especially this Pentecost Sunday, and after weeks of confinement and deprivation of the Eucharist, it is difficult to describe the joy felt by christians to be able to go back to their churches to meet and share together in the eucharistic meal. I would like to term " eucharistic meal ".
Much welcome, and we can understand, that the modern means of communication have enabled the greater number to attend the mass in front of their screens. To attend is the right term and not participate, as is the case usually in a Sunday assembly.
However, once out of this painful period, it is not forbidden to reflect on what we have experienced and ask yourself a few questions including this one : what is the meaning of a mass of television, when we find ourselves alone in front of his tv and unable to receive communion in the body and blood of Christ ?
The choice of the facility ?
The priests continued to celebrate mass daily in the privacy of their private church of the faithful. The question was then, how to join ? Why not to broadcast the mass through the screens ?
doing so, have we not missed of imagination and creativity ? Do we not chosen the easy way out in télévisant of the masses ? And why not have a broadcast of the celebrations of the Word and prayer time that would probably have been more suited for television as more likely to reach a wider audience ? The retransmission of the masses has crushed all other initiatives that have not had the right to the screens.
also Read "For us christians, this period is an act of faith"
He is not here to criticize anyone. Maybe I would have acted the same way, facing this new situation, if I had still the charge of a diocese. But at the time of a balance sheet, isn't it a fair question to ask ?
Here is what we can read on the website of the catholic Church in France :
" The eucharistic celebration always includes, in one and the same action : the proclamation of the Word of God, the offering of Christ to God the Father, in which we are invited to integrate us – thanksgiving to God the Father for all his blessings, especially for the gift of his Son, the consecration of the bread and wine and participation in the meals liturgical by the reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus. Christ gives himself. "
Discomfort
Since "participation in the meals liturgical reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus" is not possible in front of our screen, then what are the meaning and the value of a mass television ? On the other hand, "the proclamation of the Word of God, the offering of Christ to God the Father, in which we are invited to integrate us – thanksgiving to God the Father for all his blessings, especially for the gift of his Son," all this is possible in a celebration other than the eucharist, and perhaps even more accessible than the mass of the viewers of the "periphery" are not practicing. Because why do think that for practicing christians, during these broadcasts, then, that it was a unique opportunity to reach men and women clueless in the midst of this pandemic.
also Read Confessions via WhatsApp, masses on YouTube : how priests adapt
a few years ago, I had been invited to Africa to inaugurate a new radio. At the time of the meal, the bishop invites me to sit at the table with a few people. We are in a kind of courtyard, sitting next to each other, a little picture of the last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci. In front of us, about fifty people, standing, watching us eat. I do you will not the discomfort that I felt in such a situation. They were hungry and thirsty but had to be content with that of the show.
well I wonder if we are not in a similar situation when we are witnessing a mass television without being able to share the eucharistic meal.
"Do this in memory of me," said Christ at his last meal with his disciples. We can hear in two ways to this recommendation. "Repeat this same meal and share my body and my blood as food. "Impossible in front of a screen. But also : "Give your life to others as I donated mine. "This is-t it not be possible in all circumstances ?
* Jean-Michel Di Falco Leandri bishop emeritus of Gap and Embrun.
