One of the things I find most tiresome among my fellow conservative Catholics is the seemingly endless focus on externals. “People should not wear shorts and short sleeved shirts and sandals to Mass!” or “The orans gesture is only for priests! The people should not raise their hands in prayer!” “If we bring back altar rails reverence would return and people will believe in the Real Presence again!” Folks, you can’t create reverence at Mass by tinkering with the externals because the external observances are the outward expression of the belief and faith within.

This argument, of course, cuts both ways. If some conservatives wish to create reverence at Mass by dictating outward signs, symbols and behaviors, people like the ideologically driven bishop of Charlotte also wish to create their preferred Catholic worship ethos by dictating externals: “No Latin. No candles on the altar. No altar rails. No vesting prayers, No veils for women readers. No missal stand. No fiddleback chasubles. No pall on the chalice unless there are bugs around.”

Really? In both cases, the inner disposition needs to be corrected, not the outer accouterments of worship and physical gestures. The inner disposition is corrected–in both cases–by informed catechesis, pastoral concern, listening and instructing the people properly. Now, this is where it gets interesting in the liturgy wars: if we take time to catechize the people on the theology of the Mass, the meaning of worship and the traditions of the church the traditionalist side will clearly prevail.

What catechesis is there for the Bishop Martin type church? I suppose we would hear about “full participation” the church as “the pilgrim people of God” and the Mass as “the fellowship Meal of the Kingdom” at which all are welcome…and so forth. But this understanding of Catholicism is reductionist and shallow. Furthermore, the traditionalist understanding of the faith actually includes all of those concepts while the modernist version excludes the traditional understanding. My point is proved by the fact that the traditionalist wants to include and add elements of reverence to the practice of the faith while the modernist version wants to exclude. In other words, the modernist version is iconoclastic while the traditionalist is inclusive.

This is one of the hallmarks of a revolutionary ideology: it makes “progress” not by creating something new, but by deliberately destroying what is already established, tried and true.

The way to cut through these debates is to focus not on altar candles or altar rails, skirts or shorts or sandals, vestments and veils, kneeling or standing, but on the heart of the gospel. To proclaim and try to live the old, old story of a sinful humanity separated from the loving Father, redeemed by the sacrifice of his Son and filled with the Holy Spirit. That life, death, resurrection and ascension made present in the paschal mysteries and alive on the altar and in the tabernacles of the Church. This is the message and life, and when we focus on this the due reverence will follow.

As a post script: Regarding proper attire at Mass: we have found at OLR Greenville that we don’t need to talk much about this issue. Once the Mass is celebrated with due reverence, and with sacred music not show tunes–the people start making more effort to come to church dressed respectfully.