Catholic Sensibility

When Memorial Day coincides with the Feast of the Visitation, how does your parish handle the confluence? Two blended feasts? Two observances coexisting side-by-side? Ignore one completely? What do you think the future of such holidays should hold for us–not just Americans, but in other countries with other national observances?

Meanwhile, Saint Paul struck me again with a lyrical exhortation to the Romans, including:

… anticipate one another in showing honor …

Let’s take a pause today in the OCF series. I’d like to call your attention to Andrew Hamilton’s opinion piece for Australia’s Jesuit periodical Eureka Street. A good essay on the contrasting approaches to modern funerals: do we come to honor the dead, or to entrust a sinner to God? Was the old approach the better one?

A generation or so ago, Catholic funerals emphasised very strongly the relationship of the dead with God and their salvation in heaven. People prayed that God would forgive their sins and receive them into everlasting life. … The virtues and the human foibles of the dead person may have been mentioned, but not emphasised.

People complain at times about an elaborate funeral celebration for a controversial figure, be it for a pro-choice Catholic (like Senator Ted Kennedy) or a criminal (like a priest child abuser). Does such a fuss imply critics and friends both have each conceded it is indeed a time to speak well of the deceased? To celebrate their life? Certainly, in the mainstream, mourners receive consolation from the positive memories of the one they’ve lost:

The celebrations focus more on remembering their life, thanking God for the quality of their lives, and consoling the living by recalling the dead person’s life. These are important and good things to do.

Eulogies seem have overtaken the rite of farewell and committal as central to the liturgy. And if we perceive funerals to be primarily for the praise of the person for his or her own sake, no wonder people object to funerals for some people. And here is a problem for bishops and clergy. Does the liturgical finery of a priest’s funeral (and let’s be honest: few other funerals draw more liturgical pomp) suggest more of the modern approach than a traditional one?

Hamilton’s suggestion, which seems sound to me:

Within the Christian community splendid ceremonies with processions of robed bishops and priests may heighten the sense that the dead person is precious in God’s eyes and may evoke God’s mercy. But those whom a dead priest has abused and the wider society are as likely to see in the celebration an enactment of power and defiance.

In such funerals it may be better to draw on the resources of Catholic liturgy that allow people to gather to seek forgiveness, express grief and pray for conversion. Plain dress, an unornamented church, honest prayers and periods of silence can express respect for the dead person and our shared need of God’s mercy. A one-style liturgy does not fit all circumstances.

No flowers, sure. But is there room for bishop and clergy to celebrate a funeral without vestments? Or absent themselves entirely from concelebration? I wonder how this approach would work out in practice. Suggestions?

I noted that women who have had sexual relationships with priests have asked for a relaxation of mandatory clerical celibacy. The communication vehicle: an open but mostly anonymous letter to the pope.

To begin with, I think anyone has the right and perhaps the responsibility to speak their minds. Or write. It’s an ironclad certainty the pope or the Vatican will take this seriously. I think Rome ponder far more when a cardinal suggests clerical celibacy should be on the discussion table.

Personally, I think the Church does better to insist on maturity in its clergy. In part, I think that’s why we’ve seen a drop in clerical sex abuse over the past thirty years–the insistence on maturity, despite claims that we’re saying good-bye to good (conservative) men.

I would hold to the traditional principle that in whatever state of life a candidate is ordained, that should hold for life. However, I think a local bishop might be well-placed to discern with a priest or deacon if, after ordination (long after ordination) that a later marriage might be possible.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure the hierarchy possesses the adequate maturity to grapple with this issue at this time. I don’t think open letters, no matter how heartfelt, are going to contribute to enlightenment.

As for clergy who have had sexual relationships after ordination, I’m not sure what’s to say. I had a friend who fell in love with an ordained priest many, many years ago. The report I heard was that the man’s brother priests thought highly of their friend, and didn’t want to lose him to the secular world. So their “solution” was to keep my friend as a mistress. They didn’t count on the maturity of my friend. The Church’s tradition wouldn’t have saved this person’s priestly ministry. But at least he had the maturity to leave active ministry to marry my friend.

I disagree with Cardinal Schönborn that optional celibacy would cut down on child abuse. It’s a naive view (immature, if you will) that suggests that sex and commitment will make a man of an abuser. But he is right, that for other reasons, optional celibacy should be on the table. Rome has a strong stubborn streak though. I don’t expect it anytime soon. The best we can expect is a more mature clergy.

At the parish, I was grateful for a non-catechetical homily this weekend. I see from a quick perusal of St Blog’s we have about four or five posts, almost more obligatory than a holy day, attempting to explain the nature of the Trinity. My thinking: let a mystery be.

Instead, the pastor focused on hope, and Saint Paul provided a lyrical message:

Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions,
knowing that affliction produces endurance,
and endurance, proven character,
and proven character, hope,
and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Do you think we’ll arrive at the day when we see fewer Trinity Sunday preachers focus on basic theology and more on the message of the Scriptures and the liturgy? Anybody hear any good homilies this weekend?

This section carefully communicates what the Church teaches about the dead, and lays out the particular hopes for the liturgy. We’ll interrupt the narrative here and there to point out some important aspects:

6. The Church through its funeral rites commends the dead to God’s merciful love and pleads for the forgiveness of their sins.

Two important things we do for the dead: turn them over to God (and by correlation, we do not cling to them or to their earthly accomplishments) and we (note the word) plead on behalf of them.

The funeral Mass is central, because in it, we affirm unity across the divide of death:

At the funeral rites, especially at the celebration of the eucharistic sacrifice, the Christian community affirms and expresses the union of the Church on earth with the Church in heaven in the one great communion of saints. Though separated from the living, the dead are still at one with the community of believers on earth and benefit from their prayers and intercession.

While we acknowledge an obvious separation in the world we see, we count on Christ to continue to stretch across the chasm of death, and maintain our bonds. This is something deeper, more profound than keeping alive memories. Remembering the dead can be laudable and even therapeutic. But in the long stretches of time, who really remembers their great-great grandparents and the beloved dead they kept in memory. Dozens of generations since Christ and countless other before that. If we’re prepared to say that famous people are more “alive” in human memory, maybe we can say commemoration is mainly about human memory. But I wouldn’t say it.

OCF 6 points out one of the ritual high points of all the funeral rites:

At the rite of final commendation and farewell, the community acknowledges the reality of separation and commends the deceased to God. In this way it recognizes the spiritual bond that still exists between the living and the dead and proclaims its belief that all the faithful will be raised up and reunited in the new heavens and a new earth, where death will be no more.

At the end of a funeral Mass, it is natural to feel exhausted and begin tuning out. Modern culture continues to avoid death as much as it can. Do believers recognize the importance of a final leave-taking? Do we attend carefully to the words and rituals between the reception of the Eucharist and the shovel patting down the last bit of dirt over a grave?

Other comments?

In his post at NLM today, Jeffrey Tucker offers an interesting comment with regard to contemporary composers revising popular settings of the Mass for the new Roman Missal:

I know some of these song writers, and I know that they are not entirely pleased by what they are doing here. None of them consider these settings to be their best work.

This is an insight a few church musicians realize. But not many. And publishers seem to be oblivious to the reality that they are probably not putting out the very best music being written. The composers, to a person, probably all know it.

I met Don Reagan at the Rensselaer Program of Church Music and Liturgy in the mid-80′s. He was gracious with his time with many of us young composers there. And while I knew him from his contributions to Glory & Praise volume 2, it was his unpublished stuff that was so interesting. NPM ventured into the publishing sphere with his Mass in a Jazz Style.  The weakest pieces in that collection were certainly better than most of the oeuvre in G&P. And a few, including the Lamb of God, were simply sublime. It’s still my favorite setting for the Agnus Dei. Too bad I loaned my book out many years ago and the whole project is now out of print.

Ralph Verdi was another composer with stacks of excellent music on mimeos and copies. His experimental music was quite singable for a congregation, yet totally “unprofitable” according to GIA and other outlets. We shrugged on that one at summer school: it was interesting, solidly liturgical, and superior to most of what we were seeing in Worship and the People’s Mass Book.

Not a surprise to me that composers are of mixed feelings in returning to twenty, thirty-year-old Mass settings. I’d strike out into the new rather than revise. But no doubt, royalties can come in handy when you’re thinking about putting a kid through college. Or paying medical bills.

That composers’ “best foot forward” is not always considered “marketable” would, by itself, be an interesting topic to explore. NLM, were it less of an obtuse and ornery operation, might actually get composers to talk about this phenomenon. I’ve had a peek into the private files of people like Marty Haugen and Bob Hurd. I’ve seen unpublished music from a number of published and unpublished composers. There’s a mountain of good stuff in filing cabinets and on computers that few to none of us are seeing, I assure you.

Unfortunately, my friend had to clutter up his post with a half-dozen or so pet peeves:

Parishes will have to replace the pew books with all new books.

Really? We’re not.

Above all else, there is the core principle, said to be derived from “the documents,” which must never be violated and which must serve as the guiding force: it must inspire vigorous singing among the people.

Really? People will sing or not as their faith inspires. Church musicians we have little control over the final result. We provide singable music. My parishes have always sung. With some vigor when the faith was being expressed. Sometimes with something less. But my sense is that the congregations I see sing with more vigor than will be likely from reverts sending the propers back to the choir loft and serenading the assembly with polyphonic Mass settings.

Getting back to point, what sorts of music have you seen off the main roads of publishers?

Found on Universe Today, this video of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Justice would demand that the criminals responsible at BP ensure full restitution. That might mean jail time too. As a real liberal, I’ll be watching the Obama Administration very closely on this one. The Right’s yammering about his being a radical is all stuff and nonsense, of course. If it were true, BP executives would be awaiting trial in orange jumpsuits by now. BP control of the Coast Guard clearly tells us the real socialists are calling the shots.

Good thing BP doesn’t control American satellites and where they point the camera, eh?

In researching our parish’s summer bible school (an event we’re assembling from scratch without the canned VBS products from publishers) I found some excellent thoughts from one of our week’s saints, John Bosco.

I’ve never before encountered the patron saint of youth, but I see why he has been entrusted so from this remarkable and holy insight:

The repressive system may stop a disorder, but can hardly make the offenders better. Experience teaches that the young do not easily forget the punishments they have received, and for the most part foster bitter feelings, along with the desire to throw off the yoke and even to seek revenge. They may sometimes appear to be quite unaffected, but anyone that follows them as they grow up knows that the reminiscences of youth are terrible, and some have even been known in later years to have had recourse to brutal vengeance for chastisements they had justly deserved during the course of their education.

In the preventive system, on the contrary, the pupil becomes a friend, and the assistant, a benefactor who advises him, has his good at heart, and wishes to spare him vexation, punishment, and perhaps dishonor. By the preventive system pupils acquire a better understanding, So that an educator can always speak to them in the language of the heart, not only during the time of their education but even afterward. Having once succeeded in gaining the confidence of his pupils he can subsequently exercise a great influence over them, and counsel them, advise and even correct them, whatever position they may occupy in the world later on.

This brought me back to my days (2007-08) assisting in the chaplaincy at the Crittenton Children’s Center. By far, it was the most demanding thing I’d ever done, working with those troubled, injured young people. I wonder how the founder of the Salesians would have tackled modern psychiatric institutions. These youth had certainly experienced repression at the hands of their abusers, sometimes even the parents they still loved. Many of them lashed out in “brutal vengeance”–probably why most all of them were there. In particular, I remember one usually gentle young man who visibly struggled with his own “vexation.” I could see in his eyes, and in his manner how he wanted to strike when situations overwhelmed him. I was speaking to my wife of these quotes and how I was thinking back to those kids.

One episode was especially moving to me. The young women were on lockdown one evening, so I had only four young men for “choir practice.” We had just acquired a set of tone chimes, mainly for the people less interested in singing. With three-fourths of our singers in their rooms, the guys were more interested in jamming than vocalizing. It was easy enough to give them a pentatonic scale: select chimes, plus one kid playing patterns on certain notes on the lowest octave of the piano. The improvisation was good, considering the level of musicianship. But one boy, after we finished, found himself stunned. “Man,” he said, “We were good.”

Of course they were.

John Bosco, pray for them. Pray for them all.

My wife is heading to Kansas City next week by Greyhound to visit a friend and do some serious petsitting. So why is she watching Sandra Bullock driving the bus on Starz?

Could have a Baltimore Catechism question, please …

Why do we celebrate a funeral?

5. Christians celebrate the funeral rites to offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God for the gift of a life which has now been returned to God, the author of life and the hope of the just. The Mass, the memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection, is the principal celebration of the Christian funeral.

It’s the Mass. It’s Jesus Christ. There is a context: the death of one of his faithful ones. But the Paschal Mystery remains primary.

If your parish is like mine, your staff (and maybe you!) are already planning for the coming liturgical year. A late Easter (April 24!) means that Good Friday is the last day of classes here at the university. Lent begins the week before Spring Break. How’s that for the journey with Jesus into the desert?

We’ve slotted in Confirmation (pending our archbishop’s approval) for Second Sunday of Easter, mid-afternoon. (They aim for a Sunday whenever possible.) First Communion will be celebrated on its usual Saturday night–it’s our least-attended Mass–on May 14th. Anybody going with the secular calendar to schedule those sacraments during Lent (the usual April)? Personally, I’d prefer to use February rather than Lent for either, but I’m sure that would drive the DRE and YM batty. My DRE colleague Kathy and I decided to shift First Reconciliation out of Advent to mid-November. That’s a happy move, uncluttering the season before Christmas. We looked at doing a family reconciliation during Advent, but with the holy day coming on our religious ed night, we didn’t have the extra available Wednesday night. We have to balance the need for class nights with the student schedule. (They’re in finals by December 15th, and we don’t have classes for the little kids when about half our catechists have their own academic demands.

Anything strange you liturgists out there see on the horizon with this coming Easter?

Jimmy Mac sent me the program for Archbishop Gomez’s Mass of Reception. Lots of text to read while you’re waiting for Mass to begin on page 13. And it’s a typically LA start, a medley arranged by Tony Alonso: Iona’s “Come All You People,” “Alabaré,” the spiritual “Plenty Good Room,” capped off with “All Are Welcome.”

I like the Litany of Saints for the entrance. It’s the Becker setting, which I hope they adapt and don’t try to mash in three to four saints per line. The cathedral is pretty long, so I’m sure they can take their time with rolling in the clergy. The Kyrie follows in Spanish, then the Gloria in British (Peter Jones setting from the St Thomas More group). I can imagine the long-dead monarchs Philip and Elizabeth enjoying this one.

For the Liturgy of the Word, more Marty Haugen (guess) and the Rob Glover arrangement of the Honduras Alleluia. I’ll break from music to mention that the Scripture inspiring the new archbishop’s motto is in between these two.

Then some gospel after the gospel at the Rite of Reception: Leon Roberts’ setting of Psalm 118. Sung intercessions with a four-language (no Latin) refrain. (Anybody for more?) Latin plainsong makes an appearance with Duruflé’s setting of Ubi Caritas. But you get two for one at Preparation of the Gifts, as a Vietnamese song “Le Dang,” Rufino Zaragosa setting follows. Same guy composed the Eucharistic acclamations, Misa Juan Diego setting.

Agnus Dei XVIII with tropes. Yay to both. Three Communion songs: Ricky Manalo’s “Ang Katawan ni Kristo,” then “Pan de Vida,” then the lone SLJ offering, “One Bread One Body.” Then the welcomers get their first strophic hymn, Christopher Idle’s metrical version of the Te Deum set to NETTLETON. And it’s all over.

More commentary:

Long before chanters set themselves up as the opposition to us contemporary music folks, we tussled with the organ-n-hymn crowd. The OHC would’ve had their heads spinning to see so much non-hymn music. In a cathedral. For a new archbishop. What a difference a generation makes. Marty Haugen ties plainsong 2-2. So does gospel music. Lots of fresh 21st century music. Do you suppose the reform2 crew would find anything redeeming here? Do you?

The Eucharist is a sacrament of initiation, as we read yesterday. But it is also a celebration of renewal, nourishment, and strengthening–the basic and esssential spiritual maintenance of the Christian. Both aspects of the Eucharist, meal and sacrifice, are emphasized here:

3. In the eucharistic sacrifice, the Church’s celebration of Christ’s Passover from death to life, the faith of the baptized in the paschal mystery is renewed and nourished. Their union with Christ and with each other is strengthened: “Because there is one bread, we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:17)

This emphasis on unity is essential to the notion of sacramental sustenance. We eat not only to fill ourselves, but we eat from a single source, the Bread of Life, to express and strengthen our unity. We share a meal not just to engage in a community activity, but to do so in the grace of the originator of our unity. How does this figure into human mortality? We’re getting to it:

4. At the death of a Christian, whose life was begun in the waters of baptism and strengthened at the eucharistic table, the Church intercedes on behalf of the deceased because of its confident belief that death is not the end nor does it break the bonds forged in life. The Church also ministers to the sorrowing and consoles them in the funeral rites with the comforting word of God and the sacrament of the eucharist.

So the priorities are set for the funeral rites. Christ is proclaimed even in the face of death. The Christian community, called in baptism and strengthened in the Eucharist, prays for one of its own. The deceased believer remains a part of the sacramental community because Christ conquered death and transcends our biological mortality. And those who are in need, especially the friends and family left to mourn, are served by the Church’s liturgy. The funeral rites give the framework by which the Church’s ministers attend to the pastoral and spiritual needs of the grieving.

Thoughts?

Saint Paul and Sacrosanctum Concilium are the reference points for this section’s brief but effective meditation on the Paschal Mystery and the sacramental life:

The proclamation of Jesus Christ “who was put to death for our sins and raised to life to justify us” (Romans 4:25) is at the center of the Church’s life. The mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection gives power to all of the Church’s activity. “For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the sublime sacrament of the whole Church.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 5) The Church’s liturgical and sacramental life and proclamation of the Gospel make this mystery present in the life of the faithful. Through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and eucharist, men and women are initiated into this mystery. “You have been taught that when we were baptized in Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death; in other words when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life. If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we shall also imitate him in his resurrection.” (Romans 6:3-5)

A natural progression unfolds. Believers receive the proclamation of Christ in the Paschal Mystery, the essential core of Christian faith. In alluding to the “Church’s life,” we posit that all the Church’s ministries derive from this, including the lay witness in the world. The Body is described as a “sacrament,” a sign that gives grace and proclaims the presence, the real presence of the Lord. Christians are initiated into this way of life, this way of grace. And this section concludes with the preaching of the apostle from the Easter Vigil (and many funeral liturgies, too).

I don’t think the Paschal Mystery can ever be over-preached. And certainly, funerals could use more of this sort of kerygma. God indeed blesses us and does great things for us. God is also with us in times of great difficulty and suffering. And just as Jesus experienced these in his earthly life, so too the groundwork is laid for our hope in the resurrection as an experience we will “imitate” one day.

Thoughts?

I see some discussion of the Pentecost Octave on NLM. Make use of the ballot box there, if you wish. One commentator:

Out of curiosity to those who said no, what’s your reasoning for believing that it should not be, or is not even something to consider?

While I’m aware of the importance of the number 8 in the liturgical imagination, there are overarching numbers for us to put in the spotlight:

- Fifty, for the days of Easter

- Forty, for the days of Lent

- Twelve, for the days of Christmas (And yes, for the record, I’m in favor of keeping the observance of Epiphany on January 6th, for lots of reasons.)

I think that placing the commemoration of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem (and the synoptic Passion(s)) on the last Sunday of Lent works without constructing an octave. The liturgy of the following three days strikes me as an adequate observance.

I’m aware of the former unity in observing the Resurrection, Ascension, and Descent of the Holy Spirit. And partly because it’s been a liturgical rhythm for all of my Catholic life, I find that Pentecost has proper dignity as the last day of Fifty, rather than the first day of Eight.

Easter has both Eight and Fifty, and that befits the major feast of Christendom. Christmas has (or should have) Twelve–more than Eight, and also appropriate for the observance of the Nativity and Theophany.

Easter has unexplored potential in those Fifty Days, and I’m disinclined to see liturgical appendages sewn on to the concluding feasts of the Nativity and Resurrection observances. Can we just focus on Jesus Christ, and not on the number eight?

That said, if some Christians have or want to develop a devotional life for the Holy Spirit or for the Epiphany/Theophany, I don’t see a problem with taking prayer time to further extend the virtues of the season if Fifty or Twelve haven’t been enough. But a simple return to preconciliar practice for some exercise in nostalgia just doesn’t square with the greater values preached in the Catholic liturgy.