32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: New English Mass Translation

         32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A Mt. 25: 1-13

3^rd Homily on the New Mass Translation: Gestures and Postures

At the end of today’s gospel, we hear of a wedding banquet that many have been invited to, a banquet that was no doubt filled with love and happiness – except for the 5 bridesmaids who were locked out. That joy-filled celebration would have gone on for hours.

Today we find ourselves celebrating a different banquet – a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, which we call the Mass. Now it won’t go for hours, but I trust it too will be filled with a sense of faith, love and happiness, so much so that we are able to say, “It is good for us to be here.”

 In the celebration of the Mass, we raise our hearts, minds and voices to God. As creatures composed of body as well as spirit, we just don’t pray with our minds and souls, but we also pray with our bodies. This prayer with our bodies involves assuming different postures such as standing and sitting. We also make a variety of gestures, such as signing ourselves, bowing, extending our hands at the sign of peace, processing for the reception of Holy Communion.  These postures and gestures carry a profound meaning when done mindfully, and with understanding and faith. Through them, we participate in the sacred liturgy more attentively. 

Let’s take a look at the various postures in the Mass. First, let’s consider standing. Standing is considered to be the fundamental posture in the mass, as it is a natural gesture of respect to the authority of God. This is why the Israelites stood upright as they listened to God’s word. Indeed, standing was the normal position for Jewish prayer, and this custom was passed to the early Christian church. Evidence of this is seen in the murals in the Roman catacombs. Further evidence that standing was the fundamental posture was the description standing position of the elect in heaven in the Book of Revelation (7:9 and 15:2). The early Fathers of the church, such as St. Basil, considered the standing position as expressive of the holy freedom of God’s children. As St. Basil said, when we stand in prayer, we are assuming our stature before God as a people redeemed by the blood of Christ.

The posture of sitting is one of attentive listening and meditation. Most ancient and medieval churches did not have pews or chairs, but the faithful were often invited to sit on the floor, a custom that goes back to apostolic times as witnessed in Acts 20:9 and 1 Corinthians 14:30. Thankfully we do have pews, and thus we sit on them during the readings, except for the gospel, as well as during the homily and the preparation of the gifts. 

Now, while we do have pews in our church, we don’t have kneelers. Which brings me to the posture of kneeling. In the early church, kneeling was reserved strictly as a sign of penitence or for times of intense private prayer. However, as the Mass is a time of public, not private prayer, kneeling was prohibited by the early church. In fact the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD forbade people to kneel on Sundays. Eventually, during the Middle Ages, kneeling was understood more in the sense of profound respect and adoration that is prevalent today. The act of kneeling during Mass is seen as reinforcing the same sentiments and attitudes expressed by the standing position.

So let’s go onto the subject of kneeling at Newman. According to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), which will come into effect in Canada also on the 1^st Sunday of Advent, the same Sunday as the new mass translation, we read the following in paragraph 43: “In the dioceses of Canada, the faithful should kneel at the Consecration, except when prevented on occasion by ill health, or for reasons of lack of space, of the large number of people present, or for another reasonable cause.” When Bishop John Boissoneau, the Vicar of Liturgy for the Archdiocese spoke on this point in a presentation to priests back in September, he specifically looked at me and said to all those present, “A classic example of a reasonable cause to not kneel is the Newman Centre since there are no kneelers.”  Hence, we will continue to remain standing during the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, and for that matter, during the time after the Lamb of God until the communion procession. And if anyone is tempted to think that this does not apply to them, please remember mass is not private prayer, it is public prayer. As Bishop Boissoneau pointed out, in Paragraph 42 of the GIRM, “A common bodily posture, to be observed by all those taking part, is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered together for the Sacred Liturgy.”  When we sit or stand or sign ourselves or bow in common ritual action, we give witness to who we are as the one Body of Christ. If individuals were to decide to change the norm for postures and gestures to suit their own piety or preference, that would detract from our unity as one Body. Hence, personal bias or preference must be set aside, so starting on November 27^th, all should remain standing during both the Eucharistic Prayer and after the Lamb of God as a sign of that unity.

As I mentioned before, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal will be implemented in Canadian parishes starting on November 27^th. In the GIRM, there are numerous changes in our gestures that we need to implement in our masses here.

Let me briefly list them:

1. During the Penitential rite, if the 1^st form is used, we are asked to beat our breasts as we say “Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”
2. During the recitation of the Creed, whether it is the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed, at the time of the phrase that speaks of the conception of the Lord by the Holy Spirit, we will all make a profound bow. A profound bow is made from the waist, and is a gesture of great reverence.
3. Currently we have gone from sitting to standing at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer preface. This posture change will now take place during the Preparation of the Gifts when I say to you, “Pray my brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable...”
4. During the Eucharistic Prayer itself, while all remain standing, however after each of the 2 elevations, when I pause and then genuflect, both times you are asked to make a profound bow. 
5. At the time of reception of Holy Communion, just before the Body of Christ is offered to you, you are asked to make a simple bow of the head. Going back to the GIRM, in paragraph 160, we are reminded that the norm is to receive Holy Communion standing, not kneeling. 

As I have mentioned before in my two previous homilies on the new mass translation, all these changes will take some getting used and the transition on November 27^th in every English speaking parish is probably going to be a bit bumpy.

For more information on the new mass translation, please do check out the websites listed in the two page spread in this month’s new bulletin. 

Fr. Michael Machacek, Newman Centre, November 6, 2011.