“A Healthy and Creative Tension”

Father Dwight Longenecker over at Standing on My Head reflects and opines on what he refers to as the "healthy and creative tension" between the horizontal and vertical aspects of a life of faith.

Surely, the recent context that he gives the consideration is important, but it's more certainly a tension that extends all the way back to the birth of the Church after Christ rose from the dead.

It's not really a chicken-or-the-egg type of consideration, of course, since the vertical love of God and acceptance of His grace is a necessary precursor to true horizontal love of fellow man.  In this situation, we really do know which came first, if only through our natural intuition.

In my garden, it would be silly for me to say "This year, I am only going to plant vegetables, because it is more important for me to focus on serving a temporal need (of food) and sharing them with my fellow man."  Conversely, it would be silly for me to say "This year, there will be no vegetables in my garden. I wish to focus on the beauty and extravagance of my flowers and let them elevate my thoughts to God. My neighbor in need of food and help will just have to wait until next year."

Likewise, the Church isn't fully "the Church" without both aspects of faith in a constant yin and yang.  And thus, as Father (and many before him) rightly points out, we have the cross - with its crossing beams, one in the vertical and one in the horizontal, as a perfect example of the intersection of vertical and horizontal love.

I don't buy the classification of "conservative" or "progressive" (or "liberal") in generalizing those who tend toward the vertical or the horizontal.  But I do see a strong push toward the horizontal in what evolved out of (and within) the celebration of the Novus Ordo after the Second Vatican Council.  And, of course, what we've been "missing" in our worship is a steadfast, forced, focus upon the vertical.  It's certainly there - just consider those who prayerfully whisper and exclaim "My Lord and My God!" at the sacrifice.

But the horizonal is certainly most predominate in many places - just consider the sheer quantity of parishes where holding hands during the Lord's Prayer isn't just encouraged, but has become the norm.  If you will, just after the moment of consecration, we've taken a very vertical moment in the movement of our liturgy and forced a (not in the rubrics, I might add) very horizontal moment upon it.  This, of course, just moments before the vertical acceptance of Christ and His Father in the beautiful prayer he taught us is to be rightly followed by the horizontal sharing of that love with others in the Sign of Peace.  We've really forced the horizontal onto the vertical and perhaps even diluted the subsequent horizontal, in fact, as a result.

But then again, aren't we called to find ways to bring the old and the new together... to mix the vertical and the horizontal in every moment of our faith?  To be a Church and a people always at the intersection of those two expressions of true love?  That is what he means by the "healthy and creative tension."  For it's not in the finger-pointing and the disparaging of one "camp" or the other that we find the unity, peace, and love that Christ prayed for.

As the Church brings forth and encourages the fullness of the liturgy as has always been intended - and was surely intended to be made even more beautiful by the fathers of Vatican II - let's pray for unity and respect for both sides of this fence.  For the old and the new.  For the vertical and the horizontal.

Matt 13:52: "And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed
in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings
from his storeroom both the new and the old."

The Cathedral, Pt. II

As I mentioned on Wednesday morning, Suzanne and I were heading to the rectory on Wednesday night to see an initial/launch presentation of the "preservation/renewal program" for the cathedral that our diocese is launching, for which they're attempting to raise funds.

I went into the meeting quite curious about the project and the presentation regarding the funds they're seeking to raise.

As had been made clear on the diocesan website, the total goal of the campaign for the cathedral renovation is $11 million, of which $5 million is being sought from across the diocese at large in the coming months.

The representative for the campaign from the diocese was very nice and the video (DVD) presentation that she brought along for use in the parish was well-done, all things considered.  It was striking to see the historical perspective of what the cathedral has gone through from its construction to today.  For example, I hadn't really realized (although I knew when the cathedral was built) that it was completed as our nation entered the Great Depression.  So the sacrifice that those who went before us in the diocese made to see it to completion seem even greater in that perspective.

The truth is, we do have a very beautiful cathedral.  We've been blessed with that.  And we certainly should contribute to its upkeep and maintenance.

But Suzanne and I aren't sold on the rest.  There wasn't any clarity around exactly WHAT the plans for the renovation include.  And quite frankly, with the relatively "loose" liturgical (and otherwise) track record in our diocese, I don't know that I want to give that much toward this effort without more clarity around the actual preservation of elements of the cathedral as opposed to "re-doing" things.

Add to that the fact that we're in the midst of a $150,000 capital campaign in our own parish to add an assembly area to the front of the church and the $75,000 that our parish has been asked to contribute to the diocesan project is a bit scary.

That said, the jury is still out... it'll be interested to see how our fellow parishioners respond in the coming months as the program and effort is fully pushed within the parishes.

An Army of Servers

Via WhatDoesThePrayerReallySay, this article was awesome to read about "
A new generation of young altar servers captivated
by the solemn rituals of Latin Mass is mastering the traditional rite
in growing numbers in the Boston archdiocese as the liturgy makes a
comeback after a four-decade hiatus."

It's an article that appeared in the Boston Herald that looks at the VERY quickly and significantly growing number of young men who are interested in serving Mass in the traditional form.  In fact, since last April, the number has more than doubled - from 8 to 18.

Here's the part that really grabbed me, a quite from Brendan MacKenzie, 12: "It's really reverent. That's why I like it. It brings you closer to God."

...Which is exactly, in my humble opinion, the strength of the traditional form as compared to the Novus Ordo Mass and exactly the set-apart-from-the-world experience that the Generation Y Catholics might need to draw them back to the pews.

Please pray for these young men, this priest and his parish, and this diocese.  And pray that what countless Popes have reminded us can hold true in this case:  that devout altar servers are quite often the best hope for the calling of devout men to the priesthood. But whether they grow to be priests or family men, this upbringing will surely serve them well.