St. Alphonsus responds to the Chicken Dance Mass.

The Chicken Dance Mass [LINK] took place on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024 at the Catholic parish church of Christus der König (Christ the King) in Ruhstorf an der Rott, in Germany.

St. Alphonsus de Liguori: The Reverence with which Mass ought to be Celebrated.

 

“In proportion as a devout Mass excites great devotion and reverence towards the sacred mysteries, so does an in-devout Mass destroy all devotion and reverence due to so great a sacrifice.” 

 

A priest celebrating Mass ought to behave with all the reverence due to so great a sacrifice. To induce him to do this is the intent, or at least the principal point, of this treatise. Let us then see what is meant by reverence. It means, first, a proper attention to the words of the Mass; and secondly, an exact observance of the ceremonies prescribed by the rubrics.

 

As regards attention to the words, a priest sins by being voluntarily distracted during Mass; and as divines say, if it be during the consecration and elevation, or during a notable part of the canon, he sins mortally; such is the opinion […] of Tamburini, and speaking on this point says: “If a priest while voluntarily distracted during a considerable time, recites those parts of Mass that contain the Canon, he will sin mortally. On the other hand, it seems to me to be a grave irreverence if any one, while professing that God should be venerated in the highest degree, should behave irreverently towards him by voluntary distraction.” And I am of the same opinion […] because, waiving the question whether the interior intention is or is not the essence of prayer, I maintain that the holy Sacrifice is not only an act of prayer, but also a most sublime act of religious worship, in which a priest appears to commit great irreverence if, while he actually professes religiously to honor God, he is voluntarily distracted with thoughts of other subjects.

 

As regards the performing of the ceremonies prescribed by the Rubric for the celebration of Mass, St. Pius V. in the Bull inserted in the Missal commands Mass to be celebrated according to the rubrics of the Missal. Hence Suarez very properly says that the omission of any ceremony prescribed in the rubrics, such as a sign of the cross, genuflection, inclination, etc., cannot be excused from venial sin. And this is declared by Benedict XIII. […]. St. Teresa said: “I would lay down my life for only one of the ceremonies of the Church.” 

 

[Here is the full quote from St. Teresa of Avila: “I knew quite well that in matters of faith no one would ever find me transgressing even the smallest ceremony of the Church, and that for the Church or for any truth of Holy Scripture I would undertake to die a thousand deaths.”] 

 

If the said ceremonies are performed in too hurried a manner, or carelessly, as says Father Concilia [...] speaking of those who in saying Mass do not touch the ground with one knee when they genuflect, or who, when they should kiss the altar, only make an appearance of kissing it, or who do not properly form the crosses at the benedictions as prescribed in the rubrics; because, […] it is the same thing as to omit the ceremonies prescribed, to perform them improperly; Moreover, the learned in general, say, that if any one omits a notable part of the ceremonies of the Mass, although not of the most important, he cannot be excused from grievous sin. Such omissions, when repeated in the same Mass, amount to something grievous; and therefore are grievously irreverent to the Holy Sacrifice.

 

We know that even in the Old Law the Lord threatened with many maledictions those priests that were careless of the ceremonies of their sacrifices, which were but figures of ours: “ But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God to keep and to do all His . . . ceremonies . . . all these curses shall come upon thee. . . . Cursed shall thou he in the city, cursed in the field; . . . cursed shall thou be coming in, and cursed going out. . . [Deut. 28:15].

 

Hence, seeing the greater part of priests say Mass with so much hurry and carelessness in the performance of the ceremonies, one ought to weep even with tears of blood. Well might be applied to such the reproach of Clement of Alexandria to the Gentile priests, that they made heaven a theatrical scene, and God the subject of a comedy […]. Words mutilated, genuflections half made, acts of mockery rather than of reverence: crosses so formed that it would be impossible to know what they meant: such movements about the altar, and turnings, as even to excite ridicule and laughter: handling the consecrated Host and the consecrated chalice as though they were a piece of bread and a glass of wine: confounding the words and ceremonies together, placing the one before or after the other, contrary to the order prescribed by the rubrics; the whole Mass, in a word, from beginning to end, nothing but a tissue of carelessness, confusion, and irreverence.

 

And whence comes all this? It arises partly from ignorance of the rubrics, which they neither know nor endeavor to know; and partly from anxiety to finish Mass in as short a time as possible. They seem to be saying Mass as though the Church were going to fall, or the Turks were coming, and they should not have time to escape. Such priests, before saying Mass, will sometimes be engaged for hours in worldly affairs, or in useless conversation in a shop, or in the sacristy, and then hasten to begin Mass, and attend to nothing but to get through it as quickly as possible. 

 

There should be always some one at hand to say to such, as Father Avila, approaching the altar, once said to a priest who was celebrating in this manner: “Please to treat Him better; for He is the son of a respectable Father.” God admonished the priests of the old law to tremble with awe when they approached the Sanctuary. And shall the priests of the New Law celebrating at the altar, in the presence of Jesus Christ really there, taking him into their hands, offering him in sacrifice, and even feeding upon him, dare to behave with irreverence?

 

                      Tomb of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Salerno, Italy

 

A priest at the altar, as St. Cyprian says, and most truly, represents the person of Jesus Christ himself. And in the person of Jesus Christ he says: Hoc est corpus meum. Hic est calix sanguinis mei. But, O God! Seeing the irreverent manner in which so many priests now celebrate Mass, who could say whether they were the representatives of Jesus Christ, or mountebanks earning their livelihood by tricks of sleight-of-hand? as it is written in the synod of Spalatro: “Many who celebrate endeavor not to celebrate Mass, but to finish it; not that they may perform an act of devotion, but that they may have a means of making a living; so that the celebration of Mass is performed not as a mystery of religion, but as an act of making profit.” 

 

Hence let priests who celebrate in this unworthy manner remember that they not only sin by the irreverence which they commit against the holy Sacrifice, but also by the great scandal which they give to those who are present at it. In proportion as a devout Mass excites great devotion and reverence towards the sacred mysteries, so does an in-devout Mass destroy all devotion and reverence due to so great a sacrifice. In the life of St. Peter of Alcantara it is related that the Mass which he said devoutly produced more fruit than all the sermons of the preachers of the province in which he then was.

 

The Council of Trent says that the ceremonies of the Mass have been ordained by the Church for no other purpose than to instill into the faithful the reverence which is due to the sacrifice of the altar, and to the sublime mysteries which it embraces. “The Church,”says the Council, “has likewise employed ceremonies whereby both the majesty of so great a sacrifice might be recommended, and the minds of the faithful be excited by those visible signs of religion and piety, to the contemplation of those most sublime things which are hidden in this sacrifice.” 

 

But the ceremonies, when irreverently and hastily performed, not only do not excite, but destroy the veneration of the faithful for so sacred a mystery. Peter of Blois says, that the saying of Mass with but little reverence induces the people to make little account of the most holy Sacrament. And hence the Council of Turin, in the year 1583, ordained that priests should be well instructed in the ceremonies of the Mass. For what end? “Lest they withdraw from devotion the people entrusted to their care, rather than attract them to the veneration of the sacred mysteries.”

 

How can priests by saying Mass in-devoutly expect to obtain pardon for their sins and favors from God, if while they are offering it up to him they are offending him, and insult him rather than honor him? “Since every crime,” says Pope Julius, “is wiped out by sacrifices what shall be given to the Lord for the expiation of guilt, when in the very offering of the sacrifice sins are committed?” A priest, by not believing in the sacrament of the Eucharist, would offend God; but he who does believe in it, would offend him more by not treating it with becoming respect; because he would, by so doing, destroy it in others who saw him celebrate with so little reverence. The Jews respected Jesus Christ at the beginning of his mission; but when they saw him despised by the priests, they lost all reverence for him, and at last unanimously, with the priests, cried out: Crucifige eum. And thus the laity, when they see priests celebrate Mass with disrespect and negligence, lose all esteem and veneration for it.

Taken from the chapter “The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass hurriedly said,” in the book The Holy Mass – The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by St. Alphonsus de Liguori, available in various formats at Amazon.com. 

 

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