Culture underpins all liturgy

26th September 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing Columnist

In unison with the first Sunday of Advent, the new Roman Missal will ring in a new era of Mass prayers and responses that are mostly a step back to the future. Touted by the Vatican as a tightened-up liturgy more devotional and uplifting for the people, the new Roman Missal brings the translation more in line with the original Latin Mass.

These changes that hark back to the hallowed Latin indicate that the Roman Church still has a seemingly irresistible penchant for engaging the whole Church in a Greco-Roman way of thinking, chanting, singing, praying, preaching and praising.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with this or undesirable about it as long as one is dealing with a given populace that has Greco-Roman roots and is now living in a live culture that stems from said Greco-Roman roots. Yet, even under these root realities, the liturgy must deal with questions and issues about hybrid cultures of today.

Beyond hybrid Greco-Roman cultures are the many other cultures that are very different from the Greco-Roman. People heavily invested with these cultures do not relate to the Greco-Roman, just as Greco-Roman adherents do not relate to those others.

Even the term “chants” brings cultural baggage with it. Although I literally grew up with Plain Chant in St. Augustine High School Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and still find it easy to sing it, now I find it to be a deficient tool in bringing the Good News to people not grounded in that Latin heritage, but rather in an ethnic one.

Is it a strange irony that this vernacular and locally-ethnic discussion, so stressed and championed in Vatican II, is now being occluded by dipping back into the world of Greco-Roman chants and rituals of yore? “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” has the correlative meaning, “When not in Rome, do as the non-Romans do.”

Naturally — or supernaturally — we are not referring to faith and morals, for there is no cultural twist or bent to faith and morals. Rather, our reference is to the telling of the Good News through language, song, musical instruments, dress, customs and traditions. Amazon tribal customs, for example, are a far cry removed from Roman customs.

These statements are not intended to demean the Greco-Roman culture, but rather to encourage its adjustment to the individual needs of ethnic groups of every kind.

“Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere!” sang the African slaves in the darkest days of their sojourn in the Americas. The spiritual mystery, the sheer power, inspiration and overwhelming joy of that Negro Spiritual buoys believers up all over the world throughout the year, especially during the Christmas season.

It was a great tragedy that the Roman Church forbade such bursting-real music in all Roman Catholic Churches until a small breakthrough in the early fifties when the melodies without lyrics were tolerated. Till that time, if an organ, a melody, lyrics or beat was not Greco/Roman/European, it was deemed not sacred and therefore not allowed.

I cannot think of anything more sacred than, “Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere! Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!” Among many others, you can add, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

How did Church authorities miss understanding that the slaves had a truer version of the Good News than all the preachers, teachers and instructors in all the churches?

Finally, in the early fifties, the slave melodies were allowed to be sung in church, but only as an attachment to the Latin parts of the Mass. I was a witness to this as I was entering my studies in philosophy at the St. Aug­ustine Major Seminary in Bay St. Lo­uis, Mis­s­issippi. We sang those parts pioneered by a Caucasian nun in Texas at that time.

In any case, a heavy caveat comes with changes that promise a better way of worship, prayer and liturgical celebrations. We may be deluded into thinking that we will be better off because of change, whereas change of itself effects nothing good. Unless we make the changes work better for us, we will not improve whatever we are doing.

The supreme rule in conceiving, voicing and working out the liturgy must be to bring the people closer to God in prayer of thanksgiving, praise, worship and song. All this must come from the laity in order to be true liturgy, the action of the people.

This article was originally published in the September 26, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper