Mediator Dei

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Mediator Dei, a papal encyclical was issued by Pope Pius XII in 1947. The encyclical suggests new directions and active participation instead of the traditional passive role of the faithful in the liturgy, in liturgical ceremonies and in the life of their parish. Mediator Dei is one of the more important encyclicals of Pope Pius XII, because its teachings on the liturgy greatly determined liturgical teachings of Vatican II.

Contents

[edit] Introduction

Pope Pius defends liturgy as important, sacred and sacramental. Liturgy is more than the sum of liturgical actions and prescriptions. It is an error, consequently, and a mistake to think of the sacred liturgy as merely the outward or visible part of divine worship or as an ornamental ceremonial. No less erroneous is the notion that it consists solely in a list of laws and prescriptions according to which the ecclesiastical hierarchy orders the sacred rites to be performed. [1] The encyclical has four parts.

[edit] Nature of Liturgy

The first part explains the nature, origin and development of liturgy. Liturgy is public worship, an obligation for individuals and communities. Liturgy is outward adoration of God as well as a fountain for personal piety. It originated with the early Church:

The first Christians ... "were persevering the doctrine of the apostles and in communication by the breaking of bread and their prayers." [2] Whenever their pastors could summon a little group of the faithful together, they set up an altar on which they proceeded to offer the sacrifice, and around which were ranged all other rites appropriate for the saving of souls and for the honor due to God. [3]

Through prayer, the members of the , Mystici Corporis Christi, the Mystical Body of Christ are harmonized and united. The liturgy is regulated by the clergy and hierarchy of the Church. [4] It has divine and human elements. Its human elements result from the teachings of the Church, Church laws, pious usages by the faithful and the development of art and music. It must also be noted, however, that Pius warns strongly against a sense of "liturgical archaeologism", the belief that the most ancient practices are more venerable. He recognizes that liturgy is organic, and to return to the most ancient practices would ignore centuries of liturgical organic development. The Holy Father goes on to say that

"[One] would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive table form; were he to want black excluded as as a color for liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues in Church; were he to order the crucifix so designed that the Divine Redeemer's Body shows no trace of his cruel sufferings." [5]

[edit] Eucharistic Cult

The Eucharist as a renewal of the sacrifice on the cross. Christ is the priest, the sacrifice and purpose of the eucharistic sacrifice. The faithful should participate but they do not have priestly authority. [6] They participate in the sacrifice together with the priest. They participate by cleansing the souls of arrogance, anger, guilt, lust and other sins, and thus see more clearly the picture of Christ in themselves.

Mediator Dei advises the bishops to create offices to encourage active participation and dignified services, and to ensure, that individual priests do not use the Eucharist as experiments for their own purposes. [7] The encyclical encourages the faithful to participate in Holy Communion and uses the terms, spiritual and sacramental communion. Communion must be followed by a thanksgiving.

The encyclical encourages the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and in Eucharistic Blessings. The historical Jesus and the Eucharist cannot be separated. The full liturgy opens to the faithful the mystery of the cross, are in the likeness of their Redeemer.

All the elements of the liturgy, then, would have us reproduce in our hearts the likeness of the divine Redeemer through the mystery of the cross, according to the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles, "With Christ I am nailed to the cross. I live, now not I, but Christ live in me." Gal. 2:19-20. Thus we become a victim, as it were, along with Christ to increase the glory of the eternal Father.[8]

[edit] Liturgy of the Hours

The liturgy of the hours are a never ending prayer of the Church, requiring a spirit of contemplation. The faithful are encouraged to participate in the liturgy of the hours especially during Sunday. Thus they participate in the life of Christ, which the Church repeats and explains on a yearly basis.[9]

The saints are ideals and models and intercessors. Among the inhabitants of heaven, Mary has a special place. She is like no other involved in the mysteries of Christ. She offers her son and provides all help needed. [10]

[edit] Liturgy and the arts

Mediator Dei discusses the need to have tasteful and beautiful houses of worship. Not necessarily rich in historical artefacts, but clean and not overburdened with Kitsch. The Pope, while critical of those who strip their churches from virtually all ancient pictures and valuable statues, disapproves also overloaded churches and altars, which will be subject to ridicule[11] He supports the ancient Gregorian Chant and popular hymns, but, a novelty for the Vatican, supports also contemporary music and modern art within the churches. [12]

[edit] Reception

While the official Church in the USA, Ireland and Italy remained, to a large degree, piously silent on the proposed reforms, progressive theological elements especially in France were jubilant. A commentary of the "elitist" liberal periodical, Nouvelle Revue Theologique labelled Mediator Dei:

The most important teaching, which the Magisterium ever issued, and one of greatest documents of this pontificate [13]

The French Abbot Dom Lambert Beaudiun welcomes the intentions of Pius XII to foster liturgical reform and lay participation; however, liturgy reform cannot be dictated from Rome, and therefore it must have been the intention of the Pope, to deflate the arguments of the opponents of reform. [14] The Jesuit G.M. Hansens writes in the influential Civilta Catolica, ... that the importance of the encyclical are obviously the reforms, but also the notion, that without liturgy, religious life is not possible, and, liturgy as Pius XII taught, is “more than a beautiful spectacle but ultimate adoration of God”. [15] An unsigned editorial in the Journal Life of the Spirit opines, that some eccentric Germans went too far liturgically, “and are now told to look at the depths of the dogma” [16] A Blackfriers commentary also points to liturgical developments in Germany, which are now largely legal. [17]

An American Journal,Orate Fratres, issued by St. John Abbey in Minnesota, writes that with this encyclical of Pope Pius XII, liturgy ceases to be an unimportant composite of ceremonies and regulations. It is now accepted dogma, that liturgy is not static but actively changing lives. It is hoped that the encyclical will help to coordinate the liturgical renewal throughout the Catholic world and thus multiply its effects on Christian life everywhere, similarly to the reform movement of Cluny or the reforms of the Council of Trent. [18]

[edit] Highlights of the encyclical

    • For we must always live in Christ and give ourselves to Him completely, so that in Him, with Him and through Him the heavenly Father may be duly glorified. The sacred liturgy requires, however, that both of these elements be intimately linked with each another. This recommendation the liturgy itself is careful to repeat, as often as it prescribes an exterior act of worship. Thus we are urged, when there is question of fasting, for example, "to give interior effect to our outward observance." [19] Otherwise religion clearly amounts to mere formalism, without meaning and without content. [20]
    • You recall .. how the divine Master expels from the sacred temple, as unworthy to worship there, people who pretend to honor God with nothing but neat and good sounding phrases, like actors in a theater, and think themselves perfectly capable of working out their eternal salvation without plucking their vices from their hearts. [21] It is, therefore, the keen desire of the Church that all of the faithful kneel at the feet of the Redeemer to tell Him how much they venerate and love Him [22]
    • The sacraments and the sacrifice of the altar, being Christ's own actions, must be capable in themselves of conveying and dispensing grace from the divine Head to the members of the Mystical Body. But if they are to produce their proper effect, it is absolutely necessary that our hearts be properly disposed to receive them. Hence the warning of Paul the Apostle with reference to holy communion, "But let a man first prove himself; and then let him eat of this bread and drink of the chalice." [23] [24] [25]
    • In Holy Week, when the most bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ are put before us by the liturgy, the Church invites us to come to Calvary and follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the divine Redeemer, to carry the cross willingly with Him, to reproduce in our own hearts His spirit of expiation and atonement, and to die together with Him. [26]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 25
  2. ^ Acts, 2:42.
  3. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 21
  4. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 32
  5. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 62
  6. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 63
  7. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 84.
  8. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 102
  9. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 124
  10. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 124
  11. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 137.
  12. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 143
  13. ^ Nouvelle Revue Theologique, 1948.
  14. ^ Dom Lambert Beaudiun , Mediator Dei, Centre de Pastorale Liturgique, 1948
  15. ^ G.M.Hanssens, Mediator Dei, Civilta Catolica, March 1948 and May 1948.
  16. ^ Mediator Dei, Life of the Spirit, April 1948.
  17. ^ Mediator Dei, Blackfriers, May 1948.
  18. ^ W. Busch, Mediator Dei, Orate Fratres, St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota
  19. ^ Roman Missal, Secret for Thursday after the Second Sunday of Lent
  20. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 24
  21. ^ Cf. Mark, 7:6 and Isaiah, 29:13.
  22. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 24
  23. ^ 1 Cor.11:28.
  24. ^ Roman Missal, Ash Wednesday; Prayer after the imposition of ashes.
  25. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 31
  26. ^ Pope Pius XII enc, Mediator Dei, 158

[edit] Sources

Encyclical Mediator Dei on the Vatican website