Liturgy and Focus on God by Fr Alan
This fundamental Catholic insight about ourselves "in Christ, in God" raises many questions for me. Some of these are questions about the way we celebrate the Liturgy. We have got so accustomed to a particular way of acting and speaking at the Mass over the last forty years. Perhaps we need to look at this again.
Actually, the way we do the liturgy seems unfocussed on God. The priest faces the people throughout, even for those times when he is leading the congregation in prayer to God. There is no posture distinction between speaking to the congregation (as in the readings, for instance) and speaking in prayer (as in the Eucharistic Prayer).
We used to speak disparagingly about the priest "turning his back on the people" for the Mass. Well, that's not the only way of looking at it, and I believe it's not the right way. What are we doing? We are praying together and the priest is speaking that praying in our name. So why are we not all, including the priest, facing the same direction, outwards from the assembly towards the infinity that is God? That would give a bodily expression of the words "Let us pray."
Again, so many of our translated prayers (unlike their Latin originals) focus on what we are doing, as opposed to the wonderful things that God is doing. It seems like our liturgy focuses on ourselves. The consequence is that it can become almost an exercise in auto-therapy or self-congratulation.
I was asked when I came here why I would not say "Good morning" or "Good evening, everyone" at Mass. It's for the same reason: that the Liturgy is not about us. Let it speak for itself. We begin "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." When we come to the gathered congregation, it is the Lord we name: "The Lord be with you: And with your spirit."
Liturgy is God's gift to us, not something we invent to describe ourselves. Liturgy is about the wonderful works of God. The Mass IS that most wonderful of God's works, namely, the offering of the unique and eternal sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Mass, Christ is both sacrifice and priest.
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