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| Bro Thierry's challenge to the conference gathering |
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In the context of our reflection on the Eucharist, the duty now falls on me to challenge you. In the Rule of St Benedict there is a chapter that deals with the case of a foreign monk who asks to enter into the community. St Benedict envisages two situations: - Firstly, "if (the foreign monk) disturbs the monastery by superfluous demand (…), if he is found exacting or prone to vice, not only should he be denied membership in the community, but he should even be politely requested to leave." - But there is a second situation: "if he censures or points out anything reasonably and with the humility of charity, let the Abbot consider whether perhaps it was for that very purpose that the Lord sent him." I hope, after discernment, that I will fall into the second category. Anyway, be assured that I will try to speak with "the humility of charity". I would like to speak to you now about the way we celebrate the Eucharist. It will not be a liturgical study. From my personal journey and relationship with the Eucharist and from my experience of Irish celebrations, I would like to help you to reflect on the way you celebrate the Eucharist in practice and its implications for the Church. Maybe it is important to say again that when we speak of Eucharistic spirituality, we should think first of the celebration of the Eucharist, not of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I have nothing against Adoration but the Eucharist is first a mystery of communion not of adoration. Jesus said, "Take and eat, take and drink" not "Take and look". The natural and congenial place of a reflection on the Eucharist begins first in the context of a celebration of the people of God who enter into a deep communion with the Risen Lord in eating and drinking His Body and Blood. I will deal with only three aspects: 1) The Eucharist is about love 2) The Eucharist is food for the priest and the faithful 3) The Eucharist builds up the community 1) The Eucharist is about love … And so it is also about beauty. When we meet somebody we love there is always a search for beauty, a desire to honour the meeting in creating a beautiful atmosphere. It is not just a question of the aesthetic, but the desire to respect the relationship, the love that is at stake. Love and beauty need signs and symbols in order to express themselves adequately. Signs and symbols "do not exercise merely a teaching function. They also touch and move a person to conversion of heart". Our faith is nourished by the beauty and by the richness of the symbols of the liturgy. "Celebrations which are weak, slovenly, hasty, verbose, unprepared, or indifferent will weaken the faith of all present". Good celebrations foster and nourish faith; poor celebrations weaken and impoverish our faith. If we want to re-evangelize our people, there is no better place than the celebration of the sacraments and of the Eucharist in particular in order to transmit our faith. There is something that is particularly pertinent to Ireland: If the Eucharistic celebration is so important, why do you celebrate it so quickly? If the celebration expresses a loving relationship between God and his people, if it is a meeting of love, how can you explain to me that it has to be so short? When our community arrived in the convent of the OLA sisters, at the beginning we shared our meals with the old chaplain of the Sisters, Fr Malachy Toner, a Columban Father from Magherafelt. After a few weeks, he was a bit puzzled by the French monks. One of his great questions was: "I do not understand these French monks, they are so slow when they celebrate the Eucharist and so quick when they eat their meals!" We are making efforts to slow down in the refectory! To celebrate a Sunday Eucharist in 30 minutes is a scandal… and unfortunately it happens. The love that is at the heart of the celebration requires more than that. I would not like to be trivial but how would you describe a relationship between two human beings that is not marked by time and beauty? When we celebrate the Eucharist in 30 minutes, the message we send to our people is that what we are doing is not essential, vital for their lives. If we love the Eucharist, and if it is a love that helps us to grow, we must learn to celebrate it with beauty and with time. 2) The celebration of the Eucharist is food for the priest and the faithful… My question is simple: Are our celebrations a kind of spiritual fast food? And I do not think only of the time factor. I would like to insist now on the place and the role of the homily. On two different occasions recently I met with two middle-aged priests: one is a curate in the South and the other is a missionary in Africa. The first one explained to me that the first thing he does when he has to write a sermon is to take Archbishop Cassidy's books of homilies. The other one came to us for a time of retreat and one day he asked me if we could lend him the Marriage Homilies edited by Liam Swords. I have no opinion on the quality of the books mentioned, but in both cases I was a bit surprised. Maybe it is useful here to quote the teaching of Vatican II. We read in Sacrosanctum Concilium: "By means of the homily, the mysteries of the faith and the guiding principles of the Christian life are expounded from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year." The 2002 General Introduction of the Roman Missal adds some important directions: "The homily is part of the liturgy and is strongly recommended, for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture (…) and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners." Our liturgy is completely sacramental, and so, the homily, as part of the liturgy, is sacramental. It is not simply an accessory or a digression, nor simply an explanation of the readings. The liturgy of the Word, the homily and the Sacrament converge to accomplish among us the total event of our redemption. I do not want to be judgemental, but what worries me in the case of the two priests I met is that they want to write a sermon, but they do not realise that if they want to feed the faithful they have first to be fed themselves. Like the disciples in the Gospel story of Emmaus, they have to first experience in their lives the living power of the Scriptures, so that, like the Risen Jesus, we may share it with others and kindle a fire in the hearts of our listeners. The motto of the Venerable John Henry Newman should be the motto of all preachers: "Cor ad Cor Loquitur" (the heart speaks to the heart). A preacher should break the bread of God's written word for the assembly so that those present can be nourished by it. It is not an academic lecture containing absolute truth as perceived by the homilist, but a humble sharing of God's graces and insights for the building up of God's priestly people. May St Bernard inspire us, he who said: "When I preach my purpose is not so much to explain words as to move hearts." Two years ago, I was asked to prepare two young French-speaking teenagers living here in Ireland for their confirmation. Each week we were preparing the Sunday readings and I was asking them what they remembered from the previous Sunday homily. They nearly always mentioned the "wee funny story" told by the priest or what was said about football. I am sure that the two young men were not fully attentive. I am sure that the priests did more than tell a story and did not speak only about sport, but nevertheless there is a problem! Another example: four years ago I took part in a Sunday Eucharist in a parish, and I was amazed at the shortness of the sermon and the amount of time which was given to the reading of the list of the deceased members of the parish community and of the parish bulletin. We can but ask: "what is essential in the celebration?" If the celebration of the Eucharist is essential to the life of the Church, how can you explain such a disdain for preaching? Not to mention the priests who, for many reasons (a football match or family gatherings), do not even preach on Ordinary Sundays, on Holy Thursday, or on Christmas or Easter day! To preach requires time, dedication, patience and humility. Humility because rare among us are those who are able to preach brilliantly and with insight all the time. That's not what matters; the important thing is to nourish our faith and the faith of our people… 3) The Eucharist builds up the Community The celebration of the Eucharist is the celebration of the whole body of Christ. All the members participate in it, and are called to be actively present to it, according to one's order or office in the Church. There is nothing new in what I have just said but do we celebrate the Eucharist in accord with what we profess? I would like to stress just one point: Three weeks ago I was present at a Eucharistic celebration organised by Youth 2000. Fifteen young adults were gathered for a retreat and they asked a Dublin priest to preside and preach at the celebration. What struck me during the celebration was that the young people were unable to enter into dialogue with the priest: the responses were said quickly, muttered even before the priest had finished saying the words. It was as if each person was alone in his corner, the priest behind the altar and the faithful in the nave. Priests themselves can be terrible offenders here as participation in large gatherings of priests has shown me, or when a group of priests join us in the Monastery for the liturgy. In the area where we live there is a church where it is well known that the people never answer the priest's greetings and prayers. I say nothing about so many priests who say the response at the end of the sign of the Cross or in conclusion to the prayer they have just said. What does that mean? How can we build up a community if we do not celebrate together? The communal meaning and power of the celebration is lost if each participant goes his or her own way, without any sense of journeying with brothers and sisters. In the introduction of the pastoral guide entitled Celebrating the Mass, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales declare very clearly: "It is hardly needs saying but the way in which we celebrate the Eucharist together is clearly of vital importance to the building up of the local Church." The dialogues in the celebration are essential, as The General Instruction of the Roman Missal declares "the acclamations and the responses of the faithful to the priest's greetings and prayers constitute that level of active participation that the gathered faithful are to contribute in every form of the Mass, so that the action of the entire community may be clearly expressed and fostered." If we desire our celebrations to foster the faith, the ecclesial faith of our people, we must learn to proclaim and celebrate our faith together. In a society that is more and more dechristianised, where people and youth in particular have such difficulty in professing their faith, it is vital to develop liturgies that express the community, ecclesial aspect of our faith. Young people who go to Cologne, to Taizé or elsewhere always come back saying, "It was good to realise that we are not alone as Christians". Too often the impression is that our celebrations are just for the individual benefit of each participant, not for the good of the whole community. In conclusion, I want to say three things: – Do not believe that the celebration of the Eucharist in Holy Cross Monastery is perfect! After 17 years of monastic life, I know that it is difficult to change habits, and it is strange but it seems always easier to acquire a bad habit than a good one! I know we sometimes satisfy ourselves quickly with what is second best instead of accepting the challenge to make efforts and persevere in them. All that I have highlighted this morning – or perhaps much worse! – may be happening in our community… but I am sorry today it is your day! – When I arrived in Ireland, I was very impressed by the number of people who participate in the Sunday Eucharist, and by the fact that the churches here are rarely empty; there are always people praying in them. It is so different from the French situation! I admire the faith of the Irish people, the fact that they believe in the power of prayer. I am struck and indeed overcome by the way in which they welcomed us and by their generosity towards us. All this confirmed me in my desire to live and to die here, spending my life in prayer and in service for the Church, her unity and her growth, in Northern Ireland. – As the Church goes through a time of crisis, we could call it a time of purification, of growth, it is important to be challenged and to change. It is important to renew what is essential for our faith, and the participation in the celebration of the Eucharist "is central and crucial to our Catholic identity." Today for many people, young and less young, the first problem is not God or Christ, it is the Church, the institution, the ministers. We see many people coming to our Monastery who are ready to pray to God, to serve their brothers and sisters in humanitarian activities but who do not want to be involved in the life of a parish community. Most of them develop their own spirituality, their personal relationship with a kind of supreme being, not to mention all those who turn their backs on Christianity for Buddhism or Asian spirituality. In all these journeys the first thing that is rejected is the communal aspect of our faith. As the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales write: "For many a discernible gulf has opened up between the spiritual journey of the individual and the communal, liturgical acts of worship." The boring aspect of our celebrations is certainly not very attractive and stimulating for many people. People long for more; they yearn for food. Will we be able to give them something, to hand them what we receive from our loving Father? They will come to us only if they see us living what we profess, celebrating what we believe. Let me conclude once again by quoting the very interesting introduction to the pastoral guide of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales: "Active participation in the Eucharist is a transforming experience. In our prayers, and that of the whole Church, we seek the transformation not only of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, but pray that the same Spirit will transform us into the Body of Christ. Authentic Catholic spirituality is centred on communal celebration of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ so that we may go into the world to live that mystery, refreshed and restored as agents of God's love." |
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