Why liturgy is the greatest mass media
Smartphones and TV have irreversibly changed
society; neither has come close to what liturgy does.
This week, as we move
through the Holy Week liturgies — whether we go to everything available, or can
only make it to the minimum — we will be participating in the most powerful
form of mass media in the history of the world.
Yes, smartphones are
changing the way people interact and yes, television — whether by cable or
satellite or internet — has reshaped the way we live. But neither has come
close to equaling what liturgy has done.
By uniting people
across nationalities and borders, liturgy has helped build civilizations. By
filling people with hope and purpose, liturgy has provided untold social
benefits, reducing crime and increasing prosperity. And liturgy has helped each
of us personally, bonding our families, reducing our stress, and connecting us
to a social network in the real world that is ready to help us in hardship.
This is because
liturgy is the ideal mass media.
When we gather at
church we sit in the peace and quiet of the most beautiful place we visit each
week.
The best churches are
made to be not just beautiful, but awe inspiring.
The churches in the
part of Kansas where I live were built by monks working with German immigrants.
Their stained-glass windows, soaring ceilings and careful artwork reveal the
beauty and depths in the hearts of the plain farmer families who made them.
When you enter each church you have left the drab world behind and find
yourself in a place as close to heaven as the world can get.
So, before a liturgy
even starts, the Catholic Church gives you an immersive experience that your
smartphone can’t match.
Then the liturgy
starts with one of the most powerful acts human beings ever do: Singing
together.
If you have ever sung
a song by a campfire — or on a road trip, or around your Christmas tree — you
already know how bonding group singing can be.
Now, scientists are
discovering why. Jill Suttie, at a Cal Berkeley publication that looks for
scientific answers for better living, has tracked down several scientific studies that
describe what happens to the human brain when people sing. Group singing floods
the human brain with endorphins and oxytocin. People who listen to or perform
music together get along better, work better, and feel more fulfilled.
Churchgoers get to
experience the benefits of group singing every week at church. Only for us,
singing together not only bonds us with each other — it bonds us to God.
We sing “All Glory
Laud and Honour,” and we are there with Jesus entering Jerusalem. “Ubi Caritas”
clarifies what the Holy Thursday washing of the feet is all about. “O Sacred
Head Surrounded” brings us by his side at his Passion, and “Jesus Christ Is
Risen Today” is as thrilling on Easter Day as “Angels We Have Heard on High” is
at Christmas.
Early in Mel Gibson’s
movie Apocalypto, about ancient civilization, an old
man tells a story at a campfire. This is the most primal and
effective form of communication there is — so much so that Plato argued that
communicating through writing would ruin everything.
Human beings are
hard-wired to respond to other human beings. A real, live, flesh-and-blood
person commands our attention in a way a screen can’t. This is why traditional
education is so much more effective than online education — when we are in the
room interacting with a real person, side by side with others, our minds come
alive.
Communication also
comes down to more than just words. The demeanour and body-language of a
storyteller conveys more to us than words alone do.
So, when we listen to
a lector or a priest tell us a story, we are experiencing the most fundamental
form of human communication.
We are also
experiencing the most fundamental form of divine communication. In Genesis,
history starts when God speaks: “Let there be light.” In John, salvation
history starts when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Jesus Christ walked
on earth more than 2,000 years ago, then ascended into heaven. But he is still
with us in the sacraments and in the liturgy.
There, in his Real
Presence in the tabernacle, he presides over our re-enactment of his life using
symbols. This is especially clear in Holy Week, when we carry palms, wash feet,
venerate the cross, bless a fire, light candles and are sprinkled with holy
water, reliving his life together.
To signify his death
on Good Friday, the tabernacle is empty, the sanctuary lamp extinguished and
the doors left open, leaving a hole in the centre of the church like the hole
in the centre of humanity when Christ died.
As powerful as
singing and storytelling are, they pale next to our ritual participation in
Christ’s redemptive act while in his very presence.
So make the most of
Holy Week, and each liturgy. It offers the greatest experience available on
earth.
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