Good Fridays can of worms
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR Staff
Each year Good Friday opens the memory of the suffering and death
of Jesus to renewed Christian contemplation.
For many Catholic liturgists, it also opens a can of worms.
Among the most difficult judgments for those planning Good Friday
liturgies is whether to use the so-called Reproaches, a litany of
accusations placed on the lips of Jesus and directed at his people.
Also called the Improperia, the reproaches are part of the rite for the
veneration of the cross. They are customarily sung or chanted.
For some, the reproaches recall the troubled history of Christian
anti-Judaism, especially the accusation of deicide -- blaming all Jews for the
death of Christ. While that position was officially disavowed at Vatican II,
some believe the reproaches (elements of which date back to the ninth century)
are a holdover of that ancient prejudice.
The question has both historical and contemporary relevance. On
March 7, the Vatican released a long-awaited document on the faults of the
church. It suggested that readers should consider whether the Nazi
persecution of the Jews was not made easier by the anti-Jewish prejudices
imbedded in some Christian minds and hearts.
Liturgists who defend using the reproaches say the problem of
anti-Judaism has to be handled through education, not by deleting or
bowdlerizing traditional texts.
At an even deeper level, some critics believe the reproaches
undercut the spirituality of the Good Friday liturgy. Good Friday, they say, is
about the joy of the cross -- a paradoxical celebration of
Christs crucifixion that points forward to Easter and the resurrection.
It is not, they say, a time to wallow in sinfulness and sorrow.
This position, too, is a matter of debate; other observers say a
sense of healthy guilt is exactly what Good Friday ought to
inspire. Perhaps, they suggest, discomfort with the reproaches is part of a
broader current in the post-Vatican II church in which the concepts of sin and
guilt, to put it bluntly, went out of style.
Trepidation within the liturgical community is reflected in the
fact that while the reproaches appear in the sacramentary (the official prayer
book approved by the U.S. bishops), they are not part of the worship aids put
out by the J.S. Paluch company, whose missalettes are widely used in American
parishes.
The reproaches set events in the Hebrew Bible alongside charges of
responsibility for Christs suffering and death. Though phrased as
statements by Jesus, they do not appear in scripture.
My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you?
Answer me! I led you out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, but you led your
Savior to the cross, the text in the sacramentary reads.
For your sake I scourged your captors and their first-born
sons, but you brought your scourges down on me
I led you on your way in
a pillar of cloud, but you led me to Pilates court.
For you I
struck down the kings of Canaan, but you struck my head with a reed.
I
raised you to the height of majesty, but you raised me high on a
cross.
No one keeps a count of how many parishes use the reproaches, but
liturgists contacted by NCR said practice varies widely. Some parishes use them
as they appear in the sacramentary, some use edited versions (though doing so
is not officially approved), some use approved alternative songs or psalms, and
many omit them altogether. Some diocesan liturgical offices have discouraged
their use.
Dennis McManus, associate director of the U.S. bishops
liturgy secretariat, said he estimates 40 percent of American parishes use the
reproaches on Good Friday.
There is a really strong potential to read these texts as
being anti-Semitic, said Alan Hommerding, senior editor at J.S. Paluch.
Bart Merella, a deacon and director of student affairs at the Washington
Theological Union, agreed. I would strongly caution against using them
without proper reflection or catechesis in advance, he said.
Keith Pecklers, who teaches at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute
at St. Anselmos in Rome, said the reproaches do not have to be read as
anti-Jewish. He takes them as directed at all of humanity.
Others argue that even if there is some residual anti-Judaism in
the text, omission is not the right way to cope with it. Anti-Semitism is
met by honest, caring catechesis and education, said James Wilde, author
and editor for Oregon Catholic Press, a publishing company in Portland.
It is not addressed -- just ignored -- by deleting the approaches or
sanitizing gospel language.
We do not want to compromise our identification as
Gods people Israel, Wilde said. [It would be] a sad and
needless impoverishment to lose that.
Hommerding said that even setting aside the question of
anti-Judaism, the reproaches dont fit the spirituality of Good
Friday.
The language of the prayer is celebratory, he said.
Its not a celebration the way we popularly understand it, with
balloons and clowns, but Good Friday is part of our celebration of the passover
from death to life. In that context, an examination of conscience is not
appropriate.
Wilde disagreed. It seems arbitrary to me to limit a
liturgical spirituality to worship, veneration, praise and the joy of the
cross on Good Friday, in the sacred triduum or on any other day, he
said.
McManus said that especially in the Jubilee Year, when John Paul
II has invited the church to an examination of conscience, the reproaches may
be helpful.
Merella said he believes the renewal of the triduum launched by
Pius XII, intended to restore the intrinsic unity of Holy Thursday, Good Friday
and Easter, has not taken root in many Catholic parishes. Lots of people
still think of them as three separate days, he said. Merella argued that
Good Friday cannot be understood apart from Easter, and in that light the
reproaches strike a false note.
As for worries about an impoverished sense of sin, Merella noted
that such fears wax and wane throughout church history. For a time, the
sacrament of penance was celebrated only once a year, and for many people only
on their deathbed, Merella said. One could look at that and say,
Whatever happened to sin?
Monsignor Francis Mannion, head of the Society for Catholic
Liturgy, said concerns that Good Friday emphasizes suffering too much by and
large reflect First World experiences. Suffering looms larger in the religious
imagination of the Third World, as it did in Europe during the plague, he
said.
Pecklers said its important on Good Friday to sit with
the despair and emptiness of suffering and the cross
especially in a
culture which downplays sacrifice, tries to cover over sadness and to avoid
pain. He said recent studies on the Order of Christian Burials are also
rediscovering the role of grief, even returning to the use of purple rather
than white vestments.
Frank Henderson, a liturgist in Edmonton, Canada, said the
reproaches reflect an older theory of atonement that regards
Jesus suffering as necessary to satisfy Gods justice.
Thats one theory, but contemporary theology has given
us many others, Henderson said. The question is, does Good Friday
justify suffering, or is it against it? Was it good for Jesus to suffer, or did
he suffer because suffering is part of the world but that doesnt make it
good? If one opts for the latter understanding, Henderson said, the
reproaches are not helpful.
McManus said Good Friday is less about the joy than the glory of
the cross. Its the exultation we experience once we embrace the
suffering of Jesus as the only path to God, he said. The reproaches --
which McManus described as a broad and deep attempt to find meaning
in suffering -- complement Good Friday very well.
McManus noted, however, that the U.S. bishops do not require the
reproaches and said the question comes down to an individual pastoral
decision.
National Catholic Reporter, March 17,
2000
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