Some Q and A regarding Mass "facing East" (ad orientem)

 

I have had a few questions regarding Mass in the traditional posture facing East (facing the Lord, or ad orientem.)  So here are some Q and A based on questions or complaints I've had so far.  As always, please feel free to talk to me if you have questions. 

It is unfortunate that this point has become somewhat controversial.  But the renewal of the holy Mass is ongoing, so we can expect to say minor changes in the way Mass is celebrated so that we remain faithful to our liturgical tradition.

Q: When will Fr. Reutter be doing this?
 A: Only for weekday Masses during Advent season.  (Not for funerals or Sunday Masses or for Christmas Masses or Christmas season).  It takes time for people to get used to change.  Many of the more newly ordained priests are beginning to celebrate this way on occasion in various parishes across the Archdiocese.

Q:    Why do this?
A:    Because the Church has been doing this for most of her history, and it makes sense theologically.   (See articles linked below) 

Q:    But I heard that we changed to have the priest face the people because we are going back to the way Mass was celebrated in the early Church.
A:    There is scholarly doubt on this point.  We can really only speculate how Mass was celebrated in the early Church.  We don't have that much evidence of how the Mass was celebrated when it first became public.  But to a wider point, this is a bit selective.  There are many practices in the early Church that have changed, such as the faithful never picking up the Sacred Host.  The tradition of celebrating Mass toward the East is over a millennium old.

Q:     Didn't Vatican II require the priest to celebrate Mass facing the people?
A:     No.  See the article linked below.  The Roman missal has been revised several times since Vatican II, most recently in 2011.  This is the big red book on the altar that has the Mass prayers as well as instructions to the priest on how to celebrate the Mass.  The Mass instruction book currently tells the priest to say certain prayers while facing the people, which means that it assumes the priest is facing east during the Eucharistic prayer.

The Council's document on the liturgy does not indicate that the Mass should be celebrated exclusively facing the people.  It probably says that it is desirable to have certain parts of the Mass facing the people (which is done, including the whole of the proclamation of Scriptures (the Liturgy of the Word)).  There is a bit of a controversy over a line in Latin which some translate as "it is desirable to face the people," but others translate as "it is desirable that the altar be separate from the wall."  This one is a bit more complicated.  If you have questions about this, I can go into it in more detail.

Q:    Well then how come every place I've been going to Mass has the priest facing the people?
A:    That's a very good question.  Whole books have been written about this.  One very plausible explanation is that, after the Mass was revised at Vatican II,  many priests and bishops had as a goal to make the Mass "friendlier" to Protestants and more similar to Protestant worship services.  (I am too young to remember the council, but old timers have told me this). 

The thought was that it may bring more non-Catholics to the Catholic Mass.  In retrospect, not sure if that worked.  Interestingly, some of the Protestant sects that broke from the Church in the 16th century had their minister turn toward the people precisely because they denied that the Mass was a sacrifice and did not want their prayer service to look like one.  The Catholic Church has always taught, and will always teach, that the Mass is more than just a sacred meal, because the nature of the holy Mass is unchanging and unchangeable.  It is the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.

Q:    I don't like the priest having his back to the people.  That excludes us!  Why turn your back on us?
A:    Are people upset that the people in the pews in front of them are "turning their back on you" ?  Probably not, because they are facing the same direction: towards Christ.  The idea is that the priest and the people (together comprising Christ the Head and Christ the Body) are facing the Lord together.

We are the People of God on pilgrimage approaching the same destination.  Similarly, people aren't upset that the pilot on their airplane "has his back to them."  The pilot and people are facing their destination together.  The Mass is to bring us together to our heavenly destination.

Q:    Well, didn't Jesus face the Apostles at the Last Supper?
A:    Probably not.  Most biblical historians believe that the Passover meal would have been conducted in a way that would seem rather peculiar to modern sensibilities.  Our Lord and the Apostles were probably reclining on low-lying couches, with the Lord in the center, all facing inward to the place where a servant may bring in food. 

Q:    Why would we want to be frozen in time with the Council of Trent in the 16th Century?
A:    That is a bit of an odd way to put it.  Over the Church's history, there were certain times when the ancient practices of the Church were codified and standardized.  That doesn't mean they were invented then.  Similarly, we can't expect that the way the Mass was celebrated immediately after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s will be frozen in time, unchanged merely because our current generation got used to it.  In terms of the greater sweep of the Church's two-millennia history, the 50-some years since the Council are little more than a "blip."  There is a certain arrogance in assuming that we are wiser and know more about the liturgy than centuries of our spiritual ancestors before us and have nothing to learn from them.

Resources

Some details about the history of the Mass and the current instructions

A young Catholic's perspective on why he likes the Mass celebrated ad orientem