The Holy Father during his years as a university professor and later as the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith has reflected deeply on the nature of the Liturgy and the reforms that took place in the Liturgy after the Vatican Council. He has written extensively on the different aspects of the Liturgy in his book “The Spirit of the Liturgy” where he shows also his appreciation of Eastern Liturgies. Worthy of special mention is his reference to the Syro-Malabar Rite and to the apostolic origin of the Christian faith in India. He mentions how the ancient Chaldean Liturgy has been preserved in the Syro-Malabar Rite and adds that the “Chaldean liturgical family goes back to the Apostle Thomas and to Addai and Mari, the disciples of the Apostles.” He has also dealt with the same subject in the various interviews he has given which have been published later as “ God and the World” and “Salt of the Earth.”It would be very beneficial for the Syro-Malabar Catholics in the U.S. to know more deeply the views of the Holy Father on the Liturgy as we are on the threshold of practicing more vitally the Syro-Malabar liturgical tradition in the United States.
Before going further into his reflections on the liturgy, it would be good to trace the intellectual development of the Holy Father that he himself has described in his memoir known as “ Milestones.”
John Jay Hughes, one of the former students of the Holy Father reminisces about the contact he had with the Holy Father in the magazine “America”. He speaks about the great impact the Holy Father had on his students while he was a University Professor : “I experienced Joseph Ratzinger’s rhetorical gifts myself 40 years ago. His lectures at the University of Munster attracted not only students but people from the town, who came to hear him at 8.15a.m.before going to work. After every lecture, one wanted to go into a church and pray.”(America,Aug.15-22,05) He adds further that “those who know him best speak of his willingness to listen, his modesty and kindness, his shy reserve—and an impish humor.”
It is said that the German journalist, Peter Seewald, who interviewed Cardinal Ratzinger for three days on all kinds of issues facing the Church in the modern world became a convert to Catholicism. All these attest to the powerful influence the Holy Father has on those who interact with him.
In his memoir, “Milestones”, Cardinal Ratzinger describes his early life in the seminary and later his life as a university professor. His early life and his work as a priest and a professor as described in his memoir will offer us a great window to look at the shaping influences on his life as an intellectual and a great theologian.
Early Life:
The Holy Father was born on Holy Saturday on April 16,1927 in Marktl am Inn. The Holy father considers a big act of Providence that he was baptized a few hours after his birth from the Holy Water that was blessed on Holy Saturday ceremonies. He joined the minor seminary because of the suggestion of his pastor. His expenses were covered from the salary of his sister. He got himself immersed in reading great German authors while in the seminary. As the political atmosphere was changing fast in Germany with the ascent of Hitler in power, the quiet years of his school life began to be affected.
The minor seminarians were drafted into the army and the Pope had to move to Munich with some of his classmates. But as he reached the military age, he was drafted properly into the military. He did not remain long in the military as by that time Hitler was defeated and the American forces were in Germany. Joseph who left the army was imprisoned by the American forces and he had to spend several weeks in an open camp as a war prisoner. When he returned home after release, it was like reaching heaven. About his release from the camp and joy of his parents in seeing him, he writes: “ My father could hardly believe it as I suddenly stood there before him, alive and well……I have never again had so magnificent a meal as the simple one that Mother then prepared for me from the vegetables of her garden.”
After the war, Joseph along with his brother joined the seminary again to continue his studies for priesthood. He did his philosophy in Friesing’s seminary and later his theology at the University of Munich. He mentions two professors as the shaping force on his theological formation. One, the star of the faculty, Wilhelm Maier, the Professor of New Testament exegesis and the Rector, Josef Pascher. From Maier, he got his interest in exegesis and from Pascher, his interest in Liturgy.
Priesthood:
Before his ordination, one of his professors suggested to him to enter a competition where he would have to write a dissertation on a topic and if that dissertation won the prize, he would be allowed to go for doctoral studies. Even though, it was just the preparation time for his ordination, with the help of his brother and sister, he could complete his paper within the assigned time. The topic was “The People and the House of God in Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church”
He was ordained a priest by Cardinal Faulhaber on June 26,1951.He was appointed the Assistant Pastor in the parish of Precious Blood in Munich. He had to give sixteen hours of class instruction at the school at different levels along with his other pastoral duties But then he was called to teach in the seminary in Friesing in 1952. In July 1953, he received his doctorate in Theology after a series of very exhausting exams and assignments.
Now his colleagues at the seminary wanted him to write another scholarly work known as “habilitation” which would qualify him to hold a chair at a German University. This was a big scholarly enterprise and Fr. Ratzinger worked hard on it. He handed over the work and to his dismay he was informed by one of the readers that it was not acceptable. Since it was not totally rejected, he had another chance to modify it. To the surprise of the faculty, within a short period of time, he modified it and presented it again. It was finally approved. Now he had to defend the thesis in public. He could fail there too. The auditorium was full to overflowing. After his presentation, the two readers gave their observations and later it became a dispute between them with Fr.Ratzinger remaining a silent observer! In the end, the Dean came and announced that he had passed the test. From then on, he became a successful professor of theology and began to get invitations from several universities to teach in their departments.
The passing away of his parents deeply affected him as he and his brother were very close to them. About his mother’s passing away, he notes: “ I know of no more convincing proof for the faith than precisely the pure and unalloyed humanity that the faith allowed to mature in my parents and in so many other persons I have had the privilege to encounter.”(Milestones,p.131)
Vatican Council II
One of the decisive moments in his life was his being chosen as a theological expert by Cardinal Fringes of Cologne. The Cardinal came to know of him through his secretary who was a friend of Fr.Ratzinger. The stay in Rome as the peritus of the Cardinal gave him a lot of opportunities to meet some of the great theological luminaries of the time as well as to get involved in the preparation or amendments of the several documents of the Council.
After the conclusion of the Council, he was appointed by Pope Paul VI as a member of the International Papal Theological Commission. During this time, he moved to Regensburg as a Professor Theology from Tubingen.
Cardinal Ratzinger describes how he was appointed the Archbishop of Munich.
The Apostolic Nuncio visited him at Regensburg and they chatted for a while on trivial matters and after some time, the Nuncio handed him a letter and asked him to reply to it after thinking over it at home. It was his appointment as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. He told the Nuncio about his reservations, but in the end, he wrote his acceptance on the letterhead of the hotel where the Nuncio was staying .In 1977, he was installed as the Archbishop of Munich.
He took a new symbol, a donkey on his coat of arms which connects him with Freising as well as with St.Augustine. He concludes his memoir “Milestones” which was published in 1997 with the following words: “ In the meantime I have carried my load to Rome and have now been wandering the streets of the Eternal City for a long time. I do not know when I will be released, but one thing I do know: that the exclamation applies to me too: “ I have become your donkey, and in just this way am I with you.”(p.156) How prophetic are those words! He has now been released from wandering the streets of Rome to become the Pope of the Catholic Church!
The Role of Liturgy:
Liturgy has been a shaping force on his life. Even from his early years as a young boy, he was very much drawn into the Catholic liturgy. This was accentuated by the gift of the translation of the missal of the mass in German, known as Schott. The possession of the missal helped him to participate in the mass very intensely and from that participation developed his love of the liturgy. He felt then that “ he was encountering a reality that no one had simply had thought up, a reality that no official authority or great individual had created…..the inexhaustible reality of the Catholic liturgy has accompanied me through all phases of life..”(p.20).
Reform and Renewal:
The Cardinal had great reservations in reforming the liturgy. Liturgical texts should never be created anew; it should grow out of the previous ones. It should be a living development and not the product of erudite work and juridical authority. “ When liturgy is self-made, however, then it can no longer give us what its proper gift should be: the encounter with the mystery that is not our own product but rather our origin and the source of our life.” A renewal of liturgical awareness is needed. “ I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy….” He adds further: “ When the community of faith , the worldwide unity of the church and her history and the mystery of living Christ are no longer visible in the liturgy, where else , then ,is the Church to be come visible in her spiritual essence? Then the community is celebrating itself, an activity that is utterly fruitless. And, because ecclesial community cannot have its origin from itself, but emerges as a unity from the Lord, through faith, such circumstances will inexorably result in a disintegration into sectarian parties of all kinds.”
In the interview he has given to Peter Seewald, he goes on explaining his views on the nature and scope of Liturgy much more deeply. According to the Cardinal, the liturgy is never a mere meeting of a group of people but a participation in “ the world wide community of the whole church and also of the communio sanctorum, the communion of all saints.” He feels very strongly that the Eastern Churches have developed a strong sense of the nature of the Liturgy. According to him, these churches see the Liturgy as a” divine gift that one should not alter: we enter into it; we do not make it.”(God and the World, p. 413).
Organic Nature of the Liturgy:
With regard to reform of the Liturgy, the Cardinal points out that the reform could not be simply a break with the past, but had to treat living growth with respect.” He emphasizes the organic nature of the liturgy. It has to be seen as a living organism and hence one should not resort to wanton changes in the structure of the Liturgy. He affirms that the Vatican Council ll had this sense of the organic growth of the Liturgy: “ You cannot simply devise in professorial commissions what will be better in pastoral practice; what will be more practically effective, and other such things; rather, you must look , with great respect for what is carrying the riches of the centuries within it, and see where it is necessary and possible to supplement or prune back in a way that is meaningful.”(God and the World,p.414). The cardinal further points out that Liturgy is to be seen as a “gift that comes to us” and is not something that we can refashion and mutilate according to our likes and dislikes. It should be seen as “the living entity that has grown up and has been given us in which we take part in the heavenly liturgy.” (p.415)
Eucharist as a Sacrifice:
Speaking of the Eucharist the Cardinal points out that the “the Last Supper alone is not sufficient for the institution of the Eucharist. For the words that Jesus spoke are an anticipation of his death, a transformation of his death into an event of love, a transformation of what is meaningless into something that is significant….the death would remain empty of meaning, and would also render the words meaningless, if the resurrection had not come about, whereby it is made clear that these words were spoken with divine authority, that his love is indeed strong enough to reach out beyond death.” He adds further that Eucharist “ is more than just a meal; it has cost a death to provide it, and the majesty of death is present in it….overcoming of the death in the resurrection is present at the same time” Eucharist enables us to “ celebrate this death as the feast of life”. The Eucharist, according to him , “ plumbs the very depths of death.”(God is near Us,p.41)
The Relevance of these Reflections
For the Syro-Malabar Rite:
The above reflections of the Holy Father on the Liturgy and the Eucharist will be of immense benefit to one who wants to probe more deeply the importance of the Liturgy in the life of a Catholic. For the faithful of the Syro-Malabar rite, these reflections will give a corrective antidote to the trivial generalizations that come from several quarters with regard to the significance of the Liturgy. For the Eastern Churches, Liturgy is the melody of Theology since it is from the celebrations of the Eucharist and sacraments that they have developed their understanding of their faith .
As the Syro-Malabar liturgical celebrations are becoming more common for the faithful of the rite in the U.S., a basic insight into the nature of the Liturgy will help us to understand why a new liturgical celebration is needed in a country where there are plenty of Catholic churches in the U.S. Each rite has its unique way of celebrating the liturgy. We cannot do away with what we had from very early times. We have to preserve and foster what has been handed to us down through the centuries.
Some may ask why we should continue to hang on to something that belongs to the past without making any changes for the modern era just as shortening the prayers or limiting the duration of the celebration. The Cardinal gives a very appropriate response to such queries in the following words: “ It is important that the individual rites have a relation to the places where Christianity originated and the apostles preached: they are anchored in the time and place of the event of divine revelation. The Christian faith can never be separated from the soil of sacred events. Rites are forms of the Apostolic Tradition and of they unfold in the great places of the Tradition.”(The Spirit of the Liturgy,p.164).Hence we have to keep our liturgy without any drastic truncation in its ancient and original integrity.
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