Worship is getting virtual!
Like Pope Francis
I have certain reservation against streamed Mass that mostly caters to sentimental pietism and
ritualistic practices. Within a digital savvy
clerical world, the live-streamed Masses are often designed
to discourage an attentive participation within a Christian community in
communion and fellowship. This clerical and “churchy”
concern speaks of a church focused on narcissistic personal holiness,
devotional practices and on rituals, with little interest in social concerns.
God's love for each human being underpins human dignity and social living in
unison based on love, to live in communion with others and with the created
world.
There is no complaint about
the priests presiding over the televised or streamed liturgy, who often are scared
to be human. There is bit of clericalism in succouring for others’ salvation. The
online media encourages a personal devotion and habitual practices that remain
pre-Vatican II. The public Mass with community participation in the reception
of Holy Communion is unitary and integral. A streamed or televised Mass is no comparison
with attending a live Mass. Some may be comfortable with streamed Masses on the
television or smartphone, convinced that they are "attending Mass". There is no real communion, no real sense of community in it; neither
joining in the "source and summit of the Christian life", nor praying
in communion at the Table of the Word; not physically present for the sacrifice
of the Lamb of God, but mere observing the representation, sometime with a
personal devotion, but without engagement; and departing with a social detachment.
This is not a Eucharist celebrated by the People of God.
A post-Vatican
II Church is drawing people to develop ‘habits’ that are pre-vatican. Assembly
in the Eucharistic ritual always stand at distant from the altar, the candles, the
tabernacle, watching the priest preside, and ‘hearing’ Mass. Fifty years back,
private devotions with personal ‘recitation’ of the rosary
often found their way through the Mass celebrated by Priests showing
their backs to the assembly. Ancient structural designs, hierarchical architecture,
heavy altar rails, rude rituals and gory choir, slowed the Liturgical Reform of
the 20th century, except few sporadic implementation of the Constitution on the
Liturgy on the rights and role of the People of God. Today, after 50 years, Pope
Francis recalling the Sacrosanctum Concilium, encourages the praying of
the scripture including a dedicated Sunday of the Word by a synodal Church,
through his youthful Evangelii Gaudium. This could be a radical
model for pandemic-period of liturgy.
The Dangers of Online Masses
Live-streamed Mass, a quasi-liturgical innovation,
is the “new normal” of worship which has problematic long-term ramifications. The
Mass, the “source and summit” of the communal Christian life in which ‘in
remembrance of’ Jesus (Lk 22:19) the members eat his flesh and drink his blood,
to have life (Jn 6:53). Through the liturgy of the Word and that of the
Eucharist following the Jewish tradition of reading from the Scripture (Torah,
OT) and Temple sacrifices, the reception of Jesus during Communion makes the
members return to the world and to love others. There is the real presence with
touch and experience of “that which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched
with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest, and
we saw it” (1 Jn 1-2).
Jesus is present in the priest, in the Word, and in
the assembly - “where two or three are gathered together in His name” (Mt
18:20). He is present in the bread and wine – “whole and entire, God and man” (Mysterium
Fidei, n. 39). Without the public celebration of Masses the crisis in the real
presence of Christ in the Eucharist threatens to further undermine the
Christian faith. The “spiritual Communion” as a stopgap practice within the
context of live-streamed Masses is no substitute.
There exists certain feel of connection to the
Church while watching Mass online. The streamed Mass as interim means to keep
parishioners connected to the parish and the priest, increases the danger to
habitually “attend” Mass in the virtual reality with a belief in the virtual
presence than the real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion. In fact, some
elders and the sick gradually lose the desire to receive Holy Communion outside
the Mass and this disinterest makes the priest neglect his duty of family
visits. The Church with its architecture, sacred art, music and community
participation testifies to the need of receiving the Sacraments within the
context of transcendence. A virtual streaming over the digital screen distances
us from this reality.
“Culture flows from the cult.” The daily religious
cultic habits affect the Christian cultures as well. Such happenings imply
certain realities. A live-streamed Mass substitutes for our communal
participation without the Holy Communion. The focus is on the priest’s prayers
with passive participation which can risk the desire for the real presence and
the Eucharistic Communion. The virtual reality of electronic images should not
replace our desire for the real Presence. It is better to emphasize the real
Presence of Jesus in the gathering of two or three (few), reading of the Word
and a spiritual Communion, than a Mass spectacle.
Sacramental and Sentimental Pietism
Human beings, in order to validate their
beliefs, go beyond the basics to meet their personal need by ‘transmitting
their faith’ to other persons – faith that is a free gift of God! How can one ‘transmit’ faith through the streaming
of online Mass or other liturgical and sacramental celebrations over video, zoom,
ppt and tiktok? As tools they can only help experience phenomenon of religious
expressions. So, when a parish shuts its
church doors, either due to the pandemic Covid19 or otherwise, how do we
continue renewing our faith communities?
When the religiously correct
finds it ok to stream Mass online, much due to the ‘saviour syndrome’ to keep
people from denying the falsehood, it disfigures the truth, and therefore, it
reduces Catholic faith and morals to pious sentimentalities. Without reference
to the central fact of Christian faith – the Cross and Resurrection – it is
easy to manipulate human emotions and accommodate ill-conceived actions.
Priests may become pious ‘saviours’, saving by pandering to the emotions of
parishioners. Over-clericalism, too, can overprotect the faithful with
sentimental affections manifested through virtual online prayers, novenas,
streaming of mass and Eucharistic adoration, than considering them as created
in God’s image and likeness, and that it needs natural nurturing of the seeds
of faith already freely sown by God. Basically, these are the ‘needs’ of the
clergy themselves, and not necessarily that of the faithful, for often their
faith expressions are stronger and dynamic than the clergy think of. Unbridled
human emotion, without critical questioning, begins to drive the faithful away
from the real world of God - the creation. An emotional “faith” expressed out
of sentimental pietism, is contrary to God’s commands, and extremely dangerous.
A balance of devotional and intellectual life in witnessing to faith in Jesus
Christ is the middle path of life’s fulfilment. God says, learn to do
good, be just, redress the wrong and defend the poor (cf. Is 1:10-17). Jesus
speaks straight, “whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not
worthy of me” (Mt 10:38).
In the
existing culture of relativism, the moral and universal law over creation is
still in place which is for everyone, that is, abiding by the Truth. It means, to be deeply
united with God in spirit and truth in the midst of joys and sorrows within the
whole of creation with its traditions and cultures. Detached from culture and
reason, the sentimental faith-expressions become ill-educated, arrogant, and
vicious. This vicious and sentimental online pietism must be overcome by an
honest examination of conscience, measuring our lives against Good News and all
the directives given in it, and taking responsibility for our actions.
Eucharist: Source and Summit of Communitarian Living
According to François Cassingena-Trévedy, a Benedictine liturgist, a forced
fast from Eucharist and Holy Communion during the health pandemic can be an opportunity not to desert the church, but to reflect
on the true meaning of the Eucharist and deepen one’s devotion towards it. Mass is not “a simple dispenser of the Eucharistic
wafer.” The act of community
celebration - a physical commitment through our bodies - is fundamental here. The
Christian community exists through these rituals which are only temporary
symbolic means. The physical community presence is not enclosed in the
Eucharist, but it is the great resource of our faith.
The Eucharist makes us
share in the divine life and enables us to love as Christ did, offering our
lives in the service of others. The pastoral charity flows out from the Eucharistic
Sacrifice. It
is an experience of conversion to the Lord's way of thinking and behaving.
Liturgy, being the life for the entire people of God, as Pope Francis
says, is not something of
“do-it-yourself”, but the manifestation
of the ecclesial community, with ‘we-prayers’ throughout and not ‘I’.
This communitarian holiness of God draws us to Himself. As the priest presides over the
prayers of the people, the community as a whole enters more deeply into the
mystery of Christ (Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 14), lifting up hearts
together to the Father in prayers and silence as conscious act (The General
Instruction of the Roman Missal, GIRM, nn. 45, 56), being aware of the
Paschal event of Christ that unfolds in the Eucharist.
Consequently, though
there is a spiritual dimension - a personal encounter with the Lord - the
Eucharist is first of all the will to become the body of Christ through a
communal celebration that leads to commitment to the faith of God's word.
Though it gives spiritual nourishment, the Eucharist is neither a wafer of the
presence of Jesus, nor a sacred vitamin that creates spiritual emotion. We can
drain the real presence in the Eucharist, if I am not challenged by the
presence of Christ in my brother. Therefore, it may be beneficial to be
deprived of it in order to question a relationship that can turn out to be very
materialistic and egoistic. Christ who reveals to us a Father rather than a
stoic God, calls us to remember him in the Eucharist. Presenting the Father,
Jesus makes all as brothers and sisters, forming a completely new,
revolutionary humanity. Beyond a sweet spiritual
emotion or the need to become one with my brothers and sisters and to be in a
filial relationship with the Father, the experience of Eucharist as a mystery
that can only be ‘glimpsed’, requires a conversion of heart and mind.
Live-Streamed
Mass
Live-streamed
masses are adopted in the Church necessitated by the pandemic lockdown. Here we try to react to the challenges in the
religious sphere, and find the pastoral value of live-streamed Masses.
Religious people and the clergy call each other to prayer - a call to
conversion because God’s creation is punishing us for abusing the nature by our
consumerist, technological and destructive style of life.
Under the constitutional law, the places of public worship have come under
lockdown, for the good of all people. In this situation, we need not exaggerate
the urgency of Eucharistic celebrations to prove our holiness. Many saints of
the past still remained holy without access to the sacraments. Many remote
isolated communities go without the Eucharist for months. Now, there is no
access to the Sunday Mass. Sunday masses have been televised for decades in
some European countries, and even in India recently. It has a devotional and a
catechetical value, but it cannot replace an active public worship of a
community. One cannot fulfil Sunday obligation of participating in the Mass by
‘watching’ it on some digital media. It is a spectacle, where one may
spiritually participate with personal devotion and a prayerful attitude. Still,
s/he is not an active participant.
The
live-streamed Mass through the internet is in real time, in the absence of
physical presence of those who watch it. Yet, there is actual communication
possible, and not merely virtual. Though distance separates one from another,
as Amaladoss points, it is overcome by modern technology. It
is true, people are not physically together to participate in the Eucharist.
Yet, there is mutual human communication. Therefore, physicality need not be an
indispensable dimension of human communication. Today, thousands of live-streamed
Eucharistic celebrations, reach out to millions across the world where people
not only watch, but hear, speak and even respond with messages, emojis and
hearts. Such moments become intimate and uplifting for many in this pandemic
time of deprivation. But a recorded and
rebroadcast Mass which is a spectacle can perhaps benefit people’s faith and
devotion without real participation. It is the technology of live-streaming
that helps in actual participation.
Do’s and Don’ts for Streamed
Mass
Like all sacraments the Holy
Mass must be done in person. Watching streamed Mass does not fulfill Sunday
obligation because neither can one receive the Holy Eucharist nor share in the
"Sign of the Peace." It is satisfied by physical "assistance"
at Mass (CCC 2180), and is
in harmony with Jesus’ words, "Where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Mt 18:20) Those dispensed from
attending Holy Mass, either because of illness, infirmity, old age or pandemic
situation, the streamed Mass can offer some spiritual benefits.
The Church at worship is God's priestly people called together and united
with Christ in a sacred work through which God is glorified and we are made
holy (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, SC 7). God is present in
the assembly, the proclamation of the Word, and in the celebration of the
sacraments. "[A]ll who are made children of God by faith and baptism
should come together to praise God in the midst of his Church, to take part in
the sacrifice, and to eat the Lord's Supper" (SC 10).
The streamed Mass is a help in reaching out to those who cannot be
physically present for the community's celebration of the Eucharist. It is
never a substitute for the Church's pastoral care for the sick in the form of
visits by parish ministers who share the Scriptures and bring Communion.
Besides, it serves as a means of evangelization, of sharing the Good News of
Jesus Christ and promoting the Church's worship via modern means of
communication (cf. Inter Mirifica, 14).
The live-streamed Mass should always be celebrated
within a living community of God's people whose presence reveals "full, conscious, and active
participation" which is called for "by the very nature of the
Liturgy" and which is their "right and duty" by reason of their
baptism (SC 14). The community
participates in the liturgy as fully as possible by offering of ourselves with
the offering of Christ, involving internal and external expression with an
attitude of prayer, attention, presence, gestures, movement, sentiments of praise
and adoration, song and responses, including the sung acclamations i.e.,
Alleluia, Holy, Holy, Memorial Acclamation, Great Amen, in order to help people
connect with the Church's worship.
Although, streamed liturgy has a tendency to lead people to more passive
roles as spectators, it does provide an opportunity for those unable to be
physically present: to identify with a worshiping community; to hear the Word
of God; and to be moved to expressions of praise and thanksgiving.Such streamed “sacred rites
must be marked by discretion and dignity, under the leadership and direction of
a competent person appointed for this office by the bishops. This is especially
important when the service to be broadcast is the Mass” (SC 20).
Attention is due to the modes of Christ's presence in the liturgy, e.g., the
Word, Eucharistic bread and wine, assembly, priest (SC 7); integrity of
the liturgical norms; a compulsory homily (GIRM 65); liturgical music;
simplicity; liturgical space; unhurried reverent pace; visual contact with the
assembly; prayerful attention and internal participation; attitude, style, and
bearing of the celebrant; an environment conducive to the celebration of the
liturgy (GIRM 288), etc. These modes when followed, the participants
will be able to pray and identify themselves with an actual community in its
worship.
Editing the broadcast liturgy by cutting out
particular elements of the Mass, or by using powerpoints or special effects to
enhance the liturgy artificially (e.g., superimposing a crucifix on the host,
projecting outside images and videos), should not be done. The studio format
and techniques distract those who gather to celebrate the Eucharist and make
the priest as actor rather than the presider of public worship. Often these telecasts
cross Church directives. Therefore, collegial responsibility should be
exercised by the bishops involved (SC 22; Inter Mirifica 20).
Real
or Spiritual Communion
An
integral part of the Mass is Communion, without which it remains incomplete.
One may participate in the Mass without receiving Communion. In the streamed
Mass, the spiritual communion becomes helpful. St. John Paul II, writes:
“The Eucharist
thus appears as the culmination of all the sacraments in perfecting our
communion with God the Father by identification with his only-begotten Son
through the working of the Holy Spirit […] Precisely for this reason it is good
to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the
Eucharist. This was the origin of the practice of “spiritual communion” (Ecclesia
de Eucharistia, n. 34).
One
can make spiritual Communion as a substitute for sacramental communion on the
occasion of a live-streamed mass. A community following such a live-streamed
Mass in a church where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, the people can
communicate in it too with the help of a deacon or priest. Even, a priest can
go round giving communion to those who follow the Mass from home over a public
speaker or televised at home.
Amaladoss affirms that in an era of modern communication technologies, physical
distance in communication is a relative term. Live-streamed Mass in mission
countries with lack of priests can be relevant. A parish priest can celebrate
the Sunday Eucharist in one place and live-stream it through the media to the
other centres. Following it, the faithful can make spiritual Communion. In
fact, out of devotion, one can make as many Spiritual Communion a day possible,
and anywhere!
A
reserve of the Eucharistic bread can be kept in every mass centre and a Deacon
or a respected Elder can distribute communion at the appropriate time during
the celebration. The actual Mass can be held at a different place each week,
thus making it available to many more people. Gerald O’Collins, a theologian
writes justifying that Teresa de Bertodano (cf. The Tablet, Letters, 4 April 2020) makes a
convincing case for parish priests allowing the devoted faithful, who received
Holy Communion daily, to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in their homes. In fact,
from the 2nd to the 4th century there was a frequent practice of
keeping the Sacrament at home or on their persons, due to persecution or
plagues and other causes, and when the celebration of Mass was infrequent. So
the Sacrament can be kept also at home as well!
The
power of the sacrament cannot be restricted in any way! Can bread and wine in
our homes be placed during a live-streamed Mass, as a digitally mediated priest
consecrates? If Jesus was present in the Sacrament in church with a solitary
priest celebrating a private Mass, would he not be present in my house with me?
These questions are still to be debated. But, based on the New Testament
evidence, both Gerry O’Hanlon and Amaladoss hold that discipleship, mission,
Eucharist and the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit is compatible with a
plurality of ecclesial structure.
Different situations and needs demand diverse structures and responses. God is
present everywhere, and therefore, He is present in any bread and wine, even
without sacramental transformation.
Possibilities:
We shudder change and it takes years to decide to
change. Consequently, Mass attendance
fall. The Pandemic period is an opportunity to build up communities in deep
communion formed by the People of God, worshipping God in spirit and truth.
Here are few proposals:
1.
Preferably, have the Sunday service (in the parish
church and in all the sub-stations) on the Word of God, with a homily,
spiritual communion preceded by morning prayers, as a synodal Church
2.
Parish Communities
can be helped to interiorize better the prayer of the Church, through the praying
of the Lauds and Vespers.
3. With earlier notification to
the viewers of the streamed Mass, scripture readings and music can be made
available to viewers, and local parishes can arrange for communion to be taken
to the viewers of the live-streamed Mass.
4.
For a fuller participation in the Mass, with a
temporary ban on singing, live and creative instrumental music can be played
without the “Choir performance".
5.
Presentation of gifts being on hold the assembly
may raise hands during the offering of the bread and wine symbolizing "my
sacrifice and yours".
6.
The kiss of peace can become a “Namaste” with joined
hands to convey the unity and communion.
7.
In order to engage the parish community as People
of God in communion, the Priest may conclude with the invocation, "Go in
Peace to love and serve the Lord and our neighbours”.
8.
Where
actual communion is not possible when they are participating in such a
live-streamed Eucharist, a prayer for Spiritual Communion can be recited
together with the help of prayer-cards.
9.
Given the communal nature of liturgical prayer, it may be preferable to
live-stream some forms of prayer other than the Eucharist, such as Morning or
Evening Prayer, a Liturgy of the Word, or Scripture services.
Conclusion:
Often enough, the institutions that a particular
faith community shapes, are estranged from God, contributing to a transfigured
world. Christ's life and teaching give shape to a life of communion which is
embodied in the celebration of the Eucharist, which in turn shapes a polity
from which cultures and societies can be judged. The Church as People of God has
to be always in service to the justice and mercy of God's Kingdom which is the
Christian's first and last loyalty. This mission necessarily sets the Church in
tension with the societies where inequality prevails. With moral passion and
digital savvy clerical mind-set, and socially as a radical Christian, one has
to rebuild the society in the kingdom of Covid-19.
A post-pandemic People of God (Church) has to
return to liturgy with a new consciousness of their baptismal rights, - to be
Priest, Prophet and King. A full active participation is to be asserted.
Private devotions and personal prayer, are to be differentiated from the public
worship of the People of God, especially in sharing as one, from the ‘one
loaf’, representing the body of Christ. This way, the Eucharist should be
restored as the source and summit of Christian life, in the post-Covid time.
Pope Francis
was reluctant to televise his Mass at St. Martha, but later he did oblige for
the sake of the sick. He live-streamed his mass in an empty Basilica of St.
Peter in Rome during the Holy Week in 2020.
Cf. Justin Stanwix, Community Mass vs. Private Prayer and Private
Eucharist?, https://international.la
-croix.com/news/religion/community-mass-vs-private-prayer-and-private-eucharist/, 26.7.2020
Cf. Michael
Amaladoss, Televised Massses during a pandemic, Theological and Missionary
Implications and Lessons, 84(VJTR)6, p. 33.
Cf. Claire
Jenkins, A Letter, The Tablet, May 9, 2020, as cited in, Michael
Amaladoss, op.cit., p. 39.
