Folia Theologica 20. (2009)
Barbour Hugh: The Cosmology of Catholic Worship: Pre-Socratic Sacraments? A Consideration by a disciple of St. Thomas Qauinas
THE COSMOLOGY OF CATHOLIC WORSHIP 29 sacramental order of reality, than that modern sacramental theology which is scandalized by the high medieval theology of the concrete causal power of repeated and individually applied sensible signs in determining the eternal destiny of men. Thus it is that a certain neo- Orthodoxy has taken refuge in the old insights of the pre-metaphysi- cal, natural perspective of the ancients, describing the means of grace, rather than defining them, using them, without penetrating their inner logic. As a provisional perspective, in view of a return to that serene and integral tradition of the disciples of St. Thomas, this is a reasonable faute du mieux resolution. Yet the salvation of "our selves our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice" (to quote Cramner against himself) is a matter far too urgent, and an undertaking requiring far too much refinement and priestly skill to be left to a mere intuitive traditionalism. As there is a macrocosmic liturgical context of the finality of the human race conversi ad Dominum, facing the Lord who Rises as the Sun over the Earth, so there is also a microcosmic theological and dogmatic essence of the efficient causality of the human mind and body of the Savior determining the symbolic but real material elements by symbolic but real forms which accomplish what they signify in the souls and bodies of the sons and daughters of Eve. The former macrocosmic insight may be restored in all its beauty and splendor in the "reform of the reform" but unless the ancilla theologiae of hylomor- phism is given back her place in the magisterial and professional theological household, the worship of the Church will not be as effective as it could be. This means her priests run the risk of being in their own minds mere liturgical functionaries, "Praesta, quaesumus-es," even incompetents, who like modern consumers are able to operate their technological apparatus, but are not be able to explain how it works or repair it. The great twentieth century theologian Cardinal Journet, the founder of the fine review Nova et Vetera was once asked after a conference about the question of concélébration. He answered the question mildly, even diplomatically, but offering the same insight I am essaying to instill in my present audience. The great Cardinal uses the Pre-Socratic image of the Heracleitan fire to bring his hearers along to his clearly Thomistic insight, worthy of the Areopagite: "In a concélébration - let us say by three priests - is there one Mass or three Masses? There is one sole Mass, one sole offering, one sole Sacrifice. There are not three Masses... So then, there are the celebrants and there is the celebra-
