It would mean coming down to the people’s level. It may promote humility, but it promotes a false sense of equality.
You make a good point. I’ll reword it this way: The priesthood is a higher state of life than being part of the laity. Also, the celibate state of life is higher than the married state.
The celibate state is a higher state only if you’re a religious who has made a vow of chastity. A secular or diocesan priest does not make a vow of celibacy. He makes a promise of celibacy to his bishop. Canonically and theologically there is a difference.
When a religious makes a vow of chastity, which obviously includes celibacy, he or she becomes a consecrated person. When a secular man makes a promise of celibacy prior to his ordination, he does not become a consecrated man. The promise of celibacy is a discipline, not an act of consecration. Therefore, the Church does not see it as part of the sacrament of Holy Orders, but as something that is added for those men who are single and wish to become deacons. In actuality the promise is not made when one is ordained a priest. It is made at the the ordination to the diaconate, if the man is not married.
Whether the cleric (the proper term for deacons, priests and bishops) is married or not, he is not a lay person. Those who are ordained belong to the clerical state. The Church does not view it as a higher state in sanctity, but it is part of the hierarchy of the Church. In this regard, even deacons are part of the hierarchy of the Church.
As to preaching in the nave, the question has always been an interesting one, because the rubrics us the phrase “other suitable place”. The usual place from which to preach would be the chair or the ambo.
Some deacons, priests and bishops do preach from the center of the sanctuary or even from the floor of the nave. My guess, only a guess, is that it depends on the person and the layout of the church building. Some church buildings are wider than they are long. The pulpit or ambo is usually to one side of the sanctuary. When the congregation is wider than it is deep, then you feel as if you were in a corner and very far from the other side of the congregation. In those cases you tend to move toward the center, even is you have to stand in the nave.
I know that when I have preached in certain churches that are designed in a semi circle, I feel as if I’m in a corner and in the Churches that are longer than they are wide, the ambo is comfortable, because I can see everyone.
Another concern sometimes is the fact that the accustics of some churches are horrible. If you have never stood up in a sanctuary you have not had the experience of hearing your voice come back at you. You tend to look for a position where you can speak without having to listen to yourself.
The reason for moving into the nave may be personal preference, accustics, or better visual contact with the entire congregation due to the architecture of the building. Certainly, accustics and visual contact would count as good reasons to find a more suitable place.
But the rubrics are very clear that the homiliy should be delivered from the chair if the preacher is a priest or a bishop or from the ambo for all clerics: deacons, priests and bishops. However, the ruling has nothing to do with the difference between the clerical and the lay state. It is because the celebration of both liturgies: Word and Eucharist should take place in the sanctuary. This is the paradigm that was handed down to us from Judaism. If you go to a synogogue the entire liturgy takes place on the sanctuary. The rabi, cantor and other minsiters never leave the sanctuary as this is the Holy of Holies. This tradition was kept alive by the ancient Church.
I’m not sure if this helps.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
