THE DEACON IN THE LITURGY:

AN EPIPHANY OF SERVICE

Rev. W. Shawn McKnight, S.T.D.NADD Convention

April 22, 2015

Second Vatican Council

Sacrosanctum Concilium no. 26

Liturgical events are not private actions but celebrations of the church, which is “the sacrament of unity,” the holy people draw into an ordered whole under the bishops.

Therefore these celebrations are for the whole body which is the church, making this whole body visible and having effects on it; in a different kind of way they touch the individual members of the church, a way related to the differences in ranks, of roles and of levels of participation.

Sacrosanctum Concilium no. 4

[A]ll should hold in great esteem the liturgical life of the diocese centered around the bishop, especially in his cathedral church; they must be convinced that the preeminent manifestation of the Church is present in the full, active participation of all God’s holy people in these liturgical celebrations, especially the same eucharist, in a single prayer, at one altar at which the bishop presides, surrounded by his college of presbyters and by his ministers.

Social Language of Ritual

Non-Verbal Actions

“Say”

“Do”

Fr. Louis Bouyer

With the help of the modern sciences that deal with man, we intend to examine what might be described as the anthropological antecedents to Christianity. From this study, the human character of Christianity should emerge with a clarity that would otherwise be hardly suspected.

Ritual & Social Life

Ritual & Social Life

Victor Turner

Society in Flux

Anti-Structure Generic human

bond Blunts rough edges

of structure Builds social

cohesion Makes society a

community

Structure Order in Society to

meet material needs

Defines who a person is and is not

Apportions power, wealth, knowledge

Differentiates, separates, divides, holds people apart

Anti-Structure

Liminality Sphere of action or

thought Ritual Builds social

cohesion Makes society a

community Provides for the

experience of Communitas

Communitas A social modality of

relationships Not a geographic

territory Font & source of

social structures Critiques existing

structures Experience of man

to man w/o structure

Symbols of Communitas

Conveys communitas over into structure Alters the patterned way of doing things Operates on the symbolic level Evokes communitas by stripping away

the trappings of social structures The meaning of human life Related to feeling More powerful than the spoken word Critiques excessive individualism

Ritual

Mates structure with anti-Structure

A dialectic

Symbols of communitas restructure society according to communitas values

Ritual

“It is also true that if communitas can be developed within a ritual pattern it can be carried over into secular life for a while and help to mitigate or assuage some of the abrasiveness of social conflicts.”

Attributes of Symbols of Communitas

A marginal figure Represents peace Unaligned with factions Mediates between high and low, rich

and poor, powerful and week Reminder of the basic human bond

and our common humanity

Attributes of Symbols of Communitas

The poverty of Christ clearly had “immense emotional significance for Francis, who regarded nakedness as the master symbol of emancipation from structural and economic bondage—as from the constraints set upon him by his earthly father, the wealthy merchant of Assisi. Religion for him was communitas, between man and God and man and man, vertically and horizontally, so to speak, and poverty and nakedness were both expressive symbols of communitas and instruments for attaining it.—V. Turner

Attributes of Symbols of Communitas

Poverty

Humility

Symbols of Communitas

“The vain task of trying to find out in what precise way certain symbols found in the ritual, poetry, or iconography of a given society ‘reflect’ or ‘express’ its social or political structure can then be abandoned. Symbols may well reflect not structure but anti-structure, and not only ‘reflect’ it but contribute to creating it.”

National Directory 57

Deacons have a “special role to promote communion and to counter the strong emphasis on individualism prevalent in the United States.”

From Communitas to Communion

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship [koinonia], to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Acts 2:42

From Communitas to Communion

“We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

1 John 3: 14

From Communitas to Communion

“compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other.”

Colossians 3:12-13

General Instruction of the Roman Missal

“In the celebration of Mass the faithful are a holy people, a people God has made his own, a royal priesthood: they give thanks to the Father and offer the victim not only through the hands of the priest but also together with him and learn to offer themselves…”

General Instruction of the Roman Missal

“…They should endeavor to make this clear by their deep sense of reverence for God and their charity toward all who share with them in the celebration.

They therefore should shun any appearance of individualism or division, keeping before their mind that they have the one Father in heaven and therefore are all brothers and sisters to each other.”

The Deacon in the Mass

Proclamation of Gospel

General Intercessions Preparation of Gifts Elevation of the

Chalice Sign of Peace Distribution of Holy

Communion Dismissal

Proclamation of the Gospel

National Directory 58

“In his preaching and teaching, the deacon articulates the needs and hopes of the people he has experienced, thereby animating, motivating and facilitating a commitment among the lay faithful to an evangelical service ion the world.”

Prayers of the Faithful

Preparation of the Gifts

Elevation of the Chalice

Sign of Peace

Distribution of Communion

Dismissal