More than a year ago, I posted a spiritual reflection titled “The Modern Cross” looking at the struggles that the Church is involved in, and how this manifests itself liturgically: http://www.beingfrank.co.nz/?p=967 Have a read if you didn’t see it; you might find it helpful and fruitful; and it might be a building block for this post.

I was talking with a friend a few days ago, and he gave me some insights that I want to mention here. This week I want to discuss a certain aspect of our Eucharistic worship: silence, or, in the current times the lack of it. I am struck by how we no longer know why silence is important in the liturgy. There is so much noise at almost every moment of our liturgy that it has become very difficult to pray in a fruitful way, and very difficult to rest in Our Lord. Silence is a means, to allow for supernatural contemplation, which is a fruit of Christian adoration. Contemplation is a fruit of adoration, and these need to be enveloped in the silence of a loving gaze, like when two lovers gaze into each other’s eyes, without the need of words. The finality of the Christian life is contemplation, not action. It is what we will all be in, in Divine Love, in Heaven. We should leave our most profound moments of adoration to be had and entered into, in silence. And when are we, the Church, given entry to adore the Mystery in the deepest sense? Is it not during the Eucharistic Prayer (the Canon) at Mass? My friends, this is why, in the Usus Antiquior (the old Mass), the Canon was prayed in a whisper.

It is done that way so as to aid us to enter the silence of Christ’s loving adoration of the Father, that he lives in the most intense way on the Cross, and which is represented on the Altars of the Church at Mass; it is also done so as to aid us to enter Mary’s Hearts, where she lives her union with Christ in silence – and the sword pierced Her Heart. And we can enter His contemplation, His adoration, in His love, by uniting ourselves to the Heart of Mary – that tabernacle and sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. Is this not what the Church is called to enter at the Eucharist? To adore God, through Christ, united to Her Heart? At this moment of Christ giving Himself to the Father on our behalf, and offering everything to us from His Heart (the Blood the Water, and Spirit), the covenant seal is opened, and all are offered access to the throne of grace: through, with, and in Jesus. This is signified in Revelation 8:1: “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” A further reflection, that I encountered the other day whilst talking to this friend, was that in His final week, Jesus condemns no-one. He no longer speaks in that way, and now enters the climatic moments of the gestures of the Cross, in loving silence.

In the book of Genesis, for the creation of man and woman, the first creation account manifests an order of transcendence, of intelligence, through spoken word, whilst the second creation account manifests an order of love, through loving gestures. There is here in the First Creation (natural creation of the cosmos, reaching a summit in the creation of man and woman), a movement from word to gesture, and this prefigures the same movement in the Second Creation (recreation in Christ), of word to gesture, reaching an ultimate moment on the Cross, with the piercing of the Heart, which will be received and expressed sacramentally in the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we have a movement from proclaimed Word, to loving gestures. Word ordered to Gestures of Love as expressed in the symbolic gestures during the Eucharistic Prayer.

This is why there should be a type of silence during the Canon: the whisper of love, where human words can no longer express the Infinite Love being revealed through the sacramental signs, through the sacramental gestures of the offering of Christ, the ultimate moment of the revelation of Love. This is where we can learn certain things for our new liturgy from the old. Even if the Canon in the new Mass is not prayed in silence, certainly at the moment of the consecration, our priests could bend forward in humility, lower their voices to the whisper of love, and reverently pray the words of consecration, to emphasize the gestures of Love which are being re-presented; to at least give rise to a respectful silence, so as to foster loving adoration, and loving contemplation. I have seen priests do this, and it is incredibly powerful, reverent, and moving; and certainly helps in allowing the Holy Spirit to draw us into the Mysteries being celebrated. Others, unfortunately, make a “show” of that moment, like a theatrical dramatic moment of grand gestures and “overacting,” – which tends to be counter-productive, and draws attention to themselves rather than Christ. It is a mystical dimension to our liturgy which we have tragically lost.

When we come to Mass, we come to adore in order to contemplate; from which we are sent out in mission, in order to bring others back to this Source. The Eucharist is the source and summit, as Vatican II taught, and it is the foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet, the Lamb’s Supper. We don’t go to Mass in order to go out and be active and to work. Contemplation is not ordered to activity; activity is ordered to contemplation. We go to Mass to adore and to contemplate, to bring our lives and to offer them, as a living sacrifice, with, through, and in Jesus; and when we have offered, and received from this Source, we go out to find others, to bring them to this Gift – so that they too can contemplate, and discover His Love. Contemplation in Christ is the finality; it is why Jesus came, to redeem us, and bring us into His Divine Life, His contemplation of the Father, in the Holy Spirit. I wonder whether all the activity and noise and agitation from our world, has got into our worship and almost killed our appreciation of silence, even at the high points of the Mass. We no longer understand a loving gaze upon Jesus, entering His gaze upon the Father.

Anyway, I found these insights from my friend helpful and I thought I would pass them on.