Posted on 10/13/2005 7:17:36 AM PDT by Pyro7480
It is generally known, that, since Vatican II, much has changed in the Catholic Church with regard to this veneration of the Host (whic means "sacrificial gift" in Latin).
Most of the forms of reverence I have described [such as kneeling for Communion] have disappeared. The liturgical reformers succeeded in convincing the faithful that reverence for the Host, worship of the Host as the real physical appearance of Jesus Christ, has been unknown in the Church of the Apostles and their early successors. This veneration of the Host was medieval, they said. The word "medieval" has an even more pejorative sound in the modern Church than it has in modern philosophy and historiography, where people are at last to question the idea of the "darkness of the Middle Ages" - that favorite Enlightenment cliche. In fact, as this "medieval" darkness starts to lighten and dissipate, we begin to discern the profile of one of the most creative, most multifarious and richest periods of huma history - and one of the most adventurous in spiritual terms.
However, my concern today is not to correct our view of the Middle Ages. In my search for an uninterrupted tradition of authentic liturgy I discovered the services of the Eastern Church. Here I paid special attention to the veneration of the Host, for the Eastern Church's liturgy cannot in any way be associated with the Middle Ages; its unchanged tradition, coming from the early part of the first millennium, is dogmatically beyond question.
For the Byzantine Christian, liturgy is a revelation of God, given to man from above; God, worshipped and served by cherubim and seraphim, gives men the grace to participate in this angelic worship and approach Him. It is strictly forbidden to change or adapt this divine liturgy; it would also conflict with the way the participants understand their role in the liturgy....
The sacrificial character of [Byzantine] liturgy is actually much more emphatic than in the Latin, even if one compares it with the Latin liturgy prior to Vatican II. When the Hosts are prepared, ...the pieces of bread selected... are pierced with a tiny lance, just as Jesus' side was pierced by a lance on Golgotha. The procession with the as yet unconsecrated offertory gifts attracts the greatest possible reverence. The priest carries wine and bread, magnificiently veiled, through the church, preceded by a thurifer walking backwards and constantly incensing the gifts. Depending on the particular congregation, people either bow profoundly or kneel, foreheads touching the ground, as the unconsecrated gifts pass by.
Here, the Host is treated like an as yet uncrowned monarch, proceeding to his coronation, accompanied by all the appropriate gestures of reverence. The Copts even use a fan, wafting a breeze towards the consecrated Host, no doubt also to banish the flies, as one would in the presence of a physical monarch. Such ceremonial fans were still in use in the West in medieval times, but the Copts' practice goes back to the earliest days of Christianity.
The Christian religion owes two of its most important institutions to Egyptian Christians: the definition of Mary as Mother of God, and monasticisim. From the Copts, even today, one can find out how the early Christian behaved towards the Host: nothing can be more authentic than this....
When I think of the abolition of the worship and veneration of the Host after Vatican II - just as in the centuries following the Reformation - a military image always presents itself to me, perhaps because military ceremonial still retains its sign-language, to some extent. What I see is the degradation of Captin Dreyfus, so vividly described by a number of writers. After being convicted as a Germany spy, he had to appear in full uniform in front of his regiment, to hear his sentence. His punishment not only meant prison on the island of Cayenne; he also forfeited his military rank. The officer who pronounced the sentence next demanded that Dreyfus surrender his sword. The Captain's sword was broken over officer's thigh; the shards were thrown at the feet of the supposed traitor. Then Dreyfus's epaulettes were torn from his shoulders and his emblems of rank from his breast.
To me, it is exactly the same when I see people still on their feet in from of the elevated Host, when I see them entering a church without genuflecting, and receiving communion in their outstretched hands. I see it as a degradation, a pointed, symbolic refusal to give honor. Incidentally, communion in the hand is inappropriate, not because the hands are less worthy to receive the Host than the tongue, for instance, or because they might be dirty, but because it would be impossible to rinse every participant's hands after communion (i.e., to make sure no particles of the Host are lost).
It was through the signs of reverence I saw from early childgood that the Host became, for me, what the Church's tradition claims it to be: a Living Being. From that time on, the presence of this Living Being triumphed over every doubt (and of course my faith in Christ has not been free from doubt)....
Anyone who goes to church on Holy Thursday believes he knows the identity of the man who broke bread in the Upper Room at the Last Supper. And if God says that this bread is His Body, there is only one response man can offer: he must worship this bread.
(Copyright Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2005. This excerpt from an article in the October 2005 issue of Inside the Vatican, translated by Graham Harrison, is part of an upcoming book on the liturgy by Martin Mosebach soon to be published in English by Ignatius Press.)
Martin Mosebach, a leading German writer who lives in Frankfurt, has published numerous novels, stories, collections of poems, film scripts, opera libretti, and plays.
Catholic ping!
Ping!
That should be "childhood," not "childgood." Any other typos are my fault.
Another typo: that should be "which."
The denigation of all things medieval is to show identity with Protestants. How many priests are Cranmers in disguise?
That should be "Captain." Will three typos be all? ;-)
I never thought of it that way before.
Amen, right on, and excellent!
That should be "in front." That's four! :-Þ
Nope.
Just claim responsibility for all typos in your first comment box like teofilo does.
I guess I have to point it out or you'll go crazy, right?
huma history
There's never a prffreader around when you need one.
So that's five! I guess I should impose a penance on myself. ;-)
I find the hot pants, tube tops, and Metallica T-shirts to be very strange, however.
If they really want to identify with us, how about long pants and shirts, with an occasional tie, on the men, and dresses on the women?
As someone who grew up fasting after midnight, dressed up, kneeling at the altar, receiving on the tongue [touching not allowed], no noise during the Consecration [not even a cough] and frequent confession. Well we have come a long way baby but maybe not in the direction toward reverence.
At some masses of the ecclesial movement Miles Jesu (not "Mr. Miles Jesu" as a certain left-leaning diocesan chancery let on recently), sometimes they have a priest with an ablution bowl standing next to the priest who is administering the Host, so that those who must take communion in the hand can at least rinse the Particles off into the bowl. I think it is a refined sign of the honor to be shown to Our Lord in the Host.
Recognizing that in those areas where communion in the hand is permitted, it is licit, I nonetheless think it is a really bad idea for other reasons, having mostly to do with the bad symbolism of the communicant giving himself communion, rather than the priest, who is alter Christus, giving communion to the communicant. Communion in the hand becomes, like receiving communion standing rather than kneeling, and singing Catholic karaoke music at Mass, just another expression of the democratic exaltation of self over any higher Person or power.
A couple of observations; the fans the author refers to represent the Seraphim together with whom we are joining in the Liturgy. The center of the fans, usually metal, are embosed with the face of an angel and the many vanes around the edge of the fans represent the many wings of those angles. It s the wings of the Seraphim which are fanning the Holy Gifts for the Holy People of God.
Standing at the reception of communion is the ancient way of the Orthodox Church. This is not a sign of disrespect among Orthodox people, but rather a sign of joy because as a general rule (except at the consecration for most of the year) we do not kneel during the Divine Liturgy on Sundays because Sunday is the "Eighth Day", the Eternal Resurrection Day. In the West, the tradition of kneeling for reception of communion is likewise very ancient and I certainly can see how a people who were not accustomed by tradition to stand for the reception of communion might, by no longer kneeling, come to the conclusion that standing somehow, on the one hand, was disrespectful to Christ and on the other that that was OK because Christ isn't "really there".
LOL! It really is scandalous how some Catholics dress for Mass these days. I attend a traditional parish, and most people dress in their "Sunday best" there.
Good post. I can fully understand where he is coming from. The Eucharistic reverence is so much more prominent in the Orthodox )and I imagine other Oriental) Churches compared to Latin NO rituals.
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