The love behind the rituals

Good News Reflection
Tuesday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
February 9, 2010

Today's Readings:
1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30
Ps 84:2-5 and 10-11
Mark 7:1-13
http://www.usccb.org/nab/020910.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_02_09.mp3

The love behind the rituals

Oh what a blessing we receive when rituals are changed or taken away, because it makes us analyze why we were doing them in the first place!

Take, for example, what happens when a parish that has always kneeled during the Consecration of the Eucharist is told by the pastor that they will stand from now on. There's usually a big uproar. Why?

Standing is an official posture of respect. That's why we stand during the reading of the Gospel. Theologically, it signifies that we are an Easter people; the Lord has conquered sin and death and now we live in his risen glory. So why do we stubbornly refuse to accept a change from the kneeling posture to standing?

Personally, I would rather kneel. It reminds me to be humble. Well, can't I be humble without it? Frankly, Jesus deserves the most respect that we can muster, which means I should lie prostrate on the floor, except I don't want to draw attention to myself and away from Jesus.

Sadly, there are many Catholics who kneel because everyone else is kneeling, not from genuine, heart-felt reverence for Christ. For them, it's merely a human tradition. Jesus says in today's Gospel reading, "This people pays me lip service but their heart is far from me. Empty is the reverence they do me ...."

Every ritual gesture and body posture during Mass should change us. Making the sign of the cross should put us more in touch with the Lord who died on the cross for us. Blessing ourselves with holy water should renew our baptismal connection to God and separate us from the worldliness that's outside the church. Praying the "Our Father" should unite us to the people next to us.

"Disregarding God's commandment while clinging to human tradition" occurs whenever we consider a ritual to be more important than a person. In the hierarchy of Church laws, the rules that prescribe most rituals have always been changeable "human traditions" designed to drive home to the heart a true practice of the faith; they are of lesser importance than the unchangeable laws of faith and morality that prescribe how to treat one another.

The bottom-line question is: What are my motives for doing – or not doing – a ritual? Will it increase my humility? Will it enhance my relationship with God and with the community? Does it spring from the heart or is my heart far from God at this moment?

May love rule our rituals and may our actions never be empty tradition!

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© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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