Regulation of the Liturgy

In a well-known text of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (no. 10), Vatican II explains the special place of the Eucharist in the life of the Church:

The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the fount from which all her power flows. For the goal of apostolic endeavor is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the Sacrifice and to eat the Lord’s Supper.

…The renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and mankind draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them afire. From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as from a fountain, grace is channeled to us; and the sanctification of man in Jesus Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward their goal, are most powerfully achieved.

Some strongly object to the conciliar text just cited. Some see it as evidence of a major problem facing the Church today, namely the tendency to place higher priority on church ceremony than of the urgent task of creating a better world, as Gaudium et Spes says we must do. The text, some say, encourages the erroneous idea that one can be a good Christian by seeking refuge in the peaceful celebration of the liturgy, while evading one’s responsibilities toward solving the problems of modern society. Some argue that it is not the liturgy that is the summit toward which all activity of the Church should be directed, but the transformation of the world according to the values of God’s Kingdom. Apostolic works should have as their goal, not the better performance of liturgy, but the building up of God’s kingdom in the world. What is your opinion?

I will say this; our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote the following in his memoires: “I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy.” Sancrosanctum Concilium states:

“Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See, and, as laws may determine, on the bishop. Therefore no other person, not even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.”22

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching