Day 165: Summary of Liturgical Diversity (1204-1209)

• It’s Day 165!!

• LITURGY AND CULTURE

• Culture is taken into account whenever the Church encounters it

• The Church incorporates culture in a unique way when it comes to celebrating the liturgy

• Whenever that happens, the Church takes great care to make sure there are not any corruptions to the liturgy

• There is a diversity

• BUT…

• The diversity is not random

• There is variety

• BUT…

• The variety must have a very clear unity as well

• The Church doesn’t accept every single thing when it comes to culture

• There are many things that can be baptized in a culture

• There are many things in a culture that can’t be brought into the tradition of the Church

• So let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for bringing us to this day. We ask you to please enlighten our minds. Open our hearts so that we can appreciate the variety that you have given to us. And that we can participate in the unity of the Church that you have given to us through your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• We are talking about the diversity of Liturgical rites

• They arose by the very reason of the Church’s mission

• The mission of the Church was to ENGAGE EVERY PEOPLES

• The mission of the Church was to GO TO ALL NATIONS

• There is no culture that does not deserve to know the Good News of Jesus Christ

• Because the Church has this mission, the Church has gone to ALL THE WORLD proclaiming the Good News

• When the Church has encountered all of the world, it brings that seed and gift of the Sacraments and the liturgy and Heaven and Earth kissing and time and Eternity touching and the Paschal mystery and etc. (Fr. Mike loves his run-on sentences and dangling participles 😉)

• Some of the cultural images are brought into that liturgy and some of the liturgy goes into the culture

• Paragraph 1204 says, “...it must be proclaimed, celebrated, and lived in all cultures in such a way that they themselves are not abolished by it, but redeemed and fulfilled…”

• There are people in the West who say things about the Christmas tree and that is a pagan symbol

• Because when the Church encountered Germanic peoples they had this tradition of bringing evergreen trees into their homes etc. etc. (I’ll just let Fr. Mike tell the story)

• Now we have Christmas trees and that must be wrong because it was originally a pagan thing

• The Church baptized that because the people were pagan once and now they are brought into the Church

• There are some aspects of culture that are brought in and made signs of Christianity because we have adopted them in a way

• Paragraph 1206 says, “Cultural adaptation also requires a conversion of heart and even, where necessary, a breaking with ancestral customs incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

• There are some things that are incompatible with the Catholic faith

• Sure we have Christmas Trees because there is life even in the midst of death

• There is light in the darkness of winter

• This can be pretty easily translated into the Christian message

• BUT…

• There are some aspects that cannot be compatible

• There are places where voodoo is a thing 

• There is this strange integration of the message of Christianity and the animist religions of those local places

• The Church has to say that it is not legitimate

• Same thing with places like South America and Central America where they wear a rosary or Crucifix alongside pagan images

• They are incorporating these together that is not compatible with the Catholic faith

• The Church gets to tell us what is not compatible with the Catholic faith

• Paragraph 1209 says, “The criterion that assures unity amid the diversity of liturgical traditions is fidelity to apostolic Tradition…”

• It is not based on someone’s taste

• That is not the criterion

• The criterion is whether it is faithful to the apostolic Tradition

• If not, it cannot be brought in and incorporated into the Catholic faith

• There are some things that can be changed when it comes to the liturgy

• Remember the different rites?

• Fr. Mike is listing them now so pay attention 😉

• AND YET…

• Paragraph 1205 says, “‘In the liturgy, above all that of the sacraments, there is an immutable part, a part that is divinely instituted and of which the Church is the guardian, and parts that can be changed, which the Church has the power and on occasion also the duty to adapt to the cultures of recently evangelized peoples.’”

• Hopefully that makes sense

• Paragraph 1207 says, “Moreover, the liturgy itself generates cultures and shapes them.”

• This is worth praying about

• Culture comes from the word “cult”

• We have culture that arises out of religion

• How we worship God is meant to impact and shape and generate culture

• This has happened in the past

• We have CHRISTENDOM that existed for many many years

• This was the Church that had the liturgy the way the Church prayed, the way the Church invited people to live that shaped the culture

• We are encouraged to let that happen again

• We live in a culture that is POST-CHRISTIAN

• AND YET…

• We have an injunction to bring the Gospel to all nations and to our particular culture and let that Gospel, let the way we pray, and let the way we live generate and shape the culture in which we find ourselves

• That is the command from Jesus Christ given to all of us

• It happens through evangelization, proclamation of the Gospel, and going out to all the world

• Culture is also shaped by THE WAY WE PRAY

• We have to be so faithful to the rite and the tradition that we have been given by the Church

• When we are faithful to that and do it in the most beautiful and powerful way for God’s sake and for the People of God’s sake it actually does generate culture

• It does actually shape culture

• We are called to pray as best we can

• Not only go out and share the Gospel

• But also the way in which we pray and praise the Lord and give God glory and pray for the sanctification and salvation of the world will also have the ability to generate and shape the culture around us

• It takes time though and we need to be patient

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!