Editorial

Has God Gone Too Far?

The Almighty uses ordinary stones, ordinary bread, and ordinary people to build his heavenly Kingdom.

Several years ago I had the unique opportunity to tour Jerusalem as a guest of the Israeli government. When we reached the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the members of my tour group (who were predominantly Jewish) selected me as the one person who should kneel, lean over the ledge, touch the rock of Golgotha, and Asay a prayer for all of us.

Needless to say it was a moving experience--to touch the very rock on which the Cross was planted! But I confess that when my hand first felt the cold stone, I had an unexpected reaction. It felt very much like any other rock.

In time I realized how silly that reaction had been. From a geological pespective, of course there is nothing special about the rock of Golgotha--any more than there is a magical formula for the air in the Holy Land, or the bread that becomes the Eucharist. The great mystery of the Incarnation is that our Lord takes the mundane--rock and wood, bread and wine, the lives of men and women--and lifts it up to the divine.

We know virtually nothing about the childhood of Jesus, but we do know that his neighbors in Nazareth considered his youth unremarkable. Was he not Athe carpenter, the son of Mary...? (Mk 6:3) If our poor human senses could not detect the glory of the young Messiah, why did I expect to read the story of salvation on the face of a stone?

The scandal of the Incarnation

Why did our Lord come among us as an Aordinary man? Why does he choose to remain hidden today, under the form of Aordinary bread? In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul addresses just that question. As a matter of fact, he points out, Jesus gave us an unmistakable indication of who he is. However:

ADidn=t Christ perhaps become >a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles?= (1 Cor 1:23) Precisely because he called God his father, because he revealed him so openly in himself, he could not but elicit the impression that it was too much... Man was no longer able to tolerate such closeness, and the protests began.

Yes, it was--it is--too much. Jesus gave us the formula for eternal life, and how did his followers react? AThis is a hard saying, and who can listen to it? (Jn 6: 60)

Much of this issue of CWR is devoted to a discussion first of our liturgy, and then of the church buildings in which it is celebrated. Is it unreasonable to suggest that many of our debates, and many of the liturgical abuses which the Catholic faithful are forced to endure, stem precisely from the lingering belief that the truth about the Eucharist is Aa hard saying? It is relatively easy to celebrate a communal meal, and much more demanding to re-present the same sacrifice which took place on that rock of Golgotha. It is relatively easy to envision a building as a series of planes and curves, and much more demanding to create a suitable dwelling-place of the Lord hidden in the tabernacle.

The Lord=s work, not our own

There is a sad tendency abroad today to believe that our Eucharistic liturgy may become efficacious because of the skill with which it is staged. Nourished by some odd tributary from the well of gnosticism, this tendency grows into a belief that our liturgy must be designed by Aexperts, who will raise up our celebration to the level of their own recondite understanding.

The hard truth is that no human understanding could begin to encompass the mysteries of salvation which we celebrate in the Mass--any more than that rock could tell the story of the Passion. The Eucharistic liturgy is not the work of liturgists; it is the Lord=s work, carried on today by the members of his Mystical Body.

How, then, can we dare to reform the liturgy? We must begin with the recognition that Jesus commissioned his Church for his purpose. We have become participants in the very sacrifice of Calvary. That realization is breathtaking not only in the sense of power it conveys, but also in the humility it engenders. AAs the Father has sent me, even so I send you. (Jn 20:21) We are not engaged in any merely human work, but acting out our Savior=s purpose.

- Philip F. Lawler