The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on the vigil of the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time for the Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Exemplification Mass Nov. 2.
The tone in today's Scripture readings is indeed strong, isn't it? Blunt, direct, seemingly harsh words are being spoken in both the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Malachi and the third reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. Yes, the prophet Malachi was blunt and direct in his criticism of the Temple priests in his day. They preached God's Word, but failed to practice it. Moreover, they had lost their zeal for caring for the purity of worship, giving God second-rate sacrifices while keeping the best for themselves. Jesus too was equally blunt and direct in his criticism of the religious leaders in his day " the scribes and the Pharisees. The too “preach, but they do not practice.” They desired to be seen and to be given titles of respect and places of honor, but help the people they did not. Although Jesus did not use the word in today's account, in other Gospel passages, He unambiguously called the scribes and Pharisees “hypocrites.”
The Greek word “hypokrites,” from which our English word “hypocrite” is derived, means “actor in a theater.” Jesus was describing those religious leaders as religious actors, playing a role. They were not religious participants, living the life.
This is the question which today's sacred liturgy, particularly through God's Word, places before us, who claim to be disciples of the Lord Jesus and active members of His Body, the Church. Are we religious actors, pretending to follow the Lord and the teachings of His Church, or are we religious participants, actually living the Christian life as honestly as we can and obeying the Lord and the teachings of His Church? Now, the answer will not be easy, because an honest answer demands ongoing conversion. As we examine our lives in detail, we honestly admit that some aspects of our lives are not truly in accord with the Lord and the teachings of His Church. Where we see this, we must honestly admit our need to turn back to Jesus and to make Him the one Teacher, Model and Lord. As today's Gospel reminds us: “You have but one teacher … You have but one master, the Christ.” A slogan which our young people enthusiastically proclaim to one another and to us puts this so succinctly: “What would Jesus do?” in this situation or that?
Permit me to propose one area of our Christian living in which we are challenged to be not religious actors, but religious participants. This area is the sacred liturgy, that is, the public worship of the Church: Christ united with the members of His Body. The liturgical renewal was begun by the Second Vatican Council, whose teachings, Pope John Paul II recently reminded us, “must be known and assimilated as 'important and normative texts of the Magisterium within the Tradition of the Church' (cf. n. 57 [Novo Millennio Ineunte]) " [and] 'a sure compass to guide us on the path of the century that is beginning (Ibid)'” (Angelus Message, October 13, 2002).
Our Holy Father desires to continue this liturgical renewal, begun nearly 40 years ago. So, during the Jubilee Year 2000, he promulgated a revision of the Roman Missal, the liturgical book containing the prayers and texts used by the celebrant at Mass, and also a revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which gives guidance and direction about the various forms of the celebration of Mass and the various ways in which we participate as one united worshipping community.
The norms of this revised General Instruction will take effect in all the parishes and institutions of the Province of Baltimore, which includes the Diocese of Arlington, as well as the Diocese of Richmond, on Dec. 1, the First Sunday of Advent. I have mandated that all priests within the diocese preach on the nature of the liturgy and the norms of the Revised General Instruction on the Sundays of November, so that all the people can receive a thorough and solid catechesis or instruction and be enabled to deepen and renew the genuine spirit of the liturgy of the Church. Each week in the Arlington Catholic HERALD, an article will be published, written by Father Paul deLadurantaye, to summarize the themes being presented by the priests.
Today's theme focuses on “The Theological Vision of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.” This vision is grounded in four basic truths. 1) The celebration of the Eucharist is first of all Christocentric. This means that the Mass is our actual participation in the action of Christ Himself, of His sacrifice for us, of His paschal meal as shared originally with the Apostles, and of His Passover from death to life. To be Christocentric at the Eucharist also means to realize our fullest membership in the Church, for by our participating in Holy Communion, we become one with Christ and, by extension, on with each other. We become “the total Christ,” as St. Augustine says.
2) Every celebration of the Eucharist requires the bishop or the priest. The members of the Church join themselves to Christ's sacrifice of praise, not as individuals, but as members of His Body, the Church. It is through the Apostles and their ordained successors, the bishops, that such worship is made possible. Today, that apostolic ministry is continued through the bishops and their priests, who are the bishops' principal co-workers. There can be no Eucharist without the ordained priest or bishop.
3) Participation of the faithful is the goal to be considered before all others. The renewal of the sacred liturgy according to the authentic teachings of the Second Vatican Council envisioned not chaos, not a sloppy or rah-rah celebration, but the deepened prayer of the community: the Lord Jesus united with all the baptized. The renewal envisioned not isolated individuals, who happen to be in the same space, praying, but the community of Christ's disciples, praying together in unity through gestures, in spoken or sung parts and sometimes as well in reverential silence, with a variety of roles being exercised responsibly and in accord with officially approved liturgical directives. Thus, the full and active participation by all the faithful is both their right and their obligation, “for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive their Christian spirit” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 14).
4) The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. In the Mass, we have the high point of the work that in Christ God accomplishes to sanctify us and the high point of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, whom we adore through Christ, the Son of God, in the Holy Spirit. All other liturgical rites and all of the works of the Christian life are linked with the Eucharistic celebration, flow from it and have it as their end (cf. General Instruction on the Roman Missal, n. 16). For us Catholics, the celebration of the Eucharist is central and essential.
My hope is that the liturgical renewal outlined in the General Instruction will help us all to be religious participants, not actors, in the greatest prayer we have: the Mass.
As Knights of Columbus and family members of the Knights, and even more so, for those initiated into the Fourth Degree, we must all be actively living our faith, obedient to the Lord and to the Church's teachings. We must practice what we preach; we must live in real life who we profess to be in faith. We must ring true if we really belong to Christ and to His Church " and that is who we are as Knights of Columbus and family members of the Knights. Amen.
