Fr. Acervo: "Nothing...surpasses the Mass in terms of importance"

Fr. Acervo has been blogging quite frequently... wait, what? You don't read Fr. Acervo? Well, stop what you are doing and head over and check out his blog! Not only does he have a regular blog, but his site is full of his homilies, talks, and articles.

Now, he recently posted something that was originally on Vultus Christi, quoting Yves Congar. He adds his own personal thoughts to the matter, and I don't think this message could be stated any better. As Catholics the Mass and True Presence in the Blessed Sacrament are the best way to 'acquire the mind of the Church.' As Congar and Fr. Acervo explain:

New Liturgical Movement points to the blog, Vultus Christi, and a quote from Yves Congar, the French Dominican theologian. Congar writes (my own emphasis added):

Nothing is more educative for man in his totality than the liturgy. The Bible is certainly a marvelous teacher of prayer, of the sense of God and of the adult convictions of conscience. Used alone, the Bible might produce a Christian of the Puritan tradition, an individualist and even a visionary. The liturgy, however, is the “authentic method instituted by the Church to unite souls to Jesus” (Dom Maurice Festugière). The sort of Christian produced by an enlightened and docile participation in the liturgy is a man of peace and unified in every fibre of his human nature by the secret and powerful penetration of faith and love in his life, throughout a period of prayer and worship, during which he learned, at his mothers knee and without effort, the Church’s language: her language of faith, love, hope, and fidelity. There is no better way of acquiring “the mind of the Church” in the widest and most interior interpretation of this expression.

Congar is not downplaying the importance of Scripture here. Rather, he is pointing out what the Catholic Church has always taught: “the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1324), that while Christ is present in His priests, His Word, and in His people, He is present “especially under the Eucharistic species” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 7), and that while “the sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church” (SC, 9), it is “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows” (SC, 10).

Nothing, therefore, surpasses the Mass in terms of importance. We should elevate the importance of Sacred Scripture. Unfortunately, there are those who do so to the point that they end up devaluing the excellence of the Eucharist and the Church’s sacred liturgy. The intention is good, but the result is disastrous to our faith and spiritual formation. Lots of Christians have the Bible; Catholics have the Eucharist.

I recently attended a talk where one of the speakers said, “We are careful that not a particle of the Eucharist falls to the ground. We should also be careful that not a particle of the Word proclaimed at Mass falls to the ground unheard”. OK…I get the speaker’s point: when the Word is read at Mass, we should pay attention, and homilists should help us to understand what God is saying to us through His Word. But the Eucharist is called the Real Presence for a reason – while Christ is present in His minister, Word, and people, He is really present in the Eucharist. Not making an effort to pay attention to the readings at Mass is sinful. Not making an effort to care for the Eucharist in a reverent way is sacrilege and results in the malformation of the people’s faith. There’s a big difference.

Elevate Christ’s presence in every way that He is present, but not at the expense of His Real Presence in the Eucharist and in the sacred liturgy.

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