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Celebration of the Eucharist, Continued

Understand that all of the baptized are also ministers of reconciliation.

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This Fr. Gerry Creedon homily was delivered at St. Charles on November 10, 2002

When I was a little boy, I used to love to go to Mass with my grandparents and my uncle to a little country church called Together. My devout grandparents went into the chapel. My uncle, some of the other local farmers and I stayed at the steps at the front door. I would enter into the conversation with my uncle and the local farmers during the Mass about the price of pigs, and cows until the bells rang for the consecration. They then took off their caps, knelt down on one knee with a silent hush of reverent silence. That was the extent of their participation. But they were there! When the liturgy was in Latin, it often became the occasion for private prayers, such as the rosary.

With the changes of Vatican II, a renewal of the Liturgy invited the laity to enter into worship in a thousand different ways. Some responded with reluctance and confusion; most with enthusiasm. Cantors led choirs in songs of praise. Catholics began to sing almost as well as Protestants. The liturgy involves altar servers, readers, lectors, extraordinary Eucharist Ministers, and ushers. Behind the scenes Liturgy Committees with Liturgy Planners set themes for the week and the month. The assembly itself became an essential dimension of the worshiping community.

New Changes Coming to Our Liturgies

Now forty years later, the Vatican has provided a revision of the Roman Missal. While the general thrust toward active, conscious participation has been reemphasized, there has been a tweaking of procedures and practices. The new instruction will be implemented in the province of Baltimore (which includes the Diocese of Arlington) on the first Sunday of Advent. When the initial changes were introduced, some clergy just turned the altar around without explanation and people were confused. Bishop Loverde has called for four weeks of instruction.

At the rite of peace, priests do not need to act like politicians running for election, shaking hands with everybody. The celebrant will offer the sign of peace to the ministers close to him in the Sanctuary area. Perhaps we can extend a greeting earlier in the liturgy at the gathering rites to the front row.

Let's put a positive spin on this change. Maybe the Vatican understood, and wants us to understand that all of the baptized are also ministers of reconciliation. Some have felt that we have lost our reverence for the real presence and need to go back to altar rails and kneeling at communion. The Vatican has reaffirmed our current communion rite. It affirms that the proper posture for receiving the Eucharist is standing. We don't have to kneel down, or even genuflect. We kneel at the Lamb of God. You are also asked before the Communion Rite to make a simple bow. As I explained last Sunday the Communion rite is done within the context of a procession, a movement of people reminiscent of pilgrimage. "We are the people who long to see Your Face."

So let us utilize when the Vatican is calling us to do minor revisions in Liturgical reform to renew ourselves as God's people? All of us together clergy, laity in a variety of roles worship together as we seek Christ's reign.

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Revised/reviewed December 7, 2002