Just a Little More on Liturgy

Just a few more points from Brother Bill's presentations on Eucharist that put me in thoughtful places, here concerning beauty.

1. In the Franciscan tradition, beauty is a fundamental way of seeing the divine in our life. Without prejudice to the philosophical claims of traditional theism that God is one, all good, all powerful, and all knowing, we can say that God is Beauty, the beauty beyond every lovely and beautiful thing. The act of creation is an act of divine beauty, and everything that is created participates in the beauty of God.

2. Communion with God is intimate friendship in the beauty and love of God. The beautiful is a conduit to the holy because what is beautiful resonates with the harmony of God. As we recognize the beautiful in every person and respond to it in our life with love, we become holy. And we affirm everything that lives as holy, for what we behold as beautiful, we also reverence. This speaks to the quality of delight, that is, the divine pleasure in creation, of who we are and who we are becoming.

3. It is becoming for our liturgies, especially our celebration of Eucharist, to be beautiful, if we wish for the faithful in Christ to worship with reverence and live sacramental lives. If the people of God are to acknowledge the holy and make holy in themselves and their world, we must begin to respect the beauty of holiness abiding already in them.

4. What is needed in the liturgy of the Eucharist is a heightened sense of the real presence of Jesus Christ, not only in the bread and wine, but also and especially in the Word of God, the ministers, and the rest of the assembly! Rather than apologetics for the mystery of Christ's substance under the accidents of bread and wine, we need an unapologetic affirmation of the presence of God's beautiful Jesus in the prayer, speech, and song of the people; the prophetic proclamation of the Word; and the healing pastoral touch of the ministers who serve humbly. When every person baptized into the body of Christ is fully, consciously, and actively present through, in, and with Christ at the celebration of Eucharist, then they can receive the ultimate presence of God in Jesus' simple gifts of bread and wine.

After this we learned about liturgical laws regulating the celebration of Eucharist, and we examined the new English translation of the Roman Missal, which contains all the prayers for Mass for the church's seasons and special occasions. We also beheld the beauty of the liturgy in a special Mass through which Brother Bill illuminated the origin and significance of the elements of divine worship. I will not relate any more of what we heard and discussed, interesting though it is, because I think beauty is the right note on which to end.

Now, off to meditation and evening prayer.