Peter makes a
big mistake at the Transfiguration, a mistake he has made more than once – a mistake
I, and most priests, have made more than once. He spoke when he should have
kept silent. Cardinal Sarah, in his book The
Power of Silence says it with unsettling clarity: I sometimes have the impression that celebrants fear the free, personal
interior prayer of the faithful so much that they talk from one end of the
ceremony to the other so as not to lose control of them.
Actually,
that is why Peter spoke, in fact, he interrupts. He wanted somehow to 'control'
this event which was unfolding before his eyes. He wanted to take an
'initiative' – to 'make' the liturgy, so to speak. So we heard that Moses and
Elijah: were talking with Jesus. Peter
interrupts and speaks to Jesus: ‘Rabbi,’
he said ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for
you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’
How
embarrassing! How out of place! It certainly lends wait to what Cardinal Sarah
proposes about priests who can't stop talking at Mass because they 'fear'
losing control. Peter spoke when he shouldn't have and Mark attempts an apology
for him: He did not know what to say;
they were so frightened.
I'm sure in
later years, when the Apostles found themselves sharing a quiet evening chat
over a glass of wine, either James or John would have poked Peter in the ribs
and reminded him of what he said when Jesus took them up the hill. And Peter
would have blushed.
Sarah
believes that our talkative attitudes to the Liturgy betray: a profound lack of understanding of the
insights of Vatican Council II. I find this interesting because many times
I have heard Vatican II, or rather 'the spirit of Vatican II, quoted as the
justification for a noisy church. Sarah makes it clear that in the thought of
the Vatican II Council Fathers: the
liturgy is a divine action, an actio Christi. In the presence of it, we are
overcome with a silence of admiration and reverence. The quality of our silence
is the measure of the quality of our active participation.
Perhaps we
can understand this better if we consider how when people come near to the
bedside of a dying person in hospital they immediately and instinctively drop
their voices and, as much as possible, remain silent. This silence shows they
have an awareness of where they are and of the mystery that is taking place.
Their silence shows their active
participation.
And so it
should be in the presence of the divine mystery contained in the tabernacle and
in the sacraments celebrated in church. There, too, the quality of our silence (not just the absence of talking, no,
the quality of our silence) is the measure of the quality of our active
participation.
Perhaps the
cardinal has put it more simply with these words: There is no real silence in liturgy unless we are turned toward the
Lord in our heart. But true silence is the silence of our passions, the heart
purified of carnal impulses, washed of all our hatreds and resentments,
oriented toward the holiness of God.
Let me
conclude with a story I found in the Garabandal Magazine last week. It
demonstrates an important truth about the irresistible power of silence and the
inadequacy of 'words' in the liturgy. It concerns a man called Maximo Föerschler, a German engineer. He
was present some decades ago at a certain Mass and he felt great emotion when
he saw the author's parents, and presumably in-laws, taking Holy Communion with
great respect and devotion. He could see that those people were neither
ignorant nor stupid; they were lawyers, doctors, engineers. At the conclusion
of Mass he came into the sacristy and asked to be received into the Catholic
Church. After some preparation he was baptised in the Cathedral.
Maximo would not have been the first person to
be drawn into the Church by the power of the reverence and wordless devotion
shown by ordinary people receiving Holy Communion.
Satan is attacking the Eucharist today by
trying to remove the sense of the sacred from our liturgy and from our hearts.
Unless we make deliberate personal decisions to resist these attacks he will
succeed. Perhaps more will be said of this at a later time.
