Monday, November 13, 2006

A Cold and Concelebration


Apart from offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, I spent most of the day in bed with a streaming nose and streaming eyes; no sympathy please, it is just a cold, and it will pass. I have a dreadful temptation though, which is to use it as an excuse not to concelebrate the annual deanery Mass for deceased clergy. The truth is I hate concelebrating. I wouldn’t mind attending in choir (wearing cassock and cotta). I don’t quite understand the theology of concelebrating.
At the seminary we were told it was a return to the ancient practice of the Church, preserved in the East. Yet having read Eastern theologians on the subject they would understand what they do in terms of assisting at Mass, dressed in liturgical vestments yes, but not “saying Mass” in our western sense, indeed surplus priests in the east would hardly open their mouths behind the iconostasis, let alone making any gesture, to indicate they were “co” or “con” –celebrating. I have never heard of the vast concelebrations in the East that we have in the West.
I knew an old priest who was a little eccentric and used pride himself on concelebrating things like the Chrism Mass, he would say the words of consecration sotto voce but always a little ahead of the bishop and other priests, and afterwards he would tell me, he had, “got in before everyone else”, and therefore all their Masses were invalid, “because they were merely saying words over elements that were already consecrated.”
I understand that having dozens of clergy celebrating especially with the bishop is a sign of the unity of the presbyterate and in that sense has an important purpose and people seem to like it.
The problem is most liberal clergy see it as sign of unnecessary division in the Church and traditionalists like me cannot see its purpose.
Now my eyes are streaming again and I am sweating, so maybe tomorrow I will have no choice but to stay home.

5 comments:

Physiocrat said...

Concelebrated masses look appalling, they put across the "them and us" message big time, and when the clergy are all dressed just in albs they look like members of some weird sect, druids or something. Yuk. Look after your cold and stay indoors, you do not want to make it worse by going out in the rain forecast for tomorrow.

What is the collective noun for priests, by the way?

Monica said...

Father, I quite agree with you. A similar question came up on another blog and I posed the following question:

How many Masses are said if 10 priests concelebrate at the same altar at the same time? If 1, but if each of the 10 priests accepted a stipend for 10 separate intentions, would does that mean?

I've often heard it said that concelebration also indicates the unity of the apostolic band (ie the bishops). Since the Mass is the re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary, how many other priests (apostles) concelebrated that sacrifice? (Think we know the answer to that one)

I've never understood the practice and, you're right, it is not as prevelant in the East as some Western clergy (maybe with a particular theological axe to grind) wouold have us believe.

Hope you're cold improves - I have one too and I find that a dose of good quality single malt (preferably from the western isles) helps.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Interesting idea Augustinus; if I was an Eastern Rite priest I would say ten priests equals one liturgy, no matter whether they were celebrated at one altar or ten or even spread over a thousand years, because there is just one liturgy and because the priest stands in the place of the one High Priest, Jesus Christ.
The Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary but that is the manifestation of the eternal offering, or self-giving of the Son to the Father, the Heavenly Liturgy in which we join with Angels and Saints.

Anonymous said...

LOOOOOOOOOL your story of the priest getting in there before everyone else did make me giggle!

Anonymous said...

The next time you see a concelebrated mass on a Saturday, think of how many parishes had to do without a Saturday mass...

Concelebration destroys the idea of "one sacrifice, one priest". I mean who exactly is acting in persona Christi at a concelebrated mass - certainly not all of them!

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