Facing East
The Church is in the
world. This means that the private, spiritual sense of church and priestly
activity is past. The “secret and special” priestly functions are now seen in a
different light. When we stopped muttering Latin over infants, and over couples
on their wedding day, and over corpses, we did more than make the prayers
intelligible. We said that we belong to the same world as the rest of you. We
did that, too, when we turned around to celebrate the Eucharist facing the
people. With these changes, much of the reason for our special status melted
away.
Given Pope Francis’ frequent denunciation of clericalism, it is unfortunate that an initiative that is being promoted by the Prefect seems to unnecessarily reinforce clericalism. While Cardinal Sarah is certainly free to state his preferences, his suggestion that we all face “east” (and it can only be a suggestion) must be evaluated in light of our own experience of worship and how we see this spatial arrangement reflective of our faith in God’s presence in our place and time.
We need to ask if our notion of God is inspired by looking outside of our world and mediated through the priest who stands between God and us. That was certainly an important part of the Tridentine theology of worship expressed by the spatial arrangement the cardinal is promoting.
For the Cardinal Prefect to make such a strong suggestion to revert to a Tridentine “spatial theology” of God’s presence, I would have thought he would base his appeal on the Prophet Jeremiah and unsubstantiated claims of over-reach by the architects of the Vatican II liturgy. While it is true that Pope Benedict expressed his preference for celebrating the Mass ad orientem, he also stated that it was impractical to impose this on the Church due to the confusion it would cause.
Cardinal Sarah may say that it is Pope Francis who is encouraging his particular interpretation of the “reform of the reform”. I very much doubt, however, that the Holy Father will start celebrating ad orientem at his daily Mass in the chapel of Santa Marta at the beginning of Advent. Given the shaky reasons voiced by the cardinal calling for this change, neither should most of the Church.
Given Pope Francis’ frequent denunciation of clericalism, it is unfortunate that an initiative that is being promoted by the Prefect seems to unnecessarily reinforce clericalism. While Cardinal Sarah is certainly free to state his preferences, his suggestion that we all face “east” (and it can only be a suggestion) must be evaluated in light of our own experience of worship and how we see this spatial arrangement reflective of our faith in God’s presence in our place and time.
We need to ask if our notion of God is inspired by looking outside of our world and mediated through the priest who stands between God and us. That was certainly an important part of the Tridentine theology of worship expressed by the spatial arrangement the cardinal is promoting.
For the Cardinal Prefect to make such a strong suggestion to revert to a Tridentine “spatial theology” of God’s presence, I would have thought he would base his appeal on the Prophet Jeremiah and unsubstantiated claims of over-reach by the architects of the Vatican II liturgy. While it is true that Pope Benedict expressed his preference for celebrating the Mass ad orientem, he also stated that it was impractical to impose this on the Church due to the confusion it would cause.
Cardinal Sarah may say that it is Pope Francis who is encouraging his particular interpretation of the “reform of the reform”. I very much doubt, however, that the Holy Father will start celebrating ad orientem at his daily Mass in the chapel of Santa Marta at the beginning of Advent. Given the shaky reasons voiced by the cardinal calling for this change, neither should most of the Church.
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