Judas to the Real Presence

By: Modesto P. Sa-onoy

The title of this article is a statement in a blog by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, professor of the Catholic University of America that LifeSite published last November 12. We know who Judas is so how could the Real Presence of Christ be a subject of treachery?

According to Dr. Kwasniewski, “the liturgy is intended to nourish us in this holistic and comprehensive way, and to the extent that it impedes or undermines this purpose, it betrays itself and becomes a Judas to the Real Presence of Christ.” He thus refers to the kind of liturgy that Catholics sometimes experience in a Mass.

There had been instances that a priest celebrating a Mass would make his own “style” in an attempt to “look good” and keep his flock. Indeed, many have gimmicks that only disillusion the faithful who want a sacred celebration. The fact of Catholics attending Mass other than their parish church attests to this disillusionment.

To illustrate his point, Kwasniewski quoted then-Cardinal Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Emeritus) speaking in 1988 to the Bishops of Chile:

“We ought to get back the dimension of the sacred in the liturgy. The liturgy is not a festivity; it is not a meeting for the purpose of having a good time. It is of no importance that the parish priest has cudgelled his brains to come up with suggestive ideas or imaginative novelties. The liturgy is what makes the Thrice-Holy God present amongst us; it is the burning bush; it is the Alliance of God with man in Jesus Christ, who has died and risen again.

“The grandeur of the liturgy does not rest upon the fact that it offers an interesting entertainment, but in rendering tangible the Totally Other, whom we are not capable of summoning. He comes because He wills. In other words, the essential in the liturgy is the mystery, which is realized in the common ritual of the Church; all the rest diminishes it.

“Men experiment with it in lively fashion, and find themselves deceived, when the mystery is transformed into distraction, when the chief actor in the liturgy is not the Living God but the priest or the liturgical director.”

Note the observation of the Holy Father – some clergymen become the “chief actor” and “not the Living God” because of the distraction caused by the style or dramatics of the celebrant.

Despite the antics of the celebrant, Kwasniewski advises the faithful not to leave their parish and go around “Mass hopping”. “Do not be deterred,” he says, “from a salutary purpose of amendment — to put it more bluntly, leaving your substandard parish for the sake of a better one by the argument that ‘the Eucharist is, after all, the Eucharist.

“It is for good reason that there has never been in the history of the Church a liturgy of five minutes’ duration comprising only the consecration and distribution of hosts. If we were disembodied intellects capable of fixing our attention immediately and immovably on just one thing, then nothing but the Real Presence would make any difference, and we could institute the aforesaid five-minute liturgy — or for that matter, a fifty-five-minute liturgy of polyester, pop tunes, and pop psychology — because it would make no difference anyway. You’d still “get Jesus.”

“But the Lord who instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — the Lord who knows all that is in the heart of man (cf. Jn. 2:24–25), his spiritual needs and yearnings and limitations — wanted to provide nourishment for the whole man on every level of his being, the senses and the intellect, the mind and the heart. He says: ‘With desire have I desired to eat this Pasch with you’ (Lk. 22:15). He has inspired the same holy desire within us: we, too, eagerly long to share the sacred mysteries with Him.”

Does the style of your priest “hinders, impedes or undermines” the holistic and comprehensive liturgy to that it no longer nourishes you?

While there are styles the priest nevertheless adheres to the fundamentals of the Eucharistic liturgy, so the nourishment depends on the faithful. The faithful should not be distracted from style. It is the essence that matters wherever one hears Mass.

Some find the Mass “boring” and seek excitement and entertainment elsewhere but will not find spiritual nourishment that only the Eucharist can give.