Still Running Off at the Keyboard

THE LODGE, THE BISHOP, THE LITURGICAL NOTES

Since the Second Vatican Council there has been increased emphasis on the social gospel. Perhaps this is a correction of what was perceived as a past failure to emphasize the needs of the poor prior to the Council. It cannot be said, however, that the missions in days gone by failed to address those needs. The approach, though, was different. Missionaries provided for material needs in order to display the goodness of the God they were bringing. The emphasis was not on the material needs, but rather on the spiritual treasures that came with them. Nevertheless, the material provision cannot be denied.

Addressing material needs is a theme not limited to the Catholic Church. It is also a theme of Freemasonry. The Lodges are quite proud of their charitable works.

This website explains the Irish Masonic charities.

These are the charities associated with the Grand Lodge of Georgia.

The Ohio Grand Lodge website lists Masonic charities.

Those are only a few examples.

Some argue that Masonic charities help only the families of Masons, but not all of them are so restrictive. I know of at least one Catholic who was helped by a Masonic charity.

In addition, the tenets of Freemasonry are associated with the moral improvement of the members, and charity toward your fellow man is a significant part of this morality. The Mason is focused on service to his family, his community, his world. The Lodge motto is liberty, equality, and fraternity. Sometimes it appears that the Masons get the social gospel better than the Christians do. The Church and the Lodge are in agreement on the Second Commandment of Christ.

It is in the First Commandment where the major disagreement arises. The Lodge does not define God. The Lodge accepts any concept of god that man can devise. The Lodge considers all gods to be equal, and equally worthy of respect. The Sacred Book of the Law adorns the altar of every Masonic Lodge, but the book of choice varies according to the religion of the members. At times there are two Sacred Books, when more than one religion is represented by the membership. At the same time the Lodge forbids discussions of religion because it is believed that such discussions cause divisions between men. The Lodge is focused on this world.

There is no denying that this tolerance can be conducive to peace on a surface level. Lodge rituals are altered in various rites to accommodate variations of religious expression. The English Lodges use a ritual reminiscent of death and resurrection for the First Degree—a story of death and rebirth into the light of Masonry. Part of that ritual revolves around the symbolism of Jacob’s Ladder from Genesis.

Michael Baigent explains this in his Letter from the Editor, Issue 28 of “Freemasonry Today.”

Yet the God of the Jews is not the same as the god of the Lodge, because a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Pagan would be uncomfortable with this definition of god. And so the god of Masonry must be a syncretistic image good for all present.

In summary, then, Freemasonry concentrates on the moral improvement of man and the marginalization of god in the name of peace.

In reading Masonic philosophy, after a while it begins to sound much like the Catholic social gospel as we have heard it expressed since Vatican II. Much concentration on the horizontal, minimal concentration on the vertical. Find God in your pew partner. Don’t put too much emphasis on the vertical and transcendent. Small wonder, then, that Catholics today find nothing wrong with Lodge membership. What they hear in the Lodge is not contrary to what they hear in their Church.

The social gospel has enjoyed major emphasis in my Diocese of Cleveland. For years the only time we heard from the Bishop was each May when the annual Diocesan Catholic Charities appeal was about to be launched. It reached the point in the late 90s when it seemed that the bishop viewed middle-class Catholics as little more than a checkbook that could be tapped for his charitable programs. Bishop Pilla had his mind on the poor, and seldom departed from that theme to address the spiritual needs of his flock.

Cleveland is not alone in having this concentration, but Cleveland stood out. The Cleveland Catholic Charities has earned international acclaim according to Yahoo Financial News which reports that the Cleveland program has “earned high praise from the Vatican as ‘the largest diocesan system of social services in the world’.” According to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops in Rome.

The Lodge would approve of the charitable efforts of Bishop Anthony Pilla.

It might be argued that the Lodge would approve of some additional efforts of Bishop Pilla. He even makes reference to “the impulse…for a practical commitment to building a more just and fraternal society” in material he distributed recently.

During the last ten weeks, Bishop Pilla has instructed each parish to publish and distribute his “Liturgical Notes.” These have been a weekly two-page explanation of the Year of the Eucharist, and how this relates to the Liturgy.

I’ve perused them briefly then saved them for a second reading in a single session so as to get the full impact of their content as a single package.

The notes begin, in issue Number 1 and 2, with an explanation of the need to see that Christ remains with us in the form of consecrated bread and wine. Bishop Pilla speaks of the words of Pope John Paul II in Mane Nobiscum Domine which tells us that “Through the mystery of his complete hiddenness [in the Eucharist] …believers are led into the depths of the divine life.” He tells us that among the things we could do especially during Lent to make our life more Eucharistic is not only to “Participate in daily Mass”, but also to “read, reflect upon, and pray with the Scripture readings for Sunday Mass during the prior week, go to church a little earlier and stay after Mass to pray, spend time before the Blessed Sacrament, study the Church’s teachings on the Eucharist.” Only once does he include a reference to the horizontal dimension of the Gospel: “Live the Eucharist by engaging in works of charity, especially on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged” in this installment.

In issue No. 3 he asks us to probe the deeper meaning of the Church’s Liturgy and its sacramental signs.” Here he begins to talk about the need for a “deeper communion with the Trinity and one another,” and the fact that “The Risen Lord is with us—in priest and people, [and] in Word.”

In Issue No. 4, he talks about the disturbing nature of liturgical deviations from parish to parish, and the need for catechesis.

Issue 5 discusses the need for “the unity of the People of God.” He writes that “Liturgy is not to be subjugated to the personal whim, either theological or liturgical, of the pastoral or religious leadership of a community with regard to what ritual norms will or will not be implemented. It is not subordinate to the personal piety and devotional practices that serve to complete Christian spirituality. Instead personal spirituality and devotions must harmonize with the Liturgy ‘since the Liturgy by its very nature far surpasses any of them”. He adds “I believe that this requires a ‘substantial unity’ within the liturgical life of our local church….I have had lay faithful tell me of their distress at a lack of some sense of liturgical uniformity from parish to parish.”

By Issue 6 we are beginning to get the focus of his concern. He is not discussing the disturbing aspect of inventiveness on the part of diocesan priests. No, his focus is on the nasty habit of the laity of kneeling during Communion. Referring to JPIIs words in Mane Nobiscum Domine he writes:

His words challenge our temptation to privatize Eucharistic celebrations, to make our reception of Holy Communion merely a matter between “me and Jesus.” Christ has given us the gift of Himself in the Eucharist in order to help us embody Him in our daily living and loving. …How can we say that we will go forth from the Eucharist to serve Christ in others, if we do not recognize Christ in the very people who have gathered with us in prayer at the Eucharist? In emphasizing the communal dimension of our liturgical celebrations, the bishops at Vatican II sought the graced means by which we may become what we celebrate: the Body of Christ. Internally and externally, by actively participating in prayer, song, silence, posture, symbol, and sign, we learn what it means to live as His Body, the Church.

In Issue 7 he speaks of “fraternal unity” and speaks of the “Catechesis on the importance of uniform postures, gestures, actions, and processions.” He adds: “The Communion hymn accompanying the entire Communion procession, beginning as the priest celebrant receives Communion and continuing until the final member of the liturgical assembly has received Communion” and moves on to “Standing as the posture for receiving Communion” and “Communicants standing and singing the Communion hymn after returning to their places”. He does include Cardinal Arinze’s permission for “personal piety” expressed by kneeling, but one gets the impression that is merely giving lip service to it so that no one can bring it up.

There even seems to be a veiled threat regarding the pastor’s implementation of this posture during Communion: “I also expect that proper catechesis has or will accompany their implementation. It is unfair to our people merely to say: ‘This is what the bishop wants.”

One immediately wants to add “what will happen if the pastor doesn’t give “proper catechesis”?

By No. 8 he is talking about the communal and unitive aspects of Communion and tells us that “this is not a private moment. It is not simply a time for personal devotion.” He is willing to concede that

When the distribution of communion is finished, as circumstances suggest…

“Circumstances”, are that Mass must finish on schedule so that the parking lot can be emptied before parishioners arriving for the next Mass begin to arrive. Bishop Pilla knows this.

the priest and faithful spend some time praying privately. Otherwise the GIRM presumes that the entire liturgical assembly is engaged in communal actions, primarily the Communion procession and singing the Communion hymn. Our prayer during the distribution and reception of the Eucharist is the Communion hymn. The hymn is not just traveling music or a fancy way of dressing up this ritual moment. It is our prayer. …

Ah yes…”Eat His body, drink His blood, and we’ll sing a song of love, aleluli, aleluli, alelulia.” Sigh. Visions of the natives dancing around the boiling pot abound.

Regardless of what posture individuals may take after receiving the Eucharist, joining in the Communion hymn as our common prayer reveals that Communion is about communion with Christ and one another. In our diocese, we have also tried “to highlight more clearly the ‘communitarian’ nature” [emphasis mine] of the Communion Rite by encouraging standing throughout the entire Communion procession for those who are able.

GIRM, #43 states that “the faithful should stand…from the invitation, Orate, fraters (Pray, brethren), before the prayer over the offerings until the end of Mass, except at the places indicated below.” These exceptions include when the liturgical assembly “may sit or kneel while the period of sacred silence after Communion is observed” (meaning, after Holy Communion has been distributed to everyone) and, in the United States, during the Eucharistic Prayer when the faithful ordinarily kneel. The other time when the faithful may kneel before the end of Mass is when the priest celebrant elevates the Eucharist and says: “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world…” However, the GIRM allows the diocesan bishop to determine another posture for this ritual moment. In the Diocese of Cleveland, we stand during the priest’s invitation and our response: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you…”

Since implementing this norm in our diocese, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments continues to offer clarifications on the Communion Rite. It has proposed reasonable exceptions to this norm: namely, those who are unable to stand due to age, infirmity, or personal piety. In fact, these were noted in the first round of diocesan catechesis that we did in the Fall of 2003.

Since then, Francis Cardinal Arinze, the Prefect of the Congregation, has reminded diocesan bishops that directives about posture should avoid any appearance of rigid regimentation. I believe that we have done this…

However, I am unaware of any documentation that allows entire communities simply to ignore this norm because they do not like it or because it interferes with their private prayer.

Apparently in Bishop Pilla’s opinion it is not possible for an entire parish to be pious enough to want to kneel.

A period of silence after Communion interferes with the time schedule. A period of silence for private prayer before Mass begins it not possible because of the commotion of parishioners arriving for Mass. A period of silence after Mass is not possible because of the commotion of departing parishioners. Most churches are locked when Mass is not taking place.

In short, eliminating a period of silence after Communion insures that there will be no opportunity for the laity to pray privately before the Blessed Sacrament so as to make a personal thanksgiving to the Lord who has sacrificed Himself for them. This directive of the Bishop puts a barrier between the Communicant and his Lord, between the pious and the object of that piety. It forces the laity to be content with a man-focused Sunday worship experience which is not in line with the directive handed down by Cardinal Arinze nor consistent with the desire to worship God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

It is, however, consistent with the thinking of the Lodge, where the emphasis is upon the needs of your fellow man and a de-emphasis on the transcendent aspect of God, particularly as He has manifested Himself to us in the body of Jesus Christ.


Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!