A Pope and a Council on the Sacred Liturgy, St Michael’s
Abbey Press, Farnborough, 2002; pp. 160; £10.95
Reviewed by Dr Tracey Rowland
This work
is the latest in a number of publications from St. Michael’s Abbey Press on
the theme of liturgy. It takes the form of a re-publication of the two most
significant magisterial liturgical documents of the twentieth century – Pope
Pius XII’s Mediator Dei and the Second
As a
general comment Nichols suggests that of the two documents, the primacy belongs
to Mediator
Dei, not only
chronologically, but also in terms of theological substance. Nonetheless,
Nichols also suggests that the difference between the two documents is not the
difference between Louis XIV and Robespierre, and indeed, that in one major
respect Sacrosanctum Concilium enjoys an advantage over the
understanding of worship which is presented in Mediator Dei. This is found in Sacrosanctum Concilium’s more pronounced orientation
towards the eschaton, the Lord’s Parousia, at the
end of time. Here Nichols makes reference to the prayer of the martyrs beneath
the heavenly altar in the Johannine Apocalypse. The martyrs pray for the end of
time – for the eschatological morning.
In
contrast to much of the popular literature which promotes what Nichols calls a
“sub-theological” ideology, both of the documents treat liturgy from a
soteriological perspective, that is, from a consideration of the role of liturgy
in the economy of salvation. Examples of common sub-theological ideologies
include the idea of liturgy as the affirmation of the group identity of the
assembly, the gender or ethnic identity of the assembly, or the recognition in
symbolic play of the presence of the divine in secular life and reality. While
these may be secondary effects of the liturgy they are not its primary purpose.
Although
Nichols does not give specific examples of such sub-theological ideologies in
operation, the proliferation of Sundays tied to events outside of the liturgical
calandar would seem to be expressive of these ideologies.
Religion, holiness, devotion
In his
discussion of Mediator
Dei, Nichols
suggests that Pius XII was attempting to correct an emerging hyperliturgist
position, which emphasised the priority of the liturgy in all of its objectivity
over devotions with their possible subjectivism. This hyperliturgist position is
popularly associated with the Benedictine
Rather he
argues that Casel was also seeking to correct another extreme, that of the
Romantic concept of devotion as a purely interior state of individual
consciousness; and thus, that Pius XII should not be read as doing anything
other than presenting a theology which avoids the extremes on both sides.
Nichols
puts it in terms of "closing the crack" which had opened between the
celebration of the rites on the one hand, and the ascetical and mystical
tradition of personal prayer in the Church, on the other.
In Mediator Dei Pius XII took St.
Thomas’s
teaching on the virtue of religion and linked it to the idea of holiness and the
idea of devotion.
In turn, devotion is a willing promptness to do
everything that God’s service requires and, according to
In this analysis, good liturgy
requires all three elements – the virtue of religion, holiness and devotion.
Any sound theology of the liturgy thus needs to set these elements in an
harmonious relationship. At different times in the Church’s history different
elements may be more of less exaggerated or absent.
With reference to the link
between devotion and meditation on the divine goodness and mercy and the passion
of Christ, Nichols observes that the spiritualities in the Church may be
presented as inter-relating two different types of pathos: Christian joy and
Christian sorrow. Again there is the issue of harmony with problems arising when
one or other type of pathos is emphasised to an extreme degree.
A right disposition
In the context of his
discussion of Sacrosanctum
Concilium, Nichols
makes reference to the contentious phrase – actuosa participatio – active or engaged
participation. This phrase has been popularly construed to mean that the
faithful should be constantly talking and moving throughout the rite. Here
Nichols suggests a construction which takes the approach of reading the phrase
in the light of the theology of Mediator
Dei. This way
‘active participation’ may be construed as ‘having the right dispositions
of the soul’, that is, the virtue of religion, holiness and true devotion.
This is a long way from the
popular idea of jumping up and down and making lots of verbal responses.
A second problem with the
interpretation of Sacrosanctum
Concilium is that
while it defended “sound tradition”, it envisaged a retrenchment of the
Roman rite to what was “in vigour at the time of the holy fathers”. This
last clause left much to the interpretative discretion of the post-Conciliar
liturgical committees. Here Nichols suggests that the post-Vatican II stripping
away of various ceremonies and the more devotional non-Roman prayers as
unnecessary post-patristic accretions undermined the capacity of the reformed
Roman liturgy to sustain that devotional atmosphere which was needed if the
right dispositions of soul were to be sustained.
Indeed, Nichols observes that
such drastic pruning was exactly what Pius XII in Mediator Dei was warning against when he
wrote that while to “go back in mind and heart to the sources of the Sacred
Liturgy is wise and praiseworthy ... the desire to restore everything
indiscriminately to its ancient condition is neither”.
Finally, Nichols makes the
point that the post-Vatican II liturgical commission looked to liturgical reform
as a means to create a better instructed laity. This in itself was not an
ignoble objective.
However it was confusing
education with worship. While worship will be educational, this is not its
purpose.
Thus the moral of this Tale of
Two Documents is that it is absolutely crucial to have a correct theology of the
liturgy and to distinguish liturgical theology from sub-theological ideology.
The moment one begins to think of using the liturgy for some purpose other than
worship, one is venturing into dangerous waters.
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