En biskop i New jersey i USA, Arthur Serratelli, har begynt å skrive en serie artikler om hvordan Den katolske kirke i stor grad har mistet opplevelsen av det hellige. Han beklager at kirkerommet ikke lenger oppleves forskjellig fra andre rom; stillheten er blitt borte, man klapper for de som deltar, og oppfører seg ofte ikke som man bør i møte med det hellige. (En slik negativ utvikling er nok kommet en del lenger i den engelskspråklige verden enn i Norge.) I den første av en serie artikler (Velg artikkel nederst på sida.) skriver han:
Living in our world, we breathe the toxic air that surrounds us. Even within the most sacred precincts of the Church, we witness a loss of the sense of the sacred. With the enthusiasm that followed the Second Vatican Council, there was a well-intentioned effort to make the liturgy modern. It became commonplace to say that the liturgy had to be relevant to the worshipper. Old songs were jettisoned. The guitar replaced the organ. Some priests even began to walk down the road of liturgical innovation, only to discover it was a dead end. And all the while, the awareness of entering into something sacred that has been given to us from above and draws us out of ourselves and into the mystery of God was gone.
Teaching about the Mass began to emphasize the community. The Mass was seen as a community meal. It was something everyone did together. Lost was the notion of sacrifice. Lost the awesome mystery of the Eucharist as Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The priest was no longer seen as specially consecrated. He was no different than the laity. With all of this, a profound loss of the sacred.
Not one factor can account for the decline in Mass attendance, Church marriages, baptisms and funerals in the last years. But most certainly, the loss of the sense of the sacred has had a major impact.
Walk into any church today before Mass and you will notice that the silence that should embrace those who stand in God’s House is gone. Even the Church is no longer a sacred place. Gathering for Mass sometimes becomes as noisy as gathering for any other social event. We may not have the ability to do much about the loss of the sacredness of life in the songs, videos and movies of our day. But, most assuredly, we can do much about helping one another recover the sacredness of God’s Presence in His Church.
Fantastisk lesning, må jeg si. Jeg visste at med pave Benedikt i førersetet, så ville prelater med hittil «avvikende» meninger begynne å tale høyere. Det vi nå ser skje rundt oss er i sannhet en stille revolusjon, som redaktøren i St.Olav skrev.