Towards a New Cluny

On this, the Feast of Saint Benedict, I thought I’d ruminate on the meaning of “reform”.

Typically, when the Church, or some organization within the Church, has talked about reform, the word pretty specifically meant clearing out the laxness and shortcuts that had appeared in practices, devotions, and liturgy.

The fact is, all organizations staffed by humans tend to get a little lazy over time. Even the Monastic Rule set up by St. Benedict in the 6th century has suffered bouts of laxity. You’d think with the Benedictine Order having the motto Ora et Labora (pray and work), the order of business would be pretty clear.

But no. Every couple of hundred years, a new reform movement arises to put the spine back into the monasteries.

One of the great early reforms was undertaken by the Abbey of Cluny under its great reforming Abbots in the 10th century. In many of the monasteries in Europe, the monks had come to live an indolent life. Their liturgical life was whittled down to nothing; in some cases they had even given up praying the Hours.

Cluny made its mission the restoration of the liturgy. They figured that all other reform would flow naturally from that. And they were right.

The conscientious celebration of the Hours and the Mass requires discipline and planning. Although the monks themselves lived simple lives, they devoted their efforts (and the donations they received) to making the liturgy beautiful and celebrating it as reverently as they could.

When the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council called for liturgical reform, this seems to be what they were aiming for. If you read Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Fathers talk about a restoration of the rites.

They seem to be aiming for lay liturgical participation (rather than strictly devotional participation) in the Mass. They seem to be saying that the Low Mass should really be discontinued in favour of the Missa Cantata and the High Mass. They talk about “noble simplicity” and the continuing use of Latin and a re-dedication to the use of Chant.

In other words, they seem to aiming for reform in the traditional Catholic usage.

This is not, however, what happened, either in the Mass or in the Office.

Instead, the Mass and the Office were radically simplified, translated into the vernacular, and sandwiched between folk songs.

Now, I don’t necessarily think that the vernacular is a bad thing, especially in the parts of the Mass that change from Mass to Mass, the readings and perhaps the propers. At the other end of the scale, forcing English onto the Kyrie is just plain goofy. For crying out loud, that part stayed in Greek when the rest of the Missal was put into Latin in the 2nd or 3rd century.

There is doubtless a happy medium.

At least part of the problem was the 1970s English translation, which I’ve discussed before.

The Church has a lot of issues today in the West: scandals with some members of the clergy, declining Mass attendance, aging populations, indifference. But like the Clunaic Reform 1,100 years ago, we must start with the liturgy. Save the Liturgy, Save the World!

This is why Pope Benedict XVI has explicitly called for a “New Liturgical Movement” to better make clear the majesty and mystery of the liturgy.

And this “reform of the reform”, or perhaps better “true reform”, is spreading.

What I see as absolutely necessary and urgent, according to what the Pope wishes, is giving life to a new, clear and vigorous liturgical movement throughout the entire Church”, to put an end to “arbitrary deformations” and the process of “secularisation, which unfortunately is at work even inside the Church.”

It is known how Ratzinger has wanted to introduce in the papal liturgies significant and exemplary gestures: the cross at the center of the altar, communion kneeling, Gregorian chant, the space for silence. It is known how much he values beauty in sacred art and how much he considers it important to promote Eucharistic adoration.

(Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, November 2010)

The new English translation of the Mass will help in English-speaking countries. It is both more accurate to its Latin antecedents, and more poetic and sacral.

There’s even talk that the translation of the GIRM found in the new Missal will go a long way towards emphasizing the importance of chant to the liturgy.

Reform is not, and cannot be, an exclusively top-down effort. Many, many ordinary Catholics are working towards building this New Liturgical Movement, this new Cluny.

As we rediscover the sacred in the liturgy, we will strengthen our own beliefs, and we will live out the Christian mission with greater fervour and love.

The ancient phrase for this is lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi: the law of prayer is the law of belief is the law of life. In other words, the way we worship forms what we believe which in turn forms how we live. It is only by reforming the liturgy that we can reform the world.