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This morning I went to Chrism Mass at Saint Peter's. The Pope was the main celebrant, and concelebrating with the Holy Father were 2000+ priests. It was an incredible experience, and I have been touched anew by, in the first place, Pope Benedict XVI's love and wisdom, and secondly, by the reverence, simplicity, and power of the Catholic Liturgy.
I do not know how to adequately write about this experience. It was ineffable. It was not unlike a mystical experience, to be exact. How, then, can I write words to illustrate the beauty that is Love? How can I sufficiently illustrate the transcendence of the Infinite One that comes to meet His Creation in a total act of gift, a complete gift of charity, generosity, gratuity in order to be wholly immanent? How can I, through the medium of words, bring to light the great Light of God that powers the sun, and in His gift of the Son powers the human heart, animates man's eyes to see into the Kingdom of Heaven that is no other than the Lordship of God--the looking into the Eternal with hope, a hope that transforms and redeems, indeed a hope that expresses with joy: "My Lord and my God"!
The truth is that I cannot come close to illustrating any sort of experience with the Divine. But I hope, reader, that God somehow, miraculously, is able to touch you through my words, that you may see what I saw and soar as the angels did. Open your heart to the God of ascension who meets His creation in the Holy Mass through the Mediator of Jesus the Christ!
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As I sat in my seat in the grand basilica of Saint Peter's, I awaited for the entrance of the Supreme Pontiff and the beginning of the Divine Liturgy. As the music began, and the choir of--what sounded like--angels filled the cosmic space of the temple with heavenly sound, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI began to walk down the nave of the basilica to approach the sacred altar, the place of the feast of feasts. Before him were seminarians, some priests, and the initial object that began the procession: Christ on the Cross, the center of the Mass. As he walked down the aisle, the whole congregation was filled with joy, as they were about to experience the synthesis of the local church and the universal church headed by Rome's Bishop.
About half way down the aisle, the Pope stopped, looked to his right to see a father holding his young, smiling daughter. He stopped walking forward, and went over to the beautiful baby smiling in the arms of her daddy, in order to greet them, cherish them, and bless them. Immediately a tear touched my cheeks. How beautiful it is to see Love, compassion, appreciation, and joy personified in the lives of others! An arrow of admiration touched my heart, an arrow of wander and awe as a little daughter of the Most High was cherished in not only the arms of her father, but cherished, too, in the deep love of the Pontifex Maximus. Always will I be touched by the smile of a child. Always will I encounter in their faith and in their joy the bliss of Heaven.
Approaching the High Altar, the Bishop kissed the altar, expressing the beginning of a celebration that, though present, enters into the eternal. The Holy Mass began: "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sanci".
The whole Liturgy was exceptional. A great honor, it was, to be a part of a Liturgy with hundreds of priests, religious, and other pilgrims in the presence of Christ's humble vicar. Every part of the Liturgy expressed reverence and simplicity. The Choir, a group of men and young boys, filled the air within the Basilica with an aroma of sound. The Latin chants, the responses of thousands of voices, and the interior, silence that could be heard in the heart: Laus tibi, Christe!
After the readings of sacred Scripture, the Pope delivered his homily, and though in Italian, I was able to catch a few parts of it. Returning to campus, I immediately printed out an English translation of the copy online. Reading the words of Benedict XVI, the whole Mass I was able to mysteriously recapitulate within me: seeing, hearing, and sensing again--perhaps even greater--the sights, the sounds, and the pleasures of Heaven, of God, of the reality within the Liturgy.
The Pontiff opens up with a theology of sacrament. His analysis is excellent: "At the centre of the Church’s worship is the notion of 'sacrament'. This means that it is not primarily we who act, but God comes first to meet us through his action, he looks upon us and he leads us to himself. Another striking feature is this: God touches us through material things, through gifts of creation that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself." The point is clear. Benedict is teaching that the God of Creation saves through creation. The four elements of the sacraments, throughout Church history and within the Bible, are water, oil, bread, and wine. After explaining the significance of water, he illustrates that "the other three elements belong to the culture of the Mediterranean region...They point towards the concrete historical environment in which Christianity emerged. God acted in a clearly defined place on the earth, he truly made history with men. On the one hand, these three elements are gifts of creation, and on the other, they also indicate the locality of the history of God with us. They are a synthesis between creation and history". Thus the very revelation of God is history. It cannot be limited to just the Bible, but in fact must be understood as the whole of creation and history--the instruments that God, recapitulated in full by Jesus Christ, uses to orient his objects of love toward salvation. This is why in the history of the Church, we hear so often the phrase: "salvation history". It is because history is the story of salvation, and God's coming to man.
Focusing a large component of the homily on the olive, for indeed the Chrism Mass is about the blessing of the oils for the sacraments, the Pope explains the early Christian meaning of olives. The olive tree and oil itself, particularly in the early Church, were recognized as symbols of peace; early Christians often decorated tombs with olive branches, knowing that the "Christ conquered death and that their dead were resting in the peace of Christ. They knew that they themselves were awaited by Christ, that he had promised them the peace which the world cannot give". Then the Bishop brings the topic to us in the here and now. He preaches and inspires: "He himself, so to speak, bears the olive branch, he introduces his peace into the world. He announces God’s saving goodness. He is our peace. Christians should therefore be people of peace, people who recognize and live the mystery of the Cross as a mystery of reconciliation. Christ does not conquer through the sword, but through the Cross. He wins by conquering hatred. He wins through the force of his greater love." To live is parallel with love. If we cannot inundate ourself with charity, with living as gift existing-for-others, indeed with the Love of God that organically and necessarily flows from the self, when received from Above, toward the other at our side, then we are minimizing our life--cutting it short from the experience of true happiness, fulfillment and purpose. We are left astray in a world that is without hope if we do not seek to find the oil that springs from the fruit of Christ's Love, the oil that is our peace, that bears fruit within us of which we in turn give and communicate to others.
Moreover, oil is symbolic for strength in battle. "The battle of Christians consisted – and still consists – not in the use of violence, but in the fact that they were – and are – ready to suffer for the good, for God...The battle of the martyrs consists in their concrete “no” to injustice...Today too it is important for Christians not to accept a wrong that is enshrined in law – for example the killing of innocent unborn children."
At this point, perhaps the most touching part of the whole homily is spoken. Oil, as a symbol of peace, was recognized in the early Church as a symbol of the Holy Spirit: the "oil of gladness". His Holiness began to paint a picture of what it means to be a Christian, to be touched by Jesus Christ through the Spirit. It is to communicate gladness, to spread joy to others. He says that this gladness is much more than society's conception of an outward happiness based in pleasure. The gladness that comes from Christ, for-instance, contrary to pleasure can "co-exist with suffering. It gives us the capacity to suffer and, in suffering, to remain nevertheless profoundly glad. It gives us the capacity to share the suffering of others and thus by placing ourselves at one another’s disposal, to express tangibly the light and the goodness of God." Continuing, the Pope speaks: "Anyone who loves is ready to suffer for the beloved and for the sake of his love, and in this way he experiences a deeper joy".
To be Christian is to develop a relationship with the God who communicates an interior presence of Himself to the disciple that follows and opens his heart. It is to rid the self of a skewed egocentric universe, and pave the way for a proper self-view, one that looks internally into an open heart, where the Spirit of God rests. Thus relationship with God transforms egoism into Theoism. A proper egoism develops, one that sees with the eyes of God's Spirit. For it is this Spirit that enlightens the eyes of man, granting a new sense of sight, a sense that is able to see with the eyes of charity and compassion. Moreover, it is a sense that not only sees, but that simultaneously gives. In seeing properly, man necessarily learns to give. We only fail to give, when we fail to see. But when we see, truly see, then we give. And the only thing to see is the Love of God, that which sustains everything that is. And that is when we live.
The Pontiff finishes: "Let us pray that his gladness may pervade us ever more deeply and that we may be capable of bringing it anew to a world in such urgent need of the joy that has its source in truth. Amen."
How sad that this Pope is dismissed as overly conservative, as not compassionate, as mean or even as living the past. On the contrary, it only takes a look into his eyes when he displays his deep love for the family and children, or a reading of his wisdom that is truly inspired by an intense Love for beauty, goodness, and truth--for the God of Jesus Christ.
The Mass continued, and before the Liturgy of the Eucharist, there came the blessing of the oils for the sacraments, a reverent, prayerful part of the celebration.
During the actual Liturgy of the Eucharist, however, one point of the Liturgy particularly touched me. It was the voice of the Bishop accompanied by the voices of hundreds and hundreds of his apostles--brother priests. Kneeling for the act of creation's God coming to meet man in the elements of creation--bread and wine--it was as if, suddenly, I was awoken from a silent meditation. The prayerful and rhythmic words of the priests in persona Chrisi touched my heart:
Memores igitur, Domine, eiusdem Filii tui salutiferae passionis necnon mirabilis resurrectionis et ascensionis in caelum, sed et praestolantes alterum eius adventum, offerimus tibi, gratias referentes, hoc sacrificium vivum et sanctum.
And again, shortly after: Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso.
Truly, to hear the reverent voices of so man priests in persona Chrisi, words cannot describe. The Basilica was transported into the clouds and the whole congregation floating on the Love of God of which we participate in to exist, the Love of Christ that sustains creation and brings man home.
Finally, preparing for the reception of the Eucharistic, the congregation readied herself for the reception of a perfect gift from a perfect God:
Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea.
And in every holy, reverent reception of God in the Mass, we receive not only Him, but He receives us. Every reception of is an entering into communion with. Thus by opening our hearts up to God that He may fill us with grace and Himself, and by opening up our mouths to the gift of the truest Bread from Heaven--the flesh of the Son--we, in turn, enter into communion with God, and that means with creation. Our gift to God is His gift to us. Our gift of God is rooted in our openness to simply be with Him, to communicate very part of our life to Him and so to every creature on earth.
- Ite, missa est.
- Deo gratias!
Mass has ended. Thanks be to God!
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This was my experience at the Chrism Mass as celebrated by the Bishop of Rome at Saint Peter's in the Vatican. It was an experience of the Divine, for the Divine came. It was an experience of Beauty, for it was drenched with Beauty's gift. It was an experience of charity, for it was a feast given from charity's God.
Ultimately, then, I suppose no other words can suffice other than Love. But I am not surprised: in the end, it always all leads back to the God of Love.
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