Monastery of the Holy Cross

This is the name of a very short book by Jacques and Raissa Maritain, and reading it provoked my brief flight into scholasticism yesterday.  The basic lesson of Liturgy and Contemplation is summed up at the very outset, where they write, “it would be as absurd to wish to sacrifice contemplation to liturgy as to wish to sacrifice liturgy to contemplation….the liturgy itself asks that the soul tend to contemplation.”

Much of what remains of the Liturgical Movement today has tended in perhaps the opposite direction, toward an appreciation of social justice as an outgrowth of liturgical spirituality, especially in the Eucharist.  This, in itself, is not unsound.  Not infrequently, however, the practical effect of this emphasis is precisely a ’sacrifice’ of the contemplative pull of the liturgy.  This is also not necessarily the result of bad faith, but does perhaps betray a failure in catechesis and preaching.  Dom Virgel Michel, OSB, the great liturgical pioneer in the United States whose insight into the connection of Eucharist and social justice, surely meant for a greater balance.  It is possible that he would have moved toward a greater emphasis on contemplation had he lived longer (he died in 1938 at the age of 48).

The goal of the Christian life is union with God.  The soul that is united to God can do infinitely more for the Church and the world than the soul that is divided.  And so it is that contemplation, the effort to unite our souls to God, our greatest Good, is the highest action in our lives.  This can be accomplished in as many ways as the Holy Spirit sees fit, but it surely requires at least moments of interior concentration and reflection.  The liturgy, by providing a full catechesis–in its presentation of God’s Word, in the meditation on the Life of Christ in the Feasts of the year, in meditation on the lives of the saints who achieved union with Christ on other feast days, and finally in contact with Christ Himself in the Blessed Sacrament–is a primary catalyst in our cultivation of a contemplative life.  This is for all Christians, not merely monks, though we obviously live it in an intense manner in the enclosure.

With this in mind, I would like to make an observation on the goal of ‘full and active participation’ in the liturgy.  The Maritains make the observation that ‘from a philosophical standpoint, listening is as much an action as speaking.’  Indeed, listening is the primary activity of a contemplative.  I often point out to the brothers and to guests that Gregorian chant itself a form of listening, especially once we become familiar with the melodies, since chant is not only God’s Word, but is God’s Word interpreted by the Tradition.  In any case, what is normally meant today by full and active participation is keeping people busy at the liturgy, which perhaps inhibits real listening and contemplation.  I know from many years singing in choirs and playing the organ, that the Church musician must make certain sacrifices, and cannot pay attention at certain times during the liturgy as books are being shuffled about, pages turned, cues given, stops pulled, and so on.  What happens when we try to ‘involve’ everyone is that we force everyone to give up on trying to listen, or at least this is what we seem to be aiming at.  Now if the goal is ultimately an interior adhesion to God, even overemphasis on sound can inhibit listening.  We can become saturated with words, and in some cases we might do just as well to minimize the words so that the significance of the whole of the liturgy can be more easily absorbed by the assembly.

For example, in the days before wireless microphones and altars turned versus populum, we can be certain that few people could hear the Eucharistic Prayer even at low Mass.  Today, of course, it is de rigeur that every word spoken by the priest (in some cases, even those specified to be done ‘inaudibly’) must be heard by everybody.  But I wonder; after a few weeks, even a convert to Catholicism would be able to memorize the outlines of the Eucharistic Prayer, especially if the crucial moments in it were taught in catechism.  More important than the specific words, however, is the action of the Holy Spirit in transforming the gifts into the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.  And how many of us really appropriate that reality as we should?