by Father Walter Ray Williams

Part II

    We began in last week’s bulletin to take a look at the newly published (in English) General Instruction of the Roman Missal, a kind of instructional introduction that is in each edition of the Roman Missal (formerly called Sacramentary).  The most recent edition of the Roman Missal has not yet been translated into English, but the latest General Instruction has, in which are contained some alterations and reiterations that we should consider and implement as a parish.

            Last week we looked at the Preamble to the General Instruction and considered the emphasis we found there on the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the understanding of the Mass that has been lost upon so many Catholics in the last few decades (as repeated surveys show).  And I suggested that a return to this, the central understanding of the Liturgy, will help set the tone for our comprehension and implementation of what the Church has to teach and instruct us concerning the Mass:  that “[a]t the Last Supper our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood, by which he would perpetuate the Sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until he should come again, thus entrusting to the Church, his beloved Bride, the memorial of his death and resurrection” (quoted from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Second Vatican Council, #47). 

            This week we come to Chapter I, “The Importance and Dignity of the Eucharistic Celebration,” which opens with the significant words, “[t]he celebration of Mass, as the action of Christ and the People of God arrayed hierarchically, is the center of the whole Christian life for the Church both universal and local, as well as for each of the faithful individually.  In it is found the high point both of the action by which God sanctifies the world in Christ and of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, adoring him through Christ, the Son of God, in the Holy Spirit.” 

            The Instruction reiterates then that the Mass should be celebrated daily, “if possible,” and the priest is encouraged to do this “even if it is sometimes not possible to have the presence and active participation of the faithful.”  This bears repeating, because I have repeatedly had to answer so-called “liturgists” who insist on their own authority that priests are forbidden to offer Mass without the presence of the faithful.  The presence of the faithful, of course, is preferred, but even with only the priest “the Eucharistic Celebration always retains its efficacy and dignity because it is the action of Christ and the Church, in which the priest fulfills his own principal office and always acts for the people’s salvation.” 

            The Instruction reminds us of the responsibility of the local diocesan Bishop to fulfill his role as the “chief steward of the mysteries of God in the particular Church entrusted to his care”… to be the “moderator, promoter, and guardian of the whole of its liturgical life.”  The Bishop is exhorted to be “determined that the priests, the deacons, and the lay Christian faithful grasp ever more deeply the genuine meaning” of the Liturgy, and also be “vigilant” to promote the dignity of the liturgies of the Church as well as the “beauty of the sacred place, of music, and of art….” 

            The Instruction points out that for the purpose of increasing pastoral effectiveness there are specified accommodations and adaptations to the Liturgy made available in the Instruction itself as well as the Roman Missal, but that every priest “must remember that he is the servant of the sacred Liturgy and that he himself is not permitted…to add, to remove, or to change anything in the celebration of Mass.”  For more substantial adaptations “in view of the traditions and culture of peoples and regions,” careful attention needs to be paid to the Instruction On the Roman Liturgy and Inculturation, which emphasizes that such changes are to be effected only through Bishops’ Conferences with the approval of Rome.  Local bishops, parish priests and liturgical commissions are not authorized to take this task on by their own initiative and authority.

            Next week we will begin our survey of Chapter II, “The Structure of the Mass, Its Elements and Its Parts.”