Facing God together.

What's the first thought that comes to your mind when looking at this picture below?

Image taken from www.ipadre.net.
Here we can see five concelebrating Priests and a deacon. 

Now is this the expression that you will give or fellow Catholics would give, as shown below?

Common reactions received if you show a Priest celebrating ad orientem

Probably so, Now what exactly is the Priest doing in the picture above? Yes he is saying the Mass, but I think the more specific question is "why". Why because the Priest who is in persona Christi (Now if that Latin phrase scares you, it means in the person of Christ; your catechism should have taught you this) is saying the Mass as he would 50 plus years ago.  

Before I go on, I have three important points to make:

First and foremost this post is entirely my viewpoint on the Mass. I don't intend to create any discontinuity or teach some outdated teaching (which in fact it is never outdated at all). Furthermore I don't wish to be smarter than any Priests or faith formation persons who think what I am about to share is considered old fashion and backwards. 

Secondly, my background is growing up in a Malaysian Catholic culture, where the liturgy and the Mass is thought in catechism classes but at the end of Form 5, ask any Catholic youth to where do we genuflect to or what is the anamnesis is, or simply, what language is the Kyrie Eleison is, and they would fumble and doubt all their 11 years of attending Sunday (or in my case, Saturday evening) school. For most of my faith formation came from my mother and later on through friends who exposed the real beauty of the Mass.

Finally third and most importantly get to know the word: ad orientem, it's Latin for "to the east". Looking through and through the Sunday Missal, and through Sacrosanctum Concilium never has it said that a the Priest should face the people like how he does now. I don't intend to debate on why he does it, I'm just stating a fact. Basically when the Mass is said ad orientem-ly it means that the Priest together with the people are worshiping God togethere, it does not make the Mass a non-community meal as some people teach (though it is never mentioned that the Mass is a meal per se).

Ok, if this already heavy for you, let me be easy on you. Back in the days (pre-Vatican II) the Priest faces away from you, though that is true it isn't the intention or reason, in fact, he is facing God together with you. After Vatican II, that somehow changed and now the Priest is facing towards you and his back towards God (where if the tabernacle is behind the Priest's back). 

A Capuchin priest once told me that the reason the Priest was facing his back, was so that when people saw him, and only saw his back they would also gaze up and look at the Cross which is a reminder of what their faith is all about. 

Altar of Holy Rosary Church, Brickfields. Where not only the upward gaze is
towards the son but it can also be towards His mother.

So what's the fuss about?

The fuss is this; it's not about whether the Priest is facing you so that he can keep an eye contact with you, or you can see what he is doing, in fact it goes deeper whereby the theology of it is that when the Priest is facing away he is actually leading you, as a shepherd towards God. Also, it adds a sense of a mystery of faith to the Mass. Also, when he faces towards God, it will add a sense of sacred dignity for the celebration, not in any way that facing you can't. 

Finally my question is this? Why are Priests and faith formators so afraid of this way of saying the Mass? Perhaps if we really thought and catechise people on the Mass being a sacrifice, a celebration to commemorate Jesus' passion, death and glorious resurrection and not as Pope Francis puts it a "social event" perhaps people would learn to appreciate the Mass altogether. 

To sum it up this simple picture depicts everything that is said:

Do read on below for more on this stigma of saying the Mass

• Offering the Novus Ordo ad orientem
• The Normativity of Ad Orientem Worship according to the Ordinary Form's Rubrics

I do fear that some people would come up and ask, so by this way, it will make you more holy? Truth be told, no, it will not make you more holy - yet (though THAT is the goal) but it will add to the meaning of the Mass and eventually lead you to think on what the Mass actually is. The Mass, as many has forgotten is not something we come for fun or something frivolous that can be taken lightly with special additions and whatnot, it is the culmination of our beliefs and a remembrance of all those who would die for it.  

A little look at death.

There was once a quote that I came across that loosely goes like this:

"When one person dies, a great book is lost forever"

Everyone has a story, no matter how dull or grey their lives are or otherwise, every single person be it an infant or a person over a hundred - their lives is a story. Analogically speaking every person is described as a book, and where ever we go, as long there exists a community there exist a library, a plethora of books, if you put in a place like Malaysia and pick let's say a small town there exists a library of many genres. 

Why the looking at death suddenly? The reason is because death is a natural part of life for a saying goes "For life we are uncertain but death it is for sure". Everything and everyone will die, that is the continous reality of the law of nature. This insight of death is to reflect on life, and how are we to spend our lives as to one day end up dying.

In this first part of looking at death, we would look into the "books" each one of us are. We call ourselves books because we are constantly writing  our stories. Every single day is a story to write, the dullness or bore of the day, or the exciting adventures we have from the moment we open our eyes to the time we close it is a new page in our book; when something takes a turn in our lives we then call that a chapter in our books. 

Each person's story is as unique as to themselves. Not only because of what the person goes through physically but more importantly is what the person perceives about something. Picture this, two people with very similar background from terms of ethnic and the way they are brought up can have very different opinions about how their community should be governed. The opinion, the perception or the viewpoint of the person is what adds into the story of one's life. The beauty of this is the concept of a free will, the freedom in which we are given to think; this is what gives our individuality. 

Now when death comes to a person, the book finally closes, the final sentences are written, and the reference list is added and index compiled just before the back cover closes. All of whatever is written is then lost to eternity. No matter how much one can account of the one who has passed, they will never get the same book ever again. For that reason that is why there is the reference list and the index, it is where after death, people continually to talk about the deceased. One might die like a superstar who died of an overdose, where people will talk about his sad way to go or die a martyr and how he sacrificed his life for others or in something he believes in; the book actually really never closes. What closes are the main chapters of that person's life. 

That is why no matter what a person is going through, everyone has their story to tell, pivoting that is what goes in their mind that makes it right for them - the subtle emphasis in their own lives, the usage of punctuation and perhaps pictographs in their pages. 

Never give up the chance to continue writing in your book; the question might occur on who then might read it? The person you share your adventures with.