By Fr Geoffrey Steel

What might appear to be a question about practicalities—albeit a tricky one—actually takes us deep into the heart of our Catholic faith and tradition.

The question raises issues of ministry, liturgical presidency, the sacrament of orders; it invites reflection on our attitude to the word of God, and the presence of Christ in the word proclaimed; it challenges our understanding of the liturgical assembly, and the presence of Christ in the community gathered to worship. In our diocese, so far as I’m able to tell only on occasions and in a small number of parishes is Mass not possible every Sunday: a priest is taken ill, for instance, or a chapel of ease is not served when a priest is away on holiday.

But on the present arrangement of parishes, without a significant rise in the number of people being ordained priest this year, and that increase being sustained for several years, then our diocese will soon have a significant number of parishes without a resident priest, or without a priest being able to minister there every Sunday. We’re running into a situation where our present arrangement of Sunday eucharist cannot be sustained.

So how do we address the issue? At what levels do we address it? Can we define and arrange our parishes differently? Does the solution lie in how, how often, where, and when we celebrate the eucharist? The question, “What do we do when we can’t have Sunday Mass?” is a challenge not just to our practical skill in co-ordinating priests’ holidays and retreats, but to our grasp of the church’s ancient tradition, and its teaching about the nature of the eucharist.

THREE VALUES: SUNDAY, EUCHARIST, COMMUNITY

The church’s ancient tradition attests to the intimate link between the Lord’s Day—the day of resurrection—and the celebration of the eucharist by the community gathered together in once place. This last factor was insisted upon in the city of Rome long after it was practical. Only most reluctantly was it granted that there be more than one celebration of the eucharist within the city.

Three values are intimately linked: Sunday, eucharist (and authorised presidency) and the gathered community. The question is this: if all three values cannot be upheld, what is the optimum? And how might that optimum be arrived at? Thus, for instance, we might opt for: Sunday eucharist in one place, but for several parish communities together. Or we might opt for eucharist once a week, but on a day other than Sunday. What about holding Sunday liturgy in every parish, but not eucharist?... and if not eucharist, then what? What values are upheld, what values lost in each of these arrangements?

ADDRESSING THE SITUATION

• AN EMERGENCY
  What happens when, for instance, a priest is taken ill on a Sunday morning, or a supply priest doesn’t appear? I’d hope that someone in the parish would be able to lead a liturgy of the word: introductory rites up to and including intercessions; the Lord’s Prayer, concluding prayer for the intercessions; any announcements; dismissal. With only a little forewarning, it may be possible for there also to be a homily, perhaps sent by e-mail. If there was sufficient of the sacrament reserved, it makes sense in this emergency for the liturgy to include a distribution of holy communion. All the same, this is not an argument for keeping ciboriums full as a matter of course.

  One of the reasons I believe we’re in difficulty in this area is that, in most parishes, at most masses, half the congregation routinely receives holy communion from the reserved sacrament and not from the eucharistic mystery being celebrated. We’ve done this for centuries, in spite of legislation from Rome to the contrary, from Benedict XIV in 1740 through Vatican II and the present Roman Missal, and it’s there again in the newly revised General Instruction.

  In spite of this weighty legislation, our practice has established in people’s mind that, when they go to Mass they receive holy communion from the tabernacle. How’s that any different from what they experience at a liturgy of the word and holy communion?

• A LONGER BREAK
  What about a situation beyond the one-off at emergency, for instance if no priest was to be available for two months? If on those eight or nine Sundays we celebrate a liturgy of the word and distribute holy communion, almost without noticing we’re diluting the apostolic connection between Sunday and eucharist, and sundering the link between the apostolic elements of the eucharistic event: thanksgiving and memorial—the very context for the notion of sacrifice—and epiclesis and communion; and this in the context of the ancient shape of the four-fold eucharistic action: taking and giving thanks and breaking and giving. Receiving holy communion is not a substitute for celebrating the eucharist.

  A liturgy of the word and the distribution of the reserved sacrament is not “the holy sacrifice of the Mass”. To allow that equivalence to be perceived does serious damage to Catholic ecclesiology.

PRACTICAL MEASURES IN ONE DEANERY

• WEEKDAYS
  Here’s a suggested scheme for a town or part of a city where there are several parishes: that the priests between them ensure that there is always e.g. a lunchtime Mass at the main church, and encourage people to go there. In other churches, when eucharist is not possible on weekdays, there is not a distribution of holy communion; instead there is daily celebration of the liturgy of the hours: Morning and/or Evening Prayer. As a measure which builds positively for the long-term, I believe that decent, worthy celebrations of the Liturgy of the Hours will be a major contribution to ensuring that, in the absence of Mass, people are formed in the responsibility to gather in the power of Christ to proclaim the word and to pray “for the church and the world”.
• SUNDAY
  Addressing the same situation—a town or part of a city where there are several parishes—a suggested scheme is this: That the priests between them ensure that as far as possible there is always one Sunday Mass in each parish.

  I say “as far as possible” because we must also respect the canonical norm that priests not celebrate more than three times on Sunday—for their own sake as well as for the sake of the people and the liturgy.

  An arrangement such as this will continue to provide a choice of times for people, though not necessarily in their ‘own’ church. A similar pattern may also be possible within a group of rural parishes.

  As fewer celebrations of the eucharist take place in each parish, liturgical slots will be freed up for Sunday Liturgy of the Hours: Evening Prayer and/or Morning Prayer, celebrated as liturgies in their own right. The developing situation might also encourage us to look—perhaps for the first time—at what the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy says about the importance of celebrating liturgies of the word on the vigils of Sundays and festivals.

  While there are still priests and deacons to lead parish communities, reducing the number of masses now to that which is physically needed will enhance the celebration of the parish eucharist though having more readers, ministers, musicians etc. It will also allow greater opportunity to establish vigil liturgies of the word, or celebrations of the liturgy of the hours.

• IN THE MEANTIME
  Whatever our current situation, and however it might develop, we must attend to the quality of all our liturgy: celebrating Sunday and weekday Mass with a full complement of ministries, where song and music are integral, where the calendar and lectionary are used to the full. Already our parishes need lay people trained in the following areas: presiding (ministers of holy communion already preside in someone’s home, even if they don’t realise it), the liturgical calendar and lectionary, the liturgy of the hours, composing intercessions, helping people to prepare and celebrate funerals. Especially, as a matter of principle and as a key element of catechesis, we must ensure that at every Mass people receive holy communion from elements consecrated at that actual celebration, and not from the reserved sacrament.

At the heart of our troubles—and it doesn’t just afflict lay people—is a lack of comprehension of the notion of ‘assembly’: the responsibility and duty of all the baptised to gather together, to proclaim the word, and to intercede for the church and the world.

This is a better place to begin our catechesis and our pastoral strategy, rather than from “we can’t have a Mass so let’s have ...”