Ongoing Renewal in Our Liturgies

Ongoing Renewal in Our Liturgies

 

Since I learned that Cardinal Seán was assigning Fr. Patrick Chibuko to our collaborative parishes, I have been looking forward to more than just having another priest around to share the ministry duties! As a professor emeritus of the Sacred Liturgy, Father Patrick can help our liturgical ministers, the Sunday Experience Team, and all of us to continue to learn and grow in our celebration of the Mass and other liturgical rites. Even just his fresh perspective as a new member of the PWC community (a JJC, as he calls himself - “Johnny Just Come”!) can help us to see what I do not notice after being here for ten years, but what newcomers to our parish might perceive right away.

 

Turning back to the Church’s liturgy itself, Fr. Patrick and I have started looking at all the liturgical ministries (both lay and ordained) in our parishes, making sure that we are allocating each duty to the most appropriate person considering what is proper to each of our roles. When appropriate, I will initiate adjustments gradually - mostly very subtle ones.

 

One of the initial adjustments you may have noticed involves who goes to the Tabernacle during the Communion Rite of the Mass. Typically this is part of the Deacon’s role, but in the absence of a Deacon, this will be done by one of the Extraordinary Ministers of Communion. I understand how some people have found this adjustment a bit distracting, or confusing as to why this happened. Most of us have been trained from our youth to revere the tabernacle as a most sacred place in a Catholic church or chapel, and rightly so.

 

The Gospel reading at daily Mass last Monday (Matt. 23:13-22), however, provides a helpful reminder. From time to time, even faithful religious people and leaders can get too focused on the things that are not the most important. Here, Matthew presents Jesus criticizing the religious authorities for making the temple less important than the gold it contains, and for making the altar less important than the gifts placed upon it. The Lord is calling us to keep our religious priorities straight; to focus on what is most important and holy, without neglecting the lesser things.

 

So with regard to approaching and opening the tabernacle, the more important thing here is not the tabernacle, but the Eucharist contained within it - the Body of Christ itself is what makes the tabernacle holy! Because our Extraordinary Ministers of Communion already handle the most sacred thing in the liturgy, the very Body and Blood of Christ, it is of course appropriate for them to access the tabernacle. The purpose behind this adjustment in our practice is to allow the presiding priest to be at the focal point for the congregation: at the altar. The Eucharist that we take from and return to the tabernacle is not meant to be the focus during the Mass; rather it is the Eucharistic celebration in which we all are actively taking part, at the altar. Having another minister cover part of the deacon’s role can seem distracting at first, while we get used to something different. In the long run, it is meant to help us to focus: on the altar and the gifts that are present on the altar, and at that moment, the ritual breaking of the bread which has become the Body of Christ.