One notable parish renovation after the Second Vatican Council was the frequent transfer of the Blessed Sacrament from a central place of prominence on a church’s main altar to a shrine elsewhere in the sanctuary or even to a separate room intended for private meditation and prayer. Archbishop Fulton Sheen famously quoted Mary Magdalen remarking, “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have put him.” The Holy Eucharist, the Sacred Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, should also be appreciated as a liturgical celebration sacramentally renewing the events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Hence a church’s bare altar should make its own statement about being a unique place of solemn sacrifice.
But the Holy Eucharist should indeed be appreciated as the abiding Presence of Jesus Christ – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – devoutly reserved in a distinguished and distinct repository for the consolation of the sick in their hour of need as well as for the pious devotion of individual believers at their time of prayer. So the Holy Eucharist is both a liturgical celebration for the good of the Church community as well as a source of pious devotion for the benefit of the solitary worshipper. Distinct locations happily enforce both notions.
Over the half-century since Vatican II the Eucharist’s dual role as sacrifice and sacrament has experienced an imbalance within the Catholic believing community. A proper enthusiasm for the Catholic Mass as a community experience emphasizing song, readings, responses, gift preparation, meal element, peace sign, reception by hand, and extra-ordinary ministers, has lessened the awe that candles, bells, incense, and hushed Latin provoked in the Old Mass. The American bishops have lately been quite concerned that a loss in solemnity has occasioned a loss in sincerity. Belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist has, according to surveys, substantially diminished among American Catholics. Pew Research reports, “Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31%) say they believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the Body and Blood of Jesus.” This is astonishing and the bishops are clearly justified in their concern.
A number of Catholics regret the alterations (no pun intended) that have occurred since the 1960s and long for the practices of bygone days as the solution to the present era’s loss of piety. Yet the Council’s much misunderstood and much mishandled “participatio actuosa” was not itself the occasion for failing faith. Pope Benedict rightly noted in Sacramentum Caritatis (2007) that active participation was often misunderstood as “mere external activity during the celebration.” He wrote, “The active participation called for by the Council must be understood in more substantial terms, on the basis of a greater awareness of the mystery being celebrated and its relationship to daily life.”
Catholics sadly mistook the bath water for the baby and often gave more attention to the details of the Mass than to the substance of the Mass, which of course, is Christ, effectively present in his Word, the Scriptures, and substantially Present in the Eucharist, the consecrated Bread and Wine, His Body and Blood. The New Order of Mass attentively and devoutly celebrated both by priest and by people will assuredly celebrate this Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic Elements and profoundly affirm the Presence of Christ in the beliefs of the gathered community. Perhaps some “Folk” Masses and other celebrations were a bit too casual for a full appreciation of the solemn event at the altar. The guitar and the organ indeed send different messages.
Catholics laugh at the fuss made when young girls are denied a fancy white dress at their First Communion. Priests are quite gracious when non-Catholics present themselves hands crossed in the Communion line for a blessing. Little fuss is made nowadays when a consecrated host falls to the floor. Yet the uniqueness of a First Communion and the exclusiveness of the Communion line and the preciousness of a fallen host used to remind the faithful that something exceptional was occurring. Taking more seriously the matter at hand by both celebrant and congregation is clearly the order of the day. “A greater awareness of the mystery” being celebrated and being effected at Mass, as Pope Benedict noted, is the obligation of all involved in the Mass. Putting our minds to it, pondering the events before us, taking into consideration what we are doing and witnessing – this is the “participatio actuosa,” the deeply active participation at Mass for which the Council Fathers hoped and the present day Church sorely needs.
