DavidJoseph:
But this is Jesus – GOD. And the Church has prepared guidelines on what is acceptable and what isn’t. It has said that Gregorian chant and pipe organ music should have pride of place and also said that any instruments and musical pieces that have a secular, profane connotation shouldn’t be used in the Mass. And before you say that if it’s used to praise God then it becomes sacred, let me remind you that what something is being used for – a sacred purpose – doesn’t automatically make it sacred. Sorry to be crass, but to make a comparision, you can spray perfume on poop, but it’ll still stink.
Jesus is God; therefore in all the activities of our life, whether sacred or secular, we are to give him glory. It is not because of his divinity that in the Liturgy we avoid the use of secular things. No, it is because as a sacred thing, we are drawing attention to its other-worldly nature. In it we are participating in the liturgy of heaven, so to speak – “we join with the angels and the saints in their unending hymn of praise” – and we “lift [our hearts] up to the Lord”. By avoiding these secular things, the visible, earthy qualities of this life, we draw attention to its invisible realities, to the cosmic – both spiritual and physical realms – significance of the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But it is not the case that we avoid things that have *any *secular or profane connotation. Rather, we avoid things that have a primarily or exclusively secular or profane connotation. Otherwise, we could not use the organ, for it has more than one secular connotation. In fact, as I have stated before, the organ itself once had almost exclusively secular associations.
Yes, Christ is risen, and that’s the same Christ we worship at Mass – He who lives BUT WHO ALSO HAD DIED. According to your logic, we might as well stop using crucifixes at Mass and instead use those risen-Christ crosses. That’s a major reason why many parishes have taken out crucifixes in the sanctuary against the express liturgical laws of the Church.
That is not my logic at all, especially since I was merely reiterating what the Church teaches on the matter and those who remove the crucifixes are doing it against the laws of the Church. Actually, those who use risen Christ crosses
for the above reason are being rather inconsistent, for the Cross has no significance apart from its role in the death of Christ. It is itself a memorial of his death.
My point is, while Mass is a time for celebration, we can’t focus on that to the detriment of the fact that the Mass is a sacrifice. I truly believe that losing sight of the Mass’s sacrificial aspect is a major cause of all the irreverence we see in Mass today. Heck, many “Catholics” these days wrongly claim that the Mass is just a communal meal commemorating Christ’s death and resurrection!
From the way you originally stated your question, I wouldn’t have known that was your point, because you painted a picture of Christ hanging on the cross and then asked if it was appropriate to play certain kinds of music there. To me it
seemed that you were committing the opposite error and focusing on the crucifixion at the expense of his resurrection.
Christ is now alive. He is ever present before the Father as both High-Priest and Sacrifice, but he does not remain dead. So, in the Mass, while Christ is made present to us as Sacrifice, this is not the presence of one who is dead. We remember his death, but now we live in his resurrection, having entered into his death through baptism.
So, let us use music that is fitting both for remembering his death and celebrating his resurrection. We need not do one at the expense of the other. The Church also gives us certain times of the Liturgical year in which we emphasize one more than the other. We have Lent, and then we have Easter.
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I also attended a bilingual service - was not a Mass, but a prayer service - part of Spiritfest celebration at the close of Disciples in Mission. Songs/prayers were in English & Spanish - the Spanish music was very lively, & Cardinal Keeler speaks fluent Spanish. I’ve been told that Mass at a predominantly black Catholic parish is a musical treat.
