Razzle-Dazzle Liturgies
"Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters that do not involve faith or the good of the whole community. Rather, she respects and fosters the spiritual adornments and gifts of the various races and peoples. Anything in their way of life that is not indissolubly bound up with superstition and error she studies with sympathy and, if possible, preserves intact. Sometimes, in fact, she admits such things into the liturgy itself, so long as they harmonize with its true and authentic spirit" --Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican II (1963).
In response to the above passage from the Vatican II document on the sacred liturgy, there are four distinct liturgical structures that an ethnically diverse society might adopt:
- Different groups can build their own ethnic churches, each with its own rites or adaptations, so that within a block of one another the Lithuanians might attend Our Lady of Vilnius and the Vietnamese attend Our Lady of La Vang.
- Within the same parish, each language group can have a Mass: in Spanish at 9 a.m. and in English at 11 a.m.
- A congregation of several ethnic and linguistic backgrounds can make the decision to restore Latin usage for liturgies and support various traditional devotions, such as May crownings and posadas and ceremonial dancing in paraliturgical events at which the entire community is welcomed.
- A congregation of several ethnic and linguistic backgrounds can develop a blended liturgy. One community might speak Spanglish with hymns alternating between the two languages. A mariachi band might play at the offertory and a Gospel choir leads the recessional. A neighboring congregation of Poles, Koreans, and Polynesians would look and sound quite different, perhaps even using distinctive liturgical gestures. Each blended congregational community would develop a unique, local culture reflected in the Mass.
Variations of all of the above have been tried throughout the history of American Catholicism, but clearly it is the last possibility which seems to fit current experiments with liturgical adaptations and inculturation.
"In a number of countries there are several cultures which coexist and sometimes influence each other in such a way as to gradually lead to the formation of a new culture, while at times they seek to affirm their proper identity or even oppose each other in order to stress their own existence. . . The episcopal conference will examine each case individually with care: They should respect the riches of each culture and those who defend them, but they should not ignore or neglect a minority culture with which they are not familiar. They should weigh the risk of a Christian community becoming inward looking and also the use of inculturation for political ends" -- Instruction on the Correct Implementation of the Liturgical Constitution, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, March 29,1994.
The closing Jubilee Mass for Encuentro 2000, on Saturday, July 8 was a colorful example of such cultural coexistence. Roger Cardinal Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was the principal celebrant, with over 80 bishops and many more priests in attendance and concelebrating with him at the conference.
Prelude and processional songs freely mixed Spanish, Latin, Tagalog, and English. Modern dancers wafted earthenware bowls of incense through the crowd of approximately 5,000 Catholics. A polyglot Our Father was prayed in a mumble of voices, for the congregation had been instructed to recite the prayer "in the language of your choice."
Ezekiel was read in Korean, Corinthians in Navajo, and the Gospel of St. Mark was proclaimed in Mandarin. To assist English speakers, real-time captions were projected onto the two giant video screens that dominated the hall. Spanish and English versions of the text were also printed in the conference program books, and simultaneous translations on headsets were in Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Cardinal Mahony preached: ". . .As we celebrate the diversity of cultures that comprise the Church in the United States we now come to the Table of Word and Sacrament which lies at the center of the faith that unites us. For it is here, gathered by the Word and strengthened and sustained by the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, that we become one Body, one Spirit in Christ. It is here that we express and receive our identity as the Body of Christ -- a welcoming, evangelizing, missionary people. It is here that we take up the gift and the task of being and becoming a people whose lives are committed to reconciliation, peace, and unity. And it is here, at this table, that we recognize that we can only be and become the people we are called to be through the grace of conversion, communion, and solidarity." The presentation of the gifts and the preparation of the altar were performed by Caribbean dancers in native costume -- full, tiered skirts, bangled sleeves, and bright head coverings -- who led a joyful, rhythmic procession of sisters in blue habits, priests in printed stoles, and other folk in assorted ethnic dress. They presented baskets of food to the cardinal; the baskets were later were donated to a local charitable organization. Infectious rhythms and smiles bounced from one giant video screen to another and spun around the cavernous hall. When the number came to a close, applause was thunderous. The congregation was also moved to appreciative applause after the Eucharistic hymn. This was as much a theater production as a Mass; the congregation was emotionally stirred and ready to rumba.
In such a visual, Hollywood-like liturgy, every congregation develops its own quirky adaptations of the Mass, depending on the ethnic and linguistic complexion of its people. The cultural elements "adorning" the Mass will vary from liturgy to liturgy in startling diversity and kaleidoscopic unpredictability. The traveler will never be certain what language he will find himself singing, or what cultural set of liturgical gestures will be normative from parish to parish.
What is accomplished seems almost the diametrical opposite of what has been proposed. Rather than drawing the individual soul's attention from self-centered preoccupations toward numinous, external Reality, the more distracting and novel the liturgical structure is, the more individuals within a community are focused inward, on themselves, their feelings, and their transitory circumstances.
In such a liturgical structure, the function of reiterated and anticipated ritual, liberating the spirit from the mundane to focus on the profound, is abandoned. The natural drama and rhythm of the Mass is swallowed by a more superficial and distracting drama: How are we going to worship today?
Like the hypochondriac absorbed by his own pulse and self-medicating perceived (or imagined) fluctuations, the self-conscious blended congregation must be perpetually alert to its own demographics and constantly adapting its liturgies to the "new" culture. © The Wanderer, 201 Ohio Street, St. Paul, MN 55107, 612-224-5733.
This item 3125 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
