{This is the last post in this series. You can start here because all the previous posts are linked in this one. At the bottom you will find a link for the last post of my series on Romano Guardini's book of the same name, from which Cardinal Ratzinger got his inspiration. Reading these two books together will greatly enhance your understanding of worship and the liturgy!}
{Book Club: The Spirit of the Liturgy}
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- I hope you will read along in this book club (or just read my posts, that’s okay): Joseph Ratzinger’s The Spirit of the Liturgy.
- (When you buy something via our Amazon affiliate link, a little cash rolls our way… just a little. Thanks!)
- I’ll post on Fridays, although for this longer book, perhaps not every Friday. I’ll give you your homework, I’ll talk about what we read, we’ll discuss in the comments. Even if you read later, the comments will still be open.
Previously:
Introduction to the reading: Joseph Ratzinger’s The Spirit of the Liturgy: A Book Club for Easter and Beyond
Nature or history in worship? Or both?
The Relationship of the Liturgy to Time and Space: preliminary questions
The Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament
Unspontaneity, The Essence of Rite
Homework: We're at the end! Rather than homework, a resolution, perhaps: Think and pray about how these amazing insights can be implemented in your life and shared with others. We need a renewal in how our faith is expressed, because we are made for worship! What are the two great commandments?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)
Chapter Two, Part IV: The Body and the Liturgy
The coming of Christ as true God and true Man opened up a new revelation in the meaning of worship. The whole theme of Joseph Ratzinger's The Spirit of the Liturgy is to demonstrate how worship goes from “representative” to “actual.”
There is only one way for this to happen, that God Himself must come to be the sacrifice, and to unite himself to us so that we too are sacrifice — where only a Divine sacrifice is fitting. He became man that we might become divine.
Perhaps you've heard of “active participation” or even “actual participation” in worship. Those terms have become almost weaponized; certainly they are misunderstood. What I love about this chapter is the engagement with every detail of participation. We maybe expected (especially from an intellect of this stature) something lofty and abstract. Instead, we got a minute inquiry (and examination of conscience) into every posture and gesture and substance in its relation to the liturgy.
For we have a body.
We are embodied.
Jesus himself had a body. Among other things, the particularity of the account of his infancy is meant to convince us of the intentionality of his body. Any other, rather more sloppy, deity would have had Jesus emerge from the Jordan, say, as a strong young man. In some ways, more convincing if you are looking to be impressed. But at least once a year we are forced to contemplate our God as a newborn, with all his humanity very much in evidence. (Think about the medieval propensity to show his little infant genitals. He. was. a. man. Think of how his little body is depicted on a slab of marble: he is God, sacrificed for us.)
The burnt offerings, the calves and sheep of ancient worship, are gone. God acted in time, and now we respond. We take part in the action — actual participation.
There is only one action, which is at the same time his and ours — ours because we have become “one body and one spirit” with him. The uniqueness of the Eucharistic liturgy lies precisely in the fact that God himself is acting and that we are drawn into that action of God. Everything else is, therefore, secondary… Doing really must stop when we come to the heart of the matter…
… Anyone who grasps this will easily see that it is not now a matter of looking at or toward the priest, but of looking together toward the Lord and going out to meet him. (P. 174)
In this passage, Ratzinger is trying mightily to lift us out of the trap of theatricality in worship. Instead of “acting like” we must learn to “act.” Squint your eyes at what you do in church and see if it passes this test.
And we act, of necessity, with our body, which is a temple! “In service for the transformation of the world…” (P. 175)
So our gestures must be trained.
We must learn what the gestures of liturgy are and how to make them. We must. Only with ritual (unspontaneous, formal order, received as a gift from Scripture and history) will we be able to internalize the external meaning of worship.
We are going to take a quick tour of the body, a “shorter” Ratzinger, with stops along the way to bring out the most important points. Do, do, do read this chapter if you don't read any other. It will be of immeasurable help in teaching the children (and learning, ourselves) to pray.
The sign of the cross.
Do you need material for your prayer? Take this one section with you the next time you sit down to have a conversation with God. Make the sign of the cross and then read this amazing passage, an entire catechesis! about how fundamental and meaningful this simple gesture truly is.
It is a seal, “visible and public.” A confession of faith, in every article of faith: for the one who is crucified on the cross is the one who became Incarnate and whose Resurrection redeems. It protects, “a shield that will guard us in all the distress of daily life.” It signifies the Trinity. It reminds us of our baptism, when we died with Christ into rebirth, and “he has a name.”
“In the sign of the Cross… the whole essence of Christianity is summed up.” Yet, the roots of this sign are in Judaism, as “a widespread sacred sign… of faith in the God of Israel.”
It was also found in Greek culture in “the remarkable idea of a cross inscribed upon the cosmos” as we read in Plato's Timaeus. The stars themselves proclaim the Cross, “the greatest symbol of the lordship of the Logos, without which nothing in creation holds together…. The Cross of Golgotha is foreshadowed in the structure of the universe itself.”
Once again we find the theme: “History and cosmos belong together.” This faith is not inside our heads only. It exists.
Do not miss the moving ending of this section, in which Cardinal Ratzinger remembers the sign of the Cross his parents made on his forehead when he was young, “… like an escort… made visible the prayer of our parents… a challenge… not to go outside the sphere of this blessing… a perfect expression of the common priesthood of the baptized.”
Posture and Gesture.
Kneeling. To kneel in worship is utterly Scriptural, and this whole chapter is a long excursion into Biblical examples. It “does not come from any culture” but from “knowledge of God.” According to the Desert Fathers, the Devil has no knees! The word for “worship” and for “kneeling” are the same in key passages of Scripture; only the evil one cannot bend the knee.
Jesus himself prayed on his knees at that moment when he is allowing us to see that he unites his will to the Father's.
Like Prostration (and later in the chapter, bowing and striking the breast), kneeling expresses incapacity, humility, supplication.
The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is precisely that of worship. Without the worship, the bodily gesture would be meaningless, while the spiritual act must of its very nature, because of the psychosomatic unity of man, express itself in the bodily gesture…
… when someone tries to take worship back into the purely spiritual realm and refuses to give it embodied form, the act of worship evaporates, for what is purely spiritual is inappropriate to the nature of man. (P. 190-191)
Standing and sitting. These postures are appropriate when a person is listening and reflecting. Standing expresses readiness to go, which, in addition to respect, is why Catholics always stand at the Gospel reading.
Dancing.
It is totally absurd to try to make the liturgy “attractive” by introducing dancing pantomimes”… which frequently… end with applause. Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. (P. 198)
I wish I could repeat that quote slowly, with attention to every phrase!
(As an admittedly not very important member of an excellent choir, it makes me die inside when the celebrant calls for applause “for the beautiful music.” Not one person in the choir sings for applause! How cringe-making! How terrible to think that we want to be thanked or recognized! Stop!)
Dance brings up the question of “inculturation” which Ratzinger will return to. But noteworthy is the immediate consideration that local customs are by definition less important than what unites. Will they actually divide? Yet, so often these customs, if truly from the heart of the people, are actually quite fitting in the celebration that occurs after the liturgy, during the celebration that arises from it.
The main worry about inculturation is precisely whether it expresses the culture and has arisen organically from it, or whether it's imposed by “professionals” (as Ratzinger so rightly points out in the case of dance, and I would add, most pointedly in “folk” music). This imposition becomes an insult!
Authentic cultural expression unfolds and “leads to artistic work that interprets the world anew in the light of God.” It is “the inner opening up of a man to his possibilities.” (P. 201)
Popular piety is the soil without which the liturgy cannot thrive. Unfortunately… it has frequently been held in contempt…. Tried and tested elements of popular piety may pass over, then, into liturgical celebration, without officious and hasty fabrication, by a patient process of lengthy growth. (P. 202)
The human voice.
Among many beautiful points is the discussion of that long-neglected and rare gift, silence.
… silence cannot be simply “made”, organized as if it were one activity among many. It is not accident that… people are seeking techniques of meditation, a spirituality for emptying the mind. One of man's deepest needs is… manifestly not being met in our present form of the liturgy…
… The Consecration [in the liturgy, when the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ] is the moment of God's great actio in the world for us. It draws our eyes and hearts on high. For a moment the world is silent, everything is silent, and in that silence we touch the eternal — for one beat of the heart we step out of time into God's being-with-us. (P. 212)
Vestments.
Vestments in liturgy have to do with “putting on Christ” and being made new. In Scripture we read, in the story of the Prodigal Son, that “the father gives this instruction: “Bring quickly the best robe… ” (Luke 15:22)… in reading the account… the Fathers heard the account of Adam's fall, the fall of man (cf. Gen 2:7), and interpreted Jesus' parable as a message about the return home and reconciliation of mankind as a whole.”
Matter.
This section goes beyond the body to actual stuff out there in the world. Water, wine, bread, oil. Water is universal to all, but the other three? Are they not imposed by the Mediterranean culture onto the others?
This is the same issue that we encountered when we were discussing the inversion of the cosmic symbolism of the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere. The answer we gave there applies again here: in the interplay of culture and history, history has priority. God has acted in history and, through history, given the gifts of the earth their significance… Incarnation does not mean doing as we please. On the contrary it binds us to the history of a particular time. (P. 224)
Does this binding limit us? No! It frees us! We “emerge from the… vagueness of mythology.”
It is with this particular face, with this particular human form, that Christ comes to us, and precisely does he make us brethren beyond all boundaries. Precisely thus do we recognize him: “it is the Lord” (Jn. 21:7). (P. 224)
What a fitting way to end the book! I loved it! Did you?
Questions? Comments? I’d love to hear from you!
(Emphases added in quotes are mine.)
Click here to see our previous discussion of Romano Guardini’s The Spirit of the Liturgy, which you can read free, online. You can also purchase it here, although be warned, this edition does not have the footnotes, which stinks.
Lisa G. says
I always was puzzled by Jesus’ remark that on his two great commandments hang all the law and the prophets. That didn’t sound right to me – prophets are people. What did he mean? Until a few years ago when I acquired some Jewish friends and found out that the books of the Old Testament are in three groups: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Well! Now I get it!
Anyway, I’ve been waiting for your posts, and then doing my reading homework, so I’m just starting to read. I confess that some of it is hard to get my mind around, such as (on page 172), “the Word, summing up our existence”. I realize that to understand I don’t need to get every word, but I just want to say that kind of made my mind feel mushy.
Leila says
Thank you, Lisa!
My mind has turned to mush many a time on this journey 🙂
So, I think that here on p. 172, in this context, Ratzinger is trying once again to express that “bridge” that Jesus IS, as sacrifice, and why and how worshiping Him in the liturgy is effective and willed by Him. He is the Word. But this Word is not abstract — it’s not the Greek concept of Logos, immaterial, alone, although it fulfills it. He became man.
So worship, which was propitiatory (the calves and the sheep) “which ultimately satisfy no one, are now abolished.”
Ratzinger repeatedly uses this word “draw.” He’s saying that the Word sums up our existence in that God becomes man. Our existence as human beings finds its truest expression in Him, is defined by Him, the “new Adam” — new man, and this manhood is utterly united in Him to His divinity (the hypostatic union — no conditioning of either!).
The divinity is the worthy sacrifice (“worthy is the Lamb” — THIS lamb, not the lambs of the old sacrifice). His divinity, by means of His humanity, “draws” our humanity into the life of the Trinity.
It’s rather breathtaking when you start believing what all the Church fathers taught, that man is able to become divine through God the Son, who became man. Ours is not a paltry destiny, despite all appearances!
Mrs. B. says
Like Lisa, I don’t pretend I understood every line of this book… Leila, you have done us all a great favor not only by breaking the book down in pieces, which is a great help with an intimidating book, but by highlighting the main ideas, and how they relate to each other, and by reflecting on their very practical importance in our lives. Working through it this way, we can say we understood, if not every line and phrase, at least the spirit of The Spirit of the Liturgy! (Though I know these days we’re all quite wary of “the spirit of” anything 😉 )
Jokes aside, it was wonderful of Ratzinger to conclude with such a practical chapter: he has explained the roots, the origins, the meaning behind all those things we tend to do in autopilot when we enter a church, so now he reminds us to be intentional about them, because they matter. Who can do the Sign of the Cross carelessly after having read this book? Who will not cringe now at the corny greetings some priests are so fond of? The real gift of this book goes beyond all the knowledge acquired in reading it: it resides in a new awareness, so that Mass, and our taking part in it, will never be the same.
The first thing that struck me when I happened upon a Mass prayed in the old rite (the TLM, or whatever one wants to call it) was the silence. The first few times I wasn’t even there for the Mass: we would go to the main Sunday Mass in our parish, but inevitably by the end of it my then-newborn was dreadfully hungry, so I would “hide” in the cry room and nurse him, and watch the beginning of the next Mass, which was a TLM. That silence was something different and new: not a time of waiting between two things, but a thing in itself, the possibility of recollection, of deeply peaceful prayer. It was wonderful and addictive. Another very striking thing was the wealth of gestures: for instance, the priest and servers would bow their heads every time the name of Jesus was mentioned: it’s hard to forget such a thing, once you’ve seen it done.
Anyway, thank you again, Leila – one of the reasons why I love your blog so much is that here one can find both Ratzinger and spray-painting tips, and you make it all fit so nicely 🙂
Leila says
Thank you, Mrs. B. I am your humble servant. Sometimes I wonder if the spray-painting and liturgy-talking end up being coherent, but then I just decide it’s my blog and I can talk about what I want to! LOL
Thank you for the thoughts about silence. We need silence. My hope is that readers will be filled with longing to know more!
Anel says
Leila I didn’t read the book and some of it was a bit beyond me (mushy head syndrome) buy I read all your posts and it was so insightful. Thank you – I never would have otherwise been in contact with such a book. Mysterious ways..
Theresa Anne says
I just wanted to say a quick thank you for your perseverance in this book study/discussion. I am guessing that I am not the only one out here that has been silently reading along and soaking it all in. Your notes have been most helpful and your encouragement along the way very much appreciated. May God bless you for helping so many of us out here to dig deeper and grow in our knowledge and understanding of our beautiful Catholic faith!
Lydia says
I revisited these posts because a book club I belong to is reading this book this month. It’s hard to digest a book like this in a month, but reading your posts helped especially when I’d get stuck in some of the more philosophical chapters. Thanks.