In a previous article we published quotes from Cardinal Ratzinger on the liturgy. This preeminent theologian and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith understands the theology of the liturgy well, human psychology as it relates to spiritual matters, and is sympathetic to those who desire the Traditional Mass, having celebrated this Mass numerous times since the Ecclesia Dei indult of 1988. His insights are worth sharing and meditating on. The following quotes, used with permission, are from Salt of the Earth and Feast of Faith, which can be ordered from Ignatius Press, 1-800 – 651-1531.
Cardinal Ratzinger on the Liturgy II
edited by Barbara A. Schoeneberger
"In our form of the liturgy there is a tendency that, in my opinion, is false, namely, the complete ‘inculturation’ of the liturgy into the contemporary world. The liturgy is thus supposed to be shortened; and everything that is supposedly unintelligible should be removed from it; it should, basically, be transposed down to an even ‘flatter’ language. But this is a thoroughgoing misunderstanding of the essence of the liturgy and of liturgical celebration. For in the liturgy one doesn’t grasp what’s going on in a simply rational way, as I understand a lecture, for example, but in a manifold way, with all the senses, and by being drawn into a celebration that isn’t invented by some commission but that, as it were, comes to me from the depths of the millennia and, ultimately, of eternity.
…Of course, intelligibility is also an element of the liturgy, and for this reason the Word of God must be well read, interpreted, and explained. But there are other ways of understanding in addition to the intelligibility of the word. Above all, it is not something that new commissions think up again and again. When that happens, the liturgy becomes something we construct, whether the commissions meet in Rome, Trier, or Paris. Instead of this, liturgy must really have its great continuity, protected from what is arbitrary, in which I really meet the millennia and through them eternity and am raised up into a communion of celebration that is something other than what commissions or liturgy committees devise.
I believe that a sort of clericalism has arisen here that also makes it easier for me to understand the demand for women’s ordination. Importance is attributed to the person of the priest; he must be able to handle things skillfully and to be able to present everything well. He is the real center of the celebration. In consequence, one has to say: Why only this sort of person? When, on the contrary, he withdraws completely and simply presents things through his believing action, then the action no longer circles around him. Rather, he steps aside, and something greater comes into view. In this sense I think it’s necessary to see much more the impact and power of the tradition that can’t be manipulated. Its beauty and greatness touch even those who can’t digest and understand all its details rationally. In the center, of course, is the Word that is preached and explained.
…What we need is a new liturgical education, especially of priests. It must once again become clear that liturgical scholarship doesn’t exist in order to produce constantly new models, though that may be all right for the auto industry. It exists in order to introduce us into feast and celebration, to make man capable of the mystery. Here we ought to learn not just from the Eastern Church but from all the religions of the world, which all know that liturgy is something other than the invention of texts and rites, that it lives precisely from what is beyond manipulation. Young people have a very strong sense of this. Centers in which the liturgy is celebrated reverently and nobly without nonsense attract, even if one doesn’t understand every word. We need such centers to set an example. Unfortunately, in Germany tolerance for bizarre tinkering is almost unlimited, whereas tolerance for the old liturgy is practically nonexistent. We are surely on the wrong path in that regard. Salt of the Earth by Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, Ignatius Press © 1997, pp. 175 – 177.
"…The Lord does not assemble the parish community in order to enclose it but in order to open it up. The man who allows himself to be ‘assembled’ by the Lord has plunged into a river which will always be taking him beyond the limits of his self at any one time. To be with the Lord means to be willing, with Him, to seek all the children of God. It is a favorite theme of our time that the Church is ‘wherever two or three are gathered in My name’, but the reverse is also true: the community is only ‘with the Lord’ and ‘gathered in His name’ provided it is entirely at one with the Church, wholly part of the whole. That is why, however much it lives in the here and now, in a particular place, seeking the consent of the local community, Christian liturgy is essentially Catholic, that is, it proceeds from the whole and leads back to it, it leads to unity with the pope, the bishops and the faithful of all times and places.
…There is something else: the Council reminded us most explicitly that the liturgy is, in the Church’s language, actio, and action. Therefore it implies the participatio actuosa, the active participation of all the faithful. But here again the impression has been given, to a greater or lesser extent, that, if the liturgy is to be the work of the community, it must also be created by it; and, putting it crudely, this led to its being measured by its entertainment value. The idea was to make it as exciting as possible, shaking up the standoffish, the fringe members, and drawing them into community; but, strangely, what happened was that, as a result of all this, the liturgy actually lost its authentic inner vibrancy. For this does not arise from what we do but from the fact that something is being done here which all our concerted efforts cannot achieve. What has created the liturgy’s special position, down the centuries, is the fact that in it a supreme authority is operative, an authority which no one can arrogate to himself. It the liturgy the absolutely Other takes place, the absolutely Other comes among us.
…And it is true: this world is too small for man, even if he can fly to the Moon, or one day perhaps to Mars. He yearns for the Other, the totally Other, that which is beyond his own reach. Behind this is the longing to conquer death…So it is not enough to describe the Eucharist as the community meal. It cost the Lord His life, and only at this price can we enjoy the gift of the Resurrection. Therefore the Eucharist does not stand or fall by its effect on our feelings. Feelings come to an end, and ultimately all entertainment becomes tedious, -- as we know only too well nowadays. What we need is the presence in our lives of what is real and permanent so that we can approach it. No external participation and creativity is of any use unless it is a participation in this inner reality, in the way of the Lord, in God Himself. Its aim is to lead us to this breakthrough to God. This involves two further practical considerations: liturgy is not a matter of variety and change; it is concerned with an ever-deeper experience of something that is beyond change because it is the very answer that we are seeking. Secondly, liturgy is not only concerned with the conscious mind and with what can be immediately understood at the superficial level, like newspaper headlines. Liturgy addresses the human being in all his depth, which goes far beyond our everyday awareness; there are things we only understand with the heart; the mind can gradually grow in understanding the more we allow our heart to illuminate it.
…The Eucharist is not a ritual meal; it is the shared prayer of the Church, in which the Lord prays together with us and gives us Himself.
…One final remark: when we speak of worship in the parish community, we immediately think exclusively of the Eucharist. But this very fact expresses the regrettable narrowing and impoverishment which have overtaken us in these latter years. The Eucharist is the heart and center of our worshipping life, but in order to be this center it must have a many-layered whole in which to live. Eucharist presupposes baptism; it presupposes continual recourse to the sacrament of penance. The Holy Father has emphasized this most strongly in his encyclical ‘Redemptor Hominis’. The first element of the Good News, he stresses, was ‘Repent!’ ‘The Christ Who invites us to the eucharistic meal is always the same Christ who exhorts us to penance, continually saying ‘Repent!’" (IV, 20) Where penance disappears, the Eucharist is no longer discerned and, as the Lord’s Eucharist, is destroyed. But Eucharist also presupposes marriage and ordination, the social and public structure of the Church. It presupposes personal prayer, family prayer and the paraliturgical prayer of the parish community.
I would just like to mention two of the richest and deepest prayers of Christendom, prayers which are able to draw us again and again into the vast river of eucharistic prayer: the Stations of the Cross and the Rosary.
One of the reasons why, nowadays, we are so discountenanced by the appeal of Asiatic or apparently Asiatic religious practices is that we have forgotten these forms of prayer. The Rosary does not call for intense conscious efforts which would render it impossible but invites us to enter into the rhythm of quiet, peaceably bringing us peace and giving a name to this quietness: Jesus, the blessed fruit of the womb of Mary. Mary, who cherished the living Word in the recollected quiet of her heart and thus was privileged to become the Mother of the Incarnate Word, is the abiding pattern for all genuine worship, the Star which illuminates even a dark heaven and shows us the way. May she, the Mother of the Church, intercede for us so that we may be enabled to fulfill more and more the Church’s highest task: the glorification of the living God, from whom comes mankind’s salvation. Amen. Feast of Faith by Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, Ignatius Press, © 1986 pp. 148-153.