Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Well, the Mass is a liturgy. A liturgy is basically prayer. We have to state this again because in the last decades, in many Catholic parishes and even among the faithful, people were not so aware that when we are at Mass, it is primarily a prayer and not simply a meeting. There was a tendency in recent decades to understand the Mass primarily as an interhuman gathering, or simply as a brotherly meeting, as an assembly. The style of the new Mass is often made very similar to a simple talk, conference, lesson, or teaching. Therefore, we have to stress again that the Mass is primarily a prayer and should be a prayer from beginning to end, of course, with the exception of the homily. Even the homily, the sermon, should be pronounced in a reverent manner, as it is also part of the liturgy. Prayer is our first duty toward God, the first duty to pray.
Terry Barber: Bishop Schneider, you also talk about the Catholic Mass. Why is the Latin language so important regarding unity? I know the Second Vatican Council documents said that we are supposed to know the main parts of the Mass in Latin, and that the vernacular was given permission to be used, but as an exception. So my question is, why is it so important to have this universal language in the worship of God?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: First, all religions have a sacred language. For example, in Islam, people pray in mosques in classical Arabic. Buddhists have their own sacred languages. Even in the Eastern rites of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, they retain their sacred languages. For example, Syrian Christians use Aramaic, an old liturgical language different from the spoken language of today. Ethiopians also preserve their old liturgical language. The Slavic peoples, like the Russians, use Old Church Slavonic, which is no longer spoken. Sacred language expresses the mystery of God, not in ordinary speech or the language of newspapers. God is ineffable, not a rational formula.
The tendency to abolish sacred languages came from Martin Luther and Calvin, who completely rejected this tradition. But even in Israel, at the time of Jesus and the apostles, solemn prayers like the Psalms were in Hebrew, a sacred language, not the everyday Aramaic that people spoke. Rabbis had to explain prayers, or Scripture read in the sacred language, to the people, and these explanations were called Targumim.
Even in the fourth century in Rome, when the liturgy transitioned from Greek to Latin, it was not replaced with simple vernacular speech. Latin was already a high-style language, not the common dialect spoken on the streets. The Church never used ordinary daily language to pray officially in the liturgy. Therefore, we must preserve sacred language. In the Roman rite, this is Latin. The Second Vatican Council stressed clearly that Latin must be preserved in the Roman rite. Bishops are obliged to ensure the faithful know the main parts of the Mass, the Ordinarium, in Latin. This is a command of the Ecumenical Council. In the last few decades, this was largely ignored.
At least the central, most mysterious part of the Mass, the Eucharistic Prayer, should be prayed in Latin. In this prayer, Jesus comes down from heaven and is present with his body, blood, and sacrifice on the cross on our altars. This is an unspeakable miracle, the miracle of miracles. Latin in the Eucharistic Prayer is also a powerful means of unifying all Catholics worldwide. This is necessary.
Terry Barber: Bishop Schneider, I experienced that in 1981 at the Eucharistic Congress in Lourdes, France. There were all kinds of Masses going on, including a Latin Mass. People from all over the world worshiped in Latin, and it unified all cultures in one sacred language. That really struck me, even forty years ago when I experienced it. I want to thank you for that. When we come back, I want to talk about page 29, where you discuss St. Basil the Great explaining the spiritual sense of active kneeling, and also the Desert Fathers. You won’t want to miss this. Folks, stay with us. We’ll be right back after a quick break.