The Glorification of Humanism

      Recently, on one of my dark and esoteric perambulations around Ireland, I found myself standing before the towering and majestic facade of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Monaghan. Entering, I drew from my cincture the familiar and worn strand of wooden beads, which serves as a Rosary. I, in my naivety, expected a Cathedral to provide an uplifting atmosphere for prayer and meditation. I was sadly mistaken.

       As I walked up the center aisle of the nave of the monumental, though almost empty,  church, I immediately noted, with a sigh of distress, the absence of any sort of Altar-Piece, or indeed of a proper Sanctuary at all. As I contemplated my surroundings, not distracted by the sound of someone gathering and replacing spent candles, I became acutely aware that this building seemed not to be a church at all, but rather a temple of abstraction and a monument to liturgical humanism.

   Where in the olden days would have stood the Altar piece and the Tabernacle of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord,  now there was imposed upon the fair dimensions of that Cathedral an obtrusive and dismaying testament to revolutionary liturgical humanism. A marble pedestal, of a size almost as large as the new Altar, stood surmounted by a great throne. From this, steps led down the pedestal, and to an elevated marble walkway, upon which reposed a red carpet. This walkway continued all the way to the crux of the cathedral, where nave meets transept. It then widened out into a platform, upon which sat a small and not particularly impressive Altar.

     At seeing the Eucharistic King deposed, to make room for the Bishop's Throne, I almost wept tears of rage and despair. How else could this be interpreted, but as a dethroning of God, to make way for the glorification of man. Where once the Bishop ascended the steps "Unto the Altar of God" (As the words of the Mass proclaim), now the Bishop condescends to lower himself to God's level, to be the Altar Christus. What an inversion, indeed a perversion of the natural order and hierarchy is this! Man is elevated to the place of God, and God is thrust out of His own Sanctuary.

   Although I had always known of the ravages of liturgical humanism, and it's nefarious work in the Church, I had never before been faced with such a blatant and unapologetic display of it. Truly this was the clearest manifestation of the humanistic spirit I had ever seen. I often hear acquaintances with more modernist views than myself complain about how "in the old days" (the days to which I am attached) we used to treat our Priests as though they were God, adorning them with rich brocades and cloth of gold. They go on to say that now, with their folk Masses and their polyester-burlap sequestered presiders, they are following the authentic Christian way, and not idolizing their Clergy. And yet, I would go so far as to say that they are the true idolaters, and it is they who are treating the priest in an inappropriate way. Indeed, when we dress our priests in ornate vestments of gold, we are diminishing their human aspect, and enhancing their sacerdotal presence as the Alter Christus. For really, when the priest is attired in simple polyester, what is the message advanced? That it's the person, not the priesthood that's important. Inversely, when we adorn our priests in the richest vestments we can supply, it is as though we were covering his humanity, and helping him to be completely subsumed into his Divine role of Altar Christus. So, who is it who attaches too much grandeur to the Priesthood? Those who have a simply dressed prelate seated in a towering throne in the place of God, or those who have a priest who's human aspect is subjected to his Divine role, his humanity covered in the garb of divinity, and who, conscience that it is not he who offers the sacrifice, but Christ though him, humbly ascends the steps to the Altar of God.