|
Confused Consecration
By Gary Macy
Sometimes you hear complaints
about the level of knowledge of catechism in parishes in the United States,
and, indeed sometimes one wonders what people actually think Christianity is
all about. Things look great, however in comparison with the very early Middle
Ages, when conversion could mean no more than that the ruler had
decreed that everyone was now Christian. People in local churches sort of made
it up as they went along. Laws passed to deal with the worst problems were
collected by Burchard, bishop of Worms, in the 11th century. His book is an
amazing guide to church life in this crazy period. Here are two examples from
his book: The sacrifice ought not to be accepted from the hands of a
priest who is not able to execute the prayers or the readings or the other
observances of the Mass according to the rite. This law was more a wish
than a reality, I am sure. Even more disturbing, however, is the law which
threatens if any bishop or priest outside the command of the Lord offers
something else in sacrifice upon the altar, that is, either honey or milk or
raisins instead of wine, or some other concoction, or a bird, or some other
animal, or beans, thus working against the constitution of the Lord, he is to
be deposed. At least no parish I know of consecrates chickens along with
the bread and wine at Mass. I wonder if reception was in the hand.
Gary Macy is a theology professor at the University of
San Diego. |