Guido Marini, The Suffering Servant

Andrew Haines is the editor of Ethika Politika. He offers some very interesting reflections on the current liturgical moment.

Excerpt:

There is the illuminating observation by Chesterton that what St. Benedict stored up, St. Francis saw as his mission to scatter about. The work of storing up and of sowing are very different ones. The first entails arduous, long labor: gathering a full crop into the barns for safe keeping is no light task. The second, scattering, is perhaps lighter work; though it requires significantly greater risk, since an entire season’s hopes are pinned on the irreversible distribution of a very limited and valuable supply of seeds.

The pain I experience with seeing the new pope’s liturgies is probably more the result of his intense joy at all other times. I sense acutely that my desire to serve is much thinner than my affection for a beautiful Mass. And I’m aware that the joy I know is possible through a sacramental encounter with the Lord is not often enough reflected in my life with family and with others.

The absolute wrong response, here, is to cast off the sacred liturgy as something overblown and impractical. However, fostering an affection for the liturgy in se is hardly enough, either. I don’t believe those are the only two options on the table; but determining what other concrete options do exist is not, perhaps, as easy as we’d like to think.

More