contained in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, has now become more evident, or has blossomed anew, in these newly translated liturgical texts of the Roman Rite, so heavily coloured as they are with scriptural resonance. Little did I realise, when I began work on the task of translating, that I would be entering a battlefield of myriad and contrasting and opposing opinions from all quarters and at every level. The old adage of being able to negotiate with terrorists but not with liturgists took on all too real an aspect, but I took great consolation from Saint Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy where he says:

Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.2

The Missal is not something of our creation; it encapsulates the faith of the Church the rightful handling [of] the word of truth. As Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar put it:

No liturgy designed by men could be “worthy of the subject of their homage of God at whose throne the heavenly choirs prostrate themselves with covered faces, having cast off their crowns and ornaments before offering adoration. The attempt to return to him who “created all according to his will” the honour that all creatures received must, a priori, compel to its knees an earthly community of sinners. ‘Domine, non sum dignus!’ If such a community, meeting for praise and worship, should have anything else in mind than adoration and self-oblation – for example, self-development or any other project in which they place themselves thematically in context next to the Lord who is to be worshipped – then they naïvely deceive themselves. This topic can be touched only with fear and trembling.3

2. 2 Timothy 2:14-16, RSV. 3. H. U. von Balthasar, “The Grandeur of the Liturgy,” Communio 5, no. 4 (1978) 344 (cf. footnote 15). In terrena liturgia caelestem illam praegustando participamus 29

I was privileged, in the second half of the 1990s, to work very closely with Cardinal Basil Hume OSB., until the time of his death. When in 1998 the Bishops’ Conferences of England and Wales, of Ireland, and of Scotland, published jointly a teaching document on the Eucharist entitled “One Bread, One Body,” Cardinal Hume said this at its launch:

What do Catholics believe about the Eucharist? When, in distributing Holy Communion, the priest says to me ‘The Body of Christ’, I answer ‘Amen’. ... My ‘Amen’ expresses not only my faith in the Body of Christ which is the Eucharist but also my faith in the Body of Christ which is the Church. The Eucharist and the Church are inseparably bound together.4

In fact, it is in the Eucharist that we find the genetic code of the Church. Amongst the many facets that constitute Catholicity, there are two essential dimensions. The first of course is that, as Catholics, we are united to every other Catholic throughout the world here and now and, through our local bishop, we are united to the Pope, the Successor of Saint Peter. But there is also a second important dimension to Catholicity. We are also united in the Church to all the Catholics who ever lived and believed, and all the Catholics who will ever live and believe in the future. We might speak of the horizontal dimension of Catholicity as uniting the whole Church around the world, and of the vertical dimension as running through time. One of the points made by Liturgiam authenticam is that insufficient attention has been paid to this vertical dimension and, therefore, it encourages translators to be scrupulously faithful in translating what we have inherited in the Latin original. Ego accepi a Domino, quod et tradidi vobis5 – “I received from the Lord what I in turn passed on to you,” wrote St Paul to the Church in Corinth. I often reflect with my flock at the beginning of Mass that as we assemble for the celebration of the Eucharist, we are not simply gathering as this community from this particular place, but we stand at the crossroads of all life and on the very threshold where time intersects with eternity – our gathering is greater than what the eye can see. We are entering into the mystery of Christ who, because of the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery, makes possible the flow or the passing of time to enter into the always of eternity and to be lifted up and transformed. I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself,6 says Jesus. This was not simply a statement about the crucified body of Christ

4. Comment of Cardinal Basil Hume at the launch of One Bread One Body, 30 September 1998. 5. See 1 Cor 11:23. 6. John 12:32, RSV. 30 Arthur Roche but also his glorified body. As Saint Irenaeus says: He took up humanity into himself, the invisible becoming visible, the incomprehensible being made comprehensible.7 Pope Benedict, reflected upon this astonishing reality of temporality and eternity in the opening chapter of his book, “The Spirit of the Liturgy,” where he uses the analogy of children at play in relation to the liturgy. He says:

Children’s play seems in many ways a kind of anticipation of life, a rehearsal for a later life, without its burdens and gravity. On this analogy, the liturgy would be a reminder that we are all children, or should be children, in relation to that true life towards which we yearn to go. Liturgy would be a kind of anticipation, a rehearsal, a prelude for the life to come, for eternal life, which St Augustine describes, by contrast with life in this world, as a fabric woven, no longer of exigency and need, but of the freedom of generosity and gift.8

The Graduale Romanum of 1973 gives the Introit for the Common of the Dedication of a Church as Terribilis est locus iste.9 It indicates that this particular chant is most appropriate when the celebration of the Mass takes place in the church itself. This highly evocative text from Genesis 28 (17,22) surprisingly does not find a place in the Mass for the Dedication of a Church as it is given in the current edition of the Missale Romanum, despite the fact that this Scriptural text has long been associated with this particular celebration. As I believe the text sheds light on the topic of my reflection with you today, and as I am no longer burdened with executive responsibility for ICEL, I shall be bold in offering you my own free translation of this beautiful introit:

Terribilis est locus iste: hic domus Dei est, et porta coeli: et vocabitur aula Dei. This place is awesome (breath taking, if you care): it is the house of God, the gate of heaven and shall be called God’s church.

Just as the church building itself is spoken of as the gate of heaven, so too the liturgy which is celebrated within it is described as a “foretaste of that heavenly liturgy.” The liturgy is the privileged place where two worlds or realities meet. This is such a fundamentally instinctive theological notion concerning the very nature of our liturgical celebration, that this insight

7. Against Heresies 3:16.6. 8. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2000) 14. 9. Graduale Romanum, Introit Common of the Dedication of a Church (in the Church itself) 397. In terrena liturgia caelestem illam praegustando participamus 31 of the Council Fathers, expressed in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium, finds its way also into the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” as a major definition of the liturgy itself. There, we read:

In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. With all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with him in glory.10

At a later stage, the idea is taken up again with no less force, where we are taught that:

To the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ.11

Although there is no lack of clarity in the expression of this important idea, I would suggest to you that this highly significant element has not been particularly uppermost in the minds of many in recent years – clergy as well as laity. This lacuna, which I would suggest leaves us with a rather ‘monodimensional’ view of the liturgy, does have serious conse- quences, not least because the failure to recognize its importance can result in a fundamental misunderstanding of the liturgy as envisaged by the Church and proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council. Many of the liturgical excesses and abuses of the past can be traced to a failure to acknowledge this characteristic which clearly should be evident in all Catholic liturgy worthy of the name. The implementation of the new translation of the Missal is and remains an opportune moment for a collective examination of conscience concerning both our understanding and our celebration of the Liturgy. I would suggest that this is both timely and desirable. In this process the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” is once again a helpful guide.

10. Catechism of the Catholic Church (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1994) article 1090, p. 250. 11. Ibid., article 1370, p. 308. 32 Arthur Roche

Paragraphs 1179-1186 take up the theme of “Where is the Liturgy Celebrated?” and draws our attention to parallel truths indicating that liturgy is celebrated both on earth and in heaven. Furthermore, it emphasizes that when we celebrate the Liturgy, we are made present to the mystery and the mystery is made present to us. In this way, the liturgy draws together the two distinct levels of reality: heaven and earth become heaven on earth. As the words of the Preface for the Dedication of a Church has it:

Here is foreshadowed the mystery of the true Temple, here is prefigured the heavenly Jerusalem.12

In considering this dual significance, the Catechism teaches that the Liturgy embodies a series of complimentary truths:  The earthly liturgy takes place in space and time whereas the heavenly liturgy takes place everywhere.  While the earthly liturgy consists in sacred signs and is expressed in words and action, the heavenly liturgy is ultimately ontological. It is a person: Christ Himself is the heavenly liturgy.  In the earthly liturgy priest and people offer bread and wine but in the heavenly liturgy Christ offers Himself.

In our celebration of the Mass, the temporal and the eternal realities are united: our own offering is taken up into Christ’s self-offering and eternally identified with it. In this, the Eucharist is a natural fulfilment of our Baptism, by which we are incorporated forever into the mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection (cf. Romans 6:4). In a very real sense, we can say that in the celebration of the Liturgy heaven and earth are united and no longer separated. Although the inroit, Terribilis est, was said or rather sung, initially with regard merely to the church building, we might now wish to say of the Liturgy: terribilis est locus iste – for what is happening before our eyes is, indeed, awesome.

Once having established this particular and highly significant feature of the Liturgy – something which is clearly identified in scriptural, liturgical, magisterial and catechetical sources – we are led to ask ourselves why it might be that there is so little awareness of this fundamental truth? It seems to me that this was not always so. Writing in the mid twentieth century, J.R.R. Tolkien expressed it in this way:

12. Roman Missal (London: CTS, 2011) Ritual Mass for Dedication of a Church and an Altar, p. 1284. In terrena liturgia caelestem illam praegustando participamus 33

Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament ... There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth ... which every man’s heart desires.13

This transformative quality of the liturgy, the sense that in our liturgy we experience a reality that at other times is inaccessible, has seemed to many to be absent in much that has been said of the liturgy since Sacrosanctum concilium was decreed. If these sentiments are assigned to the liturgy, too often they are identified as belonging to personal sensibility, a product of the piety and devotion of the individual rather than a quality which inheres in the liturgy itself. (One could enter here, of course, if there was time, into a fuller debate about actuosa participatio. That, I believe is worthy of a lecture itself.) In the years prior to the Second Vatican Council, the proliferation of the type of devotional attitude to the liturgy was thought to be indicative of a lack of effectiveness in the form of the liturgy itself. Nowadays, in contrast, some are of the opinion that there is neither a sense of devotional involvement nor any real evidence of spiritual engagement on the part of those celebrating the Liturgy. All too often, one fears that there is little sense of any other reality perceived beyond that of the assembled community – hopelessly, mundanely, tragically turned inward, lost in a sense of its own performance of a liturgy which becomes earthbound and heaven-bereft. Monsignor James Crichton, in his inimitable style, put it like this in an article he wrote for “Priests & People” on reverence:

... loss of reverence ... ultimately leads to a loss of the transcendent God who is the supreme Object of all worship. In a way we are in danger of forgetting what worship is about. It is not just a heart-warming experience for those who like that sort of thing.14

How can reverence in liturgical practice be recaptured and in what might such renewal consist? I would like to suggest, although it may sound somewhat extreme, that much of the theological teaching of Sacrosanctum concilium is still, as yet, to be implemented and that many of the insights it contains are not commonly identified in conscious understandings of the Liturgy. Today, as we find ourselves at a suitable juncture for such appraisal, it is earnestly to be hoped that the wisdom of the Liturgical Movement, as it is found in the Constitution on the Liturgy,

13. See The Letters of J. R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981) 53. 14. J. D. Crichton, “Worshipping with Awe and Reverence,” Priests & People 9-12 (1955) 453. 34 Arthur Roche will come to inform experience and lead to a greater understanding of the liturgy. In particular, I would suggest the following:  Becoming more fully conversant with an understanding of the content of meaning in our liturgical texts. This necessitates careful study of the texts in their Latin original form and relies on scholarship to guide the process.  Making more aware and appreciated the fact that the Liturgy is the Church’s reading of Scripture; that the Scriptures are the largest single source of our liturgical texts and that orations abound in Scriptural allusions which we should recognize and appreciate.  Expounding and catechising on the liturgy with the help of the Patristic sources and inspiration which root our contemporary understanding within the wisdom and tradition of our ancient forebears in the faith.  Encouraging far greater consideration to the intrinsic relationship between music and text, understanding that our liturgical song is essentially something which arises from the text and is not extraneous to it.  Giving attention to the importance of silence, stillness and reflection before, during, and after liturgical celebrations.  Employing imagination when addressing the considerable challenge of the ordering and decoration of the liturgical environment as the principal locus and defining context for liturgical celebration.  Rediscovering an authentic ars celebrandi that sees the performative aspects of the Liturgy as ordered towards its essential character.15

In other words, studying and understanding the texts; acknowledging and savouring their scriptural and patristic origins; encouraging greater silence, stillness and reflection as we approach, celebrate and appreciate the liturgy; allowing the texts to breathe and to be expressed in music; being sensitive to the physical environment where the liturgy is cele-

15. “‘Let Your Church offer herself to You as a living and holy sacrifice’. This request, addressed to God, is made also to ourselves. It is a reference to two passages from the Letter to the Romans. We ourselves, with our whole being, must be adoration and sacrifice, and by transforming our world, give it back to God. The role of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it may become a living host, a liturgy: so that the liturgy may not be something alongside the reality of the world, but that the world itself shall become a living host, a liturgy. This is also the great vision of Teilhard de Chardin: in the end we shall achieve a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host. And let us pray the Lord to help us become priests in this sense, to aid in the transformation of the world, in adoration of God, beginning with ourselves. That our lives may speak of God, that our lives may be a true liturgy, an announcement of God, a door through which the distant God may become the present God, and a true giving of ourselves to God.” – Pope Benedict XVI – Cathedral of Aosta 24 July 2009. In terrena liturgia caelestem illam praegustando participamus 35 brated; and paying attention to a dignified celebration and performance of the liturgy that is not merely horizontal. By way of conclusion, I would like to cite a thought of Blessed John Henry Newman, someone who so very clearly identified the truest purpose of the liturgy both in the life of the Church and in his personal on-going journey of conversion. In his autobiographical work, Loss and Gain, he expresses his own understanding of this aspect of the Liturgy thus:

Words are necessary, but as means, not as ends; they are not mere addresses to the throne of grace, they are instruments of what is far higher, of consecration, of sacrifice. They hurry on, as if impatient to fulfil their mission. Quickly they go – the whole is quick; for they are all parts of one integral action. Quickly they pass, for the Lord Jesus goes with them, as He passed along the lake in the days of His flesh, quickly calling first one and then another. Quickly they pass, because as the lightning which shineth from one part of the heaven unto the other, so is the coming of the Son of man. Quickly they pass; for they are as the words of Moses, when the Lord came down in the cloud, calling on the name of the Lord as He passed by: ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth’. And as Moses on the mountain, so we, too, ‘make haste and bow our heads to the earth, and adore’.16

A sublime vision indeed and one to be held onto when facing the many challenges that lie ahead. At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin recently, the Holy Father’s personal message to the participants had in mind the Year of Faith and the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and its defining document Sacrosanctum concilium. He said:

The renewal of external forms, desired by the Council Fathers, was intended to make it easier to enter into the inner depth of the mystery. Its true purpose was to lead people to a personal encounter with the Lord, present in the Eucharist, and thus with the living God, so that through this contact with Christ’s love, the love of his brothers and sisters for one another might also grow. Yet not infrequently, the revision of liturgical forms has remained at an external level, and “active participation” has been confused with external activity. Hence much still remains to be done on the path of real liturgical renewal. In a changed world, increasingly fixated on material things, we must learn to recognize anew the

16. John Henry Newman, Loss and Gain, ed. Alan G. Hill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986 [1848]) Chap 20, p. 290. 36 Arthur Roche

mysterious presence of the Risen Lord, which alone can give breadth and depth to our life.17

With regard to all that I have said to you today, it is my firm conviction that this Institutum Liturgicum for a detailed and peaceful study of liturgy, will have an important role to play in the work of renewal. For we must continue to do in faithfulness what we have received from the Lord, all that has been handed down to us with care from Apostolic times.

Secretary of the Congregation Most Reverend Arthur ROCHE for Divine Worship & the Discipline of the Sacraments and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Leeds Palazzo delle Congregazioni Piazza Pio XII, 10 00120 Città del Vaticano

17. International Eucharistic Congress, Dublin, The Statio Orbis message of Pope Benedict XVI, 17 June 2012.