Myth And Ritual In Christianity Part 12

Tlae Pension 1 49 continue, to go on piling up memories indefinitely. Physical death is then understood as the instrument of eternal renewal. It is not only the transformation of life into food; it is also the wiping away of memory, of the past, which, if it continued to acc.u.mmulate indefinitely, would strangle all creative life with a sense of unutterable monotony. Physical death is the in, voluntary end of the memorysystem called myself-the end of my time. But the real and eternal Self does not die at death--for the paradoxical reason that it wills to "die", to "end", eternally, and is therefore "new" at every moment.

Behold, I make all things new.... It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.... Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me.'

To put it less symbolically-the world of reality is ever.present, always at an end because it has no future, and always new because it has no past.2 In the Ma.s.s, then, we represent the crux of the whole Myth: the bread and wine which we are, because we eat it, becomes by Sacrifice the Body and Blood (i.e. Life) of Christ. And this, in turn, we eat again so that it becomes us, making our body and blood Christ's. This is why the myth so properly insists that the Ma.s.s is much more than a mere symbol: the bread and wine become in actuality and not alone in figure the very Christ. It is precisely in the almost magical character of the Catholic Ma.s.s that its whole truth lies, and all attempts to rationalize the Mystery deprive it of its real point. For in every

I Revelation 2I: 5, 6; 22: I2.

2 Cf. Jami, Lam'ib, xxvi: "The universe consists of accidents pertaining to a single substance, which is the Reality underlying all existences. This universe is changed and renewed unceasingly at every moment and every breath. Every instant one universe is annihilated and another resembling it takes its place... . In consequence of this rapid succession, the spectator is deceived into the belief that the universe is a permanent existence." Trs. Whinfield and Kazwini (London, 1906).

xgo Myth and Ritual in Christianity way the rite of the Ma.s.s concentrates upon a point-the point of time at which the priest utters the solemn words, Hoc est enim Corpus meum, Hoc est enim Calix Sanguinis mei, and the point of s.p.a.ce, the altar, where the attention of the whole congregation is focused in its wors.h.i.+p of the Sacramental Presence. Yet because the Ma.s.s is also a symbol as well as an actual Mystery, this one point is the temporal and spatial "focus" of the point of the Eternal Now, in which and at which the very universe is Christ's Body. In the language of time and s.p.a.ce the miracle of transubstantiation is limited to a particular point of time and s.p.a.ce-to that bread and wine ritually consecrated. But from the eternal point represented by the temporal point the miracle of transubstantiation does not become but is, from the foundation of the world, and includes the entire creation.'

The actual rite of the Ma.s.s is, as we saw, divided into two parts-the Ma.s.s of the Catechumens and the Ma.s.s of the Faithful. The former is a re.adaptation of the Jewish synagogue service, consisting of prayers and readings. The actual action of the Ma.s.s does not begin until the Ma.s.s of the Faithful. It is I It should hardly be necessary to labour this point, for the symbolism of the Ma.s.s is so clear and obvious-the transformation of the substance of life into the divine nature. However, official theology in its peculiar horror of anything that might possibly suggest "pantheism"--the doctrine that all "things" are G.o.d-has very much discouraged any interpretation of the Ma.s.s which fails to confuse the language of myth with that of science, But, as a matter of fact, pantheism has never been a part of the philasopbia peren~is, since it would be absurd to identify with G.o.d those "things" which, as we have seen, exist in a verbal and conventional sense alone. This deeper significance of the Ma.s.s is beginning to appear again in the contemporary Liturgical Reform movement within the Church, whereas during the whole period of the transubstantiation controversies with Protestantism a very narrow view of the Ma.s.s prevailed. Its essential work was, as it were, stopped short at the altar, and the communicant remained in actual touch with the True Body only for so long as the sacred species continued undissolved in his stomach! However, Patristic views were quite otherwise, as St. Leo, in Serino 63 (MPL, liv, 357), "Nothing else is aimed at in our partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ than that we change into what we consume, and ever bear in spirit and in flesh him in whom we have died, been buried, and have risen."

The Pa.s.sion s divided into three main phases-Offertory, Consecration, and Communion. The Offertory is the presentation of the bread and wine at the altar, and represents the offering of ourselves, the laying open of humanity to G.o.dhead in the spirit of the Virgin's "Be it unto me according to thy word". In the Consecration the priest a.s.sumes the pan of Christ and repeats the actions of the Last Supper, as described above, performing with his hands what he also says in words-concluding with the solemn breaking of the Host, called the Fraction, because an essential part of the Mystery is that the By of Christ is broken and divided and yet remains entire in every fragment. The "natural" world of separate "things" is always the seeming division of the supernatural, which, however, remains One and undifferentiated. In the final act of Communion all the clergy and people gather at the altar and consume the sacred elements, brought to them by the priest and his attendant ministers.'

The Ma.s.s which is celebrated on the Thursday of Holy Week is, then, a very special commemoration in honour of Christ's first celebration of this Mystery. The Gloria in excelsis, ordinarily omitted in Lent, is sung, and at this time the bells of the church ring out for the last time until Easter. During the Ma.s.s the priest consecrates a special Host which, when the Ma.s.s is over, is placed in the Chalice, veiled, and, attended with lights, is carried in solemn procession to a sidealtar radiant with candles and flowers. In this fas.h.i.+on the Church accompanies 1 In the Roman Catholic rite the Chalice is not received by any but the priest himself, a restriction dating from early mediaeval times when, because of the prevalence of s.h.a.ggy moustaches and beards which might catch drops of the consecrated wine, precautions were taken to preserve the Blood of Christ from profanation. Not all of the consecrated bread is consumed in the Communion, and that which remains is "reserved" in a tabernacle upon the altar which is ceremoniously veiled and attended by an everburning light. This "reservation of the Sacrament" is for the purpose of leaving the Host ready at all times for the Communion of the sick and dying, and to const.i.tute the perpetual centre of devotion for the faithful who visit the church outside the time of Ma.s.s.

Christ to the Garden of Gethsemane, singing as it goes the great hymn of St. Thomas Aquinas, Pange lingua:

Now, my tongue, the mystery telling Of the glorious Body, sing,

And the Blood, all price excelling, Which the nations Lord and King, In a Virgin's womb once dwelling, Shed for this world's ransoming.

At the sidealtar the Host is reserved throughout the remaining hours of the day and night until the morning of Good Friday, and during this time groups of the faithful take turns at the altar to keep the vigil with Christ in the Garden.

After Vespers have been sung, the priest and his ministers go to the high altar and strip off its fine cloths of linen and silk while the choir sings:

They parted my garments among them; And upon my vesture they cast lots

remembering how Christ was stripped of his clothes before crucifixion. This done, the priest puts aside his purple cope (i.e. cloak), girds himself with a linen towel and, taking a vessel of water, goes and washes the feet of the faithful. He pours a little water on the right foot of each person, wipes it with a towel, and kisses it, and, while he reenacts the humility of Christ in was.h.i.+ng the feet of his disciples after the Supper, there is chanted the antiphon:

Mandatum novum do vobis-A new commandment I give you: that you love one another, as I have loved you, saith the Lord.

And thus in English,speaking lands this day is called Maundy Thursday from the first word of this antiphon-mandatum, a commandment.

In a monastic church where the Divine Office is regularly sung in choir, the ensuing hours of the night are observed with the marvelous rite of Tenebrae or "Darkness, consisting of the special version of Matins and Lauds appropriate to Holy Week. By the altar there is set a triangular stand upon which there burn fifteen unbleached candles, one of which is extinguished at the end of each psalm composing the Office-in representation of the desertion of Christ by his disciples. The psalms are interspersed with various anthems and lections from the scriptures and the Fathers, so that the whole the may last for two or more hours.

The profound psychological effect of Tenebrae is largely dependent upon the "contemplative tone of the endlessly flowing Gregorian chant to which the words are sung. Unlike modern, and like most types of "traditional" music, it has no fixed rhythm, so that it follows the natural rhythm of the spoken word. Furthermore, it has a peculiarly impersonal quality. That is to say, it is not at Al suggestive of strong individual emotions, and lacks the "personal style" which post.Renaissance composers have worked so a.s.siduously to cultivate. It is therefore a music possessed of a universal and supraindividual character wholly suited to the words of the Divine Office, and likewise of the Ma.s.s itself, since these are understood to be the words of G.o.d and not of man. Indeed, the entire principle of wors.h.i.+p is that man speaks, not words, but the Word, in expression of the fact that he is "no longer I but Christ" .l As Tenebrae proceeds into the night the church grows darker and darker. Psalm by psalm the candles at the altar are put out, and towards the end Al other lights in the church are extinguished too, until one solitary light remains at the apex of the stand. This is Christ alone, surrounded by the "forces of darkness when all lus disciples have fled. At a deeper level Galatians a: so. Strictly speaking, then, Christianity knows of no such thing as "private prayer", which is actually a contradiction in terms. Man is related to G.o.d only as Christ, and never as "I".

Tenebrae is a representation of the spiritual journey into the "Dark Night of the Soul", the disappearance of light symbolize ing the progressive realization that "I am nothing". After the singing of the Canticle of Zacharias, the Benedictus, the one light remaining is taken out and concealed behind the altar so that the church is plunged into total darkness.

Even Christ has gone-"crucified, dead, and buried". There is nothing whatsoever left to which "I" can cling. Every belief and hope, even in G.o.d, which seemed to offer life to the "I" has been taken away, for as Christ said to his disciples, "It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Paraclete (the Holy Spirit) cannot come unto you."' This is, then, the "cloud of unknowing", the "divine darkness, of St. Dionysius in which it is discovered that because all "knowledge" is memory, knowledge of that which was, all our knowledge amounts to nothing in so far as it fails entirely to grasp That which is. But in the now total darkness and silence of the church there is a sudden, sharp noise, and the one candle is brought back to its place on the stand-whereupon all leave the church in silence. This strepitus or sudden noise, heralding the return of the light, of the "one point" of fire, is the promised Resurrection into Life-always "sudden" in representation of the timeless and instant nature of eternity.

The day of the Crucifixion, known as Good Friday or the Friday of the Preparation (for the Pa.s.sover), is observed with the sombre splendour of the Ma.s.s of the Presanctified. The clergy, vested in black, come to the bare altar and celebrate the ritual drama of the Pa.s.sion according to John, singing the 18th and rgth chapters of the Gospel, from the Agony in the Garden to the Burial in the tomb of St. Joseph of Arimathaea. This done, the priest chants some sixteen prayers of intercession for the Church and for the whole human race. When these are ended, he receives from the deacon of the ma.s.s a great wooden crucifix veiled in black. He holds it up 'John 16: 7.

FIG. 8 THE CRUCIFIXION.

This extraordinary woodcut was made in Rennes, France, about 1830. It

shows almost the full symbolism of the Gross as the Tree of Life, surmounted

by the figure of G.o.d the Father and the Dove of the Holy Spirit. To the left

and right are the sun and moon, the sponge and the spear. Below, the Skull of

Golgotha is clearly a.s.sociated with the sphere of the world, encircled by the

Serpent. I am unable to account for the peculiar symbolism of the dismem'

bored heads and limbs, except by a.s.sociation with other traditions in which the

divine sacrifice is snore explicitly a dismemberment than a crucifixion.

1 56 Myth and Ritual in Christianity before the people, and, unveiling the top part, sings upon a low note

Ecce lignum crads-Behold the wood of the cross, on which hung the Saviour of the world.

And the choir responds: Venite adoremus-Come let us adore.

Unveiling the right arm of the crucifix, the same words are sung again louder and a little higher. Finally the whole crucifix is laid bare, and the words are cried out once more upon a note higher still. The "wood of the cross" is placed before the altar upon a cus.h.i.+on, where the priest removes his shoes, kneels before it and kisses it, all the people following him in tum.

As the adoration of the Wood of the Cross proceeds, the choir sings the Reproaches:

O my people, what have I done unto thee ? or in what have I afflicted thee? answer me.

Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt, thou halt prepared a Cross for thy Saviour.

The Reproaches are interspersed with an ancient Greek litany-the use of Greek rather than Latin indicating the great antiquity of this rite.

Agios o Thos-O holy G.o.d, to which are echoed the same words in Latin-Sanctus Deus!

And the Litany proceeds: Agios ischyros-O holy mighty One! Sanctus fortis!

The Pa.s.sion 1 57 Agios athanatos, eleison imas-O holy immortal One, have mercy upon us!

Sanctus immortalis, miserere n.o.bis!

The Reproaches call to mind all the "types" of salvation bestowed upon the Chosen People in the Old Testament--the manna in the desert, the opening of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire, the water from the rack, and the sceptre of the Throne of David-the while reproaching the People for crucifying the Substance of which these types were the shadows.

I gave thee a royal sceptre, and thou halt given me a crown of thorns.

Yet it is just here that the rite brings out the marvelous paradox of the whole Crucifixion Mystery. On the one hand, the wood of the Cross is the entire summation of man's ignorance and sin, being the instrument of torture which it prepared for the Man who is G.o.d. On the other hand, the Reproaches close with the antiphon: