By Fr Soroj Mullick SDB –
Worship is getting virtual! Like Pope Francis I have certain reservation against streamed Mass that mostly caters to sentimental pietism and ritualistic practices. Within a digital savvy clerical world, the live-streamed Masses are often designed to discourage an attentive participation within a Christian community in communion and fellowship. This clerical and “churchy” concern speaks of a church focused on narcissistic personal holiness, devotional practices and on rituals, with little interest in social concerns. God’s love for each human being underpins human dignity and social living in unison based on love, to live in communion with others and with the created world.
There is no complaint about the priests presiding over the televised or streamed liturgy, who often are scared to be human. There is bit of clericalism in succouring for others’ salvation. The online media encourages a personal devotion and habitual practices that remain pre-Vatican II. The public Mass with community participation in the reception of Holy Communion is unitary and integral. A streamed or televised Mass is no comparison with attending a live Mass. Some may be comfortable with streamed Masses on the television or smartphone, convinced that they are “attending Mass”. There is no real communion, no real sense of community in it; neither joining in the “source and summit of the Christian life”, nor praying in communion at the Table of the Word; not physically present for the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, but mere observing the representation, sometime with a personal devotion, but without engagement; and departing with a social detachment. This is not a Eucharist celebrated by the People of God.
A post-Vatican II Church is drawing people to develop ‘habits’ that are pre-Vatican. Assembly in the Eucharistic ritual always stand at distant from the altar, the candles, the tabernacle, watching the priest preside, and ‘hearing’ Mass. Fifty years back, private devotions with personal ‘recitation’ of the rosary often found their way through the Mass celebrated by Priests showing their backs to the assembly. Ancient structural designs, hierarchical architecture, heavy altar rails, rude rituals and gory choir, slowed the Liturgical Reform of the 20th century, except few sporadic implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy on the rights and role of the People of God.[2] Today, after 50 years, Pope Francis recalling the Sacrosanctum Concilium, encourages the praying of the scripture including a dedicated Sunday of the Word by a synodal Church, through his youthful Evangelii Gaudium. This could be a radical model for pandemic-period of liturgy.
The Dangers of Online Masses
Live-streamed Mass, a quasi-liturgical innovation, is the “new normal” of worship which has problematic long-term ramifications. The Mass, the “source and summit” of the communal Christian life in which ‘in remembrance of’ Jesus (Lk 22:19) the members eat his flesh and drink his blood, to have life (Jn 6:53). Through the liturgy of the Word and that of the Eucharist following the Jewish tradition of reading from the Scripture (Torah, OT) and Temple sacrifices, the reception of Jesus during Communion makes the members return to the world and to love others. There is the real presence with touch and experience of “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the life was made manifest, and we saw it” (1 Jn 1-2).
Jesus is present in the priest, in the Word, and in the assembly – “where two or three are gathered together in His name” (Mt 18:20). He is present in the bread and wine – “whole and entire, God and man” (Mysterium Fidei, n. 39). Without the public celebration of Masses the crisis in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist threatens to further undermine the Christian faith. The “spiritual Communion” as a stopgap practice within the context of live-streamed Masses is no substitute.
There exists certain feel of connection to the Church while watching Mass online. The streamed Mass as interim means to keep parishioners connected to the parish and the priest, increases the danger to habitually “attend” Mass in the virtual reality with a belief in the virtual presence than the real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion. In fact, some elders and the sick gradually lose the desire to receive Holy Communion outside the Mass and this disinterest makes the priest neglect his duty of family visits. The Church with its architecture, sacred art, music and community participation testifies to the need of receiving the Sacraments within the context of transcendence. A virtual streaming over the digital screen distances us from this reality.
“Culture flows from the cult.” The daily religious cultic habits affect the Christian cultures as well. Such happenings imply certain realities. A live-streamed Mass substitutes for our communal participation without the Holy Communion. The focus is on the priest’s prayers with passive participation which can risk the desire for the real presence and the Eucharistic Communion. The virtual reality of electronic images should not replace our desire for the real Presence. It is better to emphasize the real Presence of Jesus in the gathering of two or three (few), reading of the Word and a spiritual Communion, than a Mass spectacle.
Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB is a Salesian priest from the Kolkata Province. He has a Licentiate in Catechetics and a Doctorate (Christian Education) from UPS, Italy. He has number of years of teaching experience in college and in the formation of future priests. Besides, he has written number of research papers and articles, and has 25 years of Ministry in India and abroad as Educator, Formator, Retreat Preacher, Editor and engaged in School, Parish Catechetical & Youth Ministry. He is now an assistant priest in Bandel Basilica, rendering pastoral and catechetical ministry to the parishioners and to the pilgrims. He can be contacted at [email protected].