After the painful vision of the liturgy in Vienna (see "Deprecated") seems more than ever a reflection of what "beautiful", "worthy" and "decent" should - or should - meaning in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. Then publish the speech made by Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy on the occasion of the Workshop on "His Majesty and beauty in the sanctuary. The art in the service of the liturgy ", organized on 1 December 2007 in the Vatican, taken from fides.org. Archbishop Piacenza in the intervention range from theological foundations in religious art is related to the Old and New Testaments, theological considerations - the anthropological teaching, from images to music and language. And, curiously, we find it all in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite ...
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican II states that the Church "has always been a friend of the liberal arts and has always sought their noble service, especially because things belonging to the sacred worship were truly worthy, dignified and beautiful, signs and symbols supernatural realities, and formed the artists' .1
From this important statement of Sacrosanctum Concilium I would submit, in a rather essential aspects affecting liturgical art. First we reconsider now the theological foundations of the relationship between liturgy and art. Then we shall refer to three particular elements by which the liturgy affects art: sacred images, sacred music and sacred language.
1. Theological Foundations
For the Church, which has the mind '"autonomy of earthly realities," intesa2 correctly, the art serves mainly a function of worship. It is the essence of the religious phenomenon, which, if personal and intimate in scale, has also necessarily an act of community and public. The sacred buildings, pictures, furniture, furnishings, liturgical books, the same liturgical texts and the musical repertoire, are works of art that are created to be placed at the service of divine worship.
The art is not a factor extrinsic to the liturgy, nor is it purely decorative, it is rather an integral part of worship, as Benedict XVI points out in his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis Post-Synod: "The relationship between creed and worship is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical category of beauty. The liturgy, in fact, like the rest of Christian Revelation, is inherently linked to beauty: it is Veritatis Splendor. In the liturgy shines the paschal mystery, in which Christ draws us to himself and calls us to communion. In Jesus, as Saint Bonaventure would say, we contemplate the beauty and splendor at their source. This attribute, which we refer is no mere aestheticism, but the manner in which the truth of God's love in Christ encounters us, attracts us and delights us, enabling us out of ourselves and drawing us towards our true vocation, which is love " .3
1.1 Art at the service of divine worship in the Old Testament
The art historian Timothy Verdon, reflecting on the "artistic genius of the liturgy," notes that "in almost all ancient cultures, the monumental art is religious worship and specifically. That is produced in the service of the liturgy, such as 'vision of the mystery'. The liturgy then - the complex of rituals by which a civilization outside his relationship with God - is in itself a work of art and generative art. " "In some cultures," Bishop Verdon continues, "the creative genius in the service of worship is even considered a gift of God, and art in all its forms ... is designed in relation to the sacred. In the Old Testament, for example, the origin of the arts is clearly presented as a function of the cult, and 'the artists that the Lord had endowed with wisdom and intelligence that they might be able to carry out the work of construction of the sanctuary', are taught by Moses in person, why do 'all things according to what the Lord had commanded' (Exodus 36.1) ".4
The exodus to Israel in the wilderness represented the foundational experience of his education in the people of God significant moments of this route are not only the passage of the Red Sea, in which God manifests his saving power (cf. Exodus 14, 15 to 15 , 21), or the proclamation of the Alliance and the delivery of the Ten Commandments to Moses, as a sign of Uncle Predil ¬ ¬ it in Israel (see Exodus 19, 1 - 20, 21), but also the construction and erection of the sanctuary, with an indication of the materials to be used and the detailed description of the furnishings and vestments, which occupies sixteen chapters of the book of Exodus (ch. 25-31 and 35-40). It is clear that the organization of worship by the prescriptions of the rites, including the claims on functional objects to the execution of the latter with precision and brilliance, is considered in Sacred Scripture, the most important means to achieve the encounter of God with his people.
In this course Israel than other nations with which it was not brought into contact in the form of innovations in worship. It drew substantially universal religious feeling which leads man to turn to the gods by offering the best fruits of their work as a thank you and as an invocation, a sentiment reflected in the sacrifices of Cain and Abel in Genesis described (4, 3-5). The novelty of Jewish worship consisted in the fact that it was addressed to one God and that it contained within itself the seeds of its spiritualization, which was announced by the prophets (Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah), would be fulfilled in Christ.
1.2 Worship in spirit and truth in the New Covenant
During his meeting with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, Jesus declares that "the time has come, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks worshipers" (John 4, 23).
How often in the Gospel according to John, that the Fathers of the Church have called the "spiritual Gospel", you can pick up a few ways complementary.
First, Christian worship is distinct from the worship of the Samaritans and Jews, because it is "in spirit", that is not limited to a single sanctuary, such as Mount Gerizim for the Samaritans and the temple of Jerusalem for the Jews. This does not mean that, under the Gospel, there should be no rites and ceremonies, no public worship or any religious building. Such a conclusion would be wrong, if only for the fact that almost two thousand years of Tradition Ecclesiae speak against it. The Lord told the Samaritan woman that there should be places and buildings for worship in the New Covenant, so the prophecy about the destruction of the temple, the divine Master is not for nothing that says you should never build another house honor of God, but rather that there should be many homes. This truth has found beautiful expression in a sermon of Cardinal John Henry Newman: "The glory of the Gospel is not the abolition of the rites, but their spread, not their absence, but their presence, and powerful by the grace of Christ ".5
Secondly, back to the subject of Jesus, Christian worship is "in truth", because it is not affected by the errors of idolatry and syncretism, which have plagued the Samaritans. There is an ancient rule, dating from the fifth century, which is often cited in the formula: lex orandi, lex credendi. We should be cautious about the interpretation of this principle, because faith comes not from the liturgy, rather than the celebration of the mysteries of faith presupposes the proclamation of the Gospel. Nevertheless, public worship is an expression of faith and witness of an infallible Church, and should help to understand in a profound sense that our desires and our aspirations for all that is good, that is true, which is nice, they are rooted and fulfilled the transcendent reality of God
The worship "in spirit and truth" advocated by Jesus, has never been warned by the Church as a waiver of the outward form of worship and praise to God, we must rather understand Christianity as a religion in which the external features are the expression of purity of heart and virtue.
1.3 Considerations theological and anthropological
St. Thomas Aquinas is very clear to observe that we must give honor to God not only in spirit. Since humans are creatures of the body, the senses are always involved. Since the human mind knows the invisible through the visible, it follows that "the worship of God is necessary to use corporeal things, that the human mind is moved by the signs to make these spiritual acts by means of which makes the ' union with God ".6
We are not "pure spirits", but we are made of soul and body, which is why we need sensible signs to purify our hearts and feed our desire for union with the invisible God. However, S. Thomas recognized that the end of the liturgy is a spiritual offering made by those who participate in it. But the union of body and soul is such that the internal expression of the soul, if it is genuine, look at the same time a demonstration outside the body. The inner life is supported by external acts, liturgical acts. The Doctor communis observes: "The external things are offered to God, not as if you need them ... but as signs of internal and spiritual works, which are acceptable to God" .7 It is the will that we should offer God's providential signs visible in our spiritual offering, because it is external signs that humans, as embodied creatures, comunicano.8
In this sense, the decree of the Council of Trent on the sacrifice of the Mass S, in an important passage of his first chapter, then quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares: "[Christ] ... our Lord God and the Last Supper, the night he was betrayed (1 Cor 11:23), [he wanted] to leave the Church, his beloved Bride, a visible sacrifice (as required by the human nature), which was the bloody sacrifice which he offered once for all on Cross, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and (1 Cor 11:23), applying his saving power to the remission of our sins daily ".9
This specifically affecting our thinking is the description of the Eucharistic sacrifice as "visible", the Council adds that the proposition "as required by human nature." In the fifth chapter of that decree this proposition is explained thus: "And because human nature is such that it is not easy to meditate on divine things, without external devices, for this reason the Church, pious mother, has established certain rites .... He established, similarly, ceremonies, blessings as mystical uses candles, incense, clothes and many other items transmitted from teaching and the apostolic tradition, which is highlighting the majesty of so great a sacrifice, and the minds of the faithful are drawn to these visible signs of religion and piety, to the contemplation of high things, which are hidden in this sacrifice ".10
The Last Supper of Jesus with the Apostles is not a simple dinner, you must understand that it's Supper in which Christ offers himself in anticipation of his sacrifice for us on Calvary and by instituting the sacrament of his body and his blood. For this reason, be careful not to trivialize the celebration of the Eucharist. In this sense, the sacred art should help to understand that it is the sacrifice God made man, avoiding things that are commonplace around the altar, as well as songs and music
1.4 Teachings of the Magisterium and witness of the saints
In his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the Servant of God John Paul II, to the theological, in which it explained the theological foundation of the Sacrament, is followed by a part of liturgical art in a chapter entitled "Pattern of the liturgy" (Nos. 47-52), in which directions are given for the very important relationship between the liturgy and art.
The encyclical says that Christ himself wanted the decor: for this is reminiscent of the preparation room of the Last Supper (cf. Mark 14, 15, Luke 22, 12) and the Anointing at Bethany (cf. Matthew 26, 8 and parallel), which anticipates the institution of the Eucharist. In this episode, a woman identified as Mary the sister of Lazarus, anoints the Lord with precious ointment. In the face of outraged objection of Judah and in which it is not difficult to see many of the attitudes of our times demagoguery "It could help many poor with that money," Jesus said that while the poor you have always had with it not He, showing very appreciative of this gesture of the woman, because she made with love towards your person. It is the affirmation of the goodness of decorum!
Elsewhere, the Pope quotes the passage from St. John Chrysostom, which states that the decoration is not luxury, and must always be related to an essential poverty: it is certainly not fair to have precious chalices and raising columns of gold, if Christ died in poor on the road. However, the Church has always been both a lover of decorum, is active in charity. It is particularly eloquent noted that the great saints of charity and poverty have always been distinguished for evangelical love the splendor of divine worship. This does reflect, observe and even take the consequences. The Church, the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia reads, "not afraid to 'waste', devoting the best of her resources to expressing her wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist," to spend money on beauty and decorum. The purpose is the "wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of" .11 The decor is intended to elicit admiration for the mystery contained in the Sacrament of the Altar.
That is a false problem to contrast the value of the spirit of poverty to the preciousness of the furnishings shows, among others, San Francisco, the "Poverello" of Assisi, who always told his brothers the utmost respect of the word and the Lord's body, to be expressed with the use of precious vases. He recommended it in his Testament (1226): "And these most holy mysteries than anything else I want to be honored, revered, and in precious places. And wherever you find the names and holy words written in indecent places, I want to collect them, and pray that they are collected and placed in a becoming place "; 12 while his biographies report that" being filled with reverence for this venerable sacrament [...] would send their brothers throughout the world with precious pyx, because putting in place the most worthy can the price of redemption, would see him everywhere preserved with little decorum ".13
The decor is, of course, first of all, an attitude, and the art is fully part of it, because it is expressed in art and the perception of beauty is in the service of the content. The decor is designed to facilitate the sacred prayer and awe for the mystery that is. From this same source came the Christian liturgy that flows from the feast, and, therefore, from a festive atmosphere and beauty. Just the desire to manifest externally the interior disposition of devotion, the Church has produced a rich heritage of art, which is a testimony of faith can speak a universal language through the ages.
The attitude of the Church, to make available to the cult of the most beautiful and precious it is possible to produce, in order to prepare an environment worthy of the great mysteries that are celebrated in it, is precious in Jesus himself confirms. The Savior has willed that the Last Supper the disciples were going to prepare as needed in the house of a friend who had a "great room and decked out" (Luke 22:12). The encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia said: "No less than the first disciples charged with preparing the 'big room', she has felt the need, down the centuries and in different cultures, to celebrate the Eucharist in a setting worthy of so great a mystery ".14
Therefore, even the furniture, furnishings, vestments and sacred buildings themselves, while material objects, fall into this spiritual vision of Christian worship which, by virtue of the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, does not despise matter, but considers place of the manifestation of the glory of God is clear then as St. John Damascene has justified the veneration of images and the use of sacred furnishings:
"That's also the matter becomes valuable, it is despised it with you. What is more vulgar and goat's hair color? Or maybe not the color crimson, purple and hyacinth? And behold the works of human hands and the figures of cherubim: and also, the whole tabernacle was a picture. In fact, look - God says to Moses - and run according to the model that you are shown on the mountain. And yet it is revered on every side from all over Israel. And what should I say the cherubim? They were not before the eyes of the people? And the ark, the candlestick, the table, the golden urn and the rod, the people watched and worshiped? I do not venerate matter, but I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, has taken up residence in the matter and through matter worked my salvation ".15
For fidelity to divine revelation and the perennial Tradition Ecclesiae, it is certainly urgent to put an end to demagogic speeches and attitudes to various forms of pauperism and of intellectualism or archeology, rather than to follow the example of the Saints. It is now, against the God-with-us, which is in the Blessed Sacrament, to let your heart speak, to respond to Love the language of love. Then - as has always happened - the dignity of divine worship, devoted to the majesty of all that is the expression, will achieve the fervor of charity towards our neighbor. Charity proves the truth of religion and the dignity of worship demonstrates the truth of love.
For this reason, the Church, in the various provisions of celebration and worship of the Eucharist, it never fails to recommend the preciousness of the sacred vessels for containing the Body and Blood of Christ during Holy Mass (chalice, paten, ciborium) and during Eucharistic adoration (monstrance reliquary). Recently, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a statement "on some things to be observed or avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist" in which, among other things, remember that these items must be forged with materials considered noble according to the various regions and cultures (and therefore the gold or other precious metals, but also semi-precious stones, precious woods, etc..) containers and avoided customary or without any artistic value (such as baskets, glass vases, clay or other fragile material or porous), and this is because "with their use becomes honor to the Lord and to avoid completely the risk of diminishing the eyes of the faithful the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharistic species" .16 These are not only advice, but provisions to be put into practice worldwide. Provisions very, very disappointed. I do not think it would be useful to produce pastoral instructions to explain or implement the Education o and then apply the widespread system of the silencer.
2. Practical guidelines
Now consider three aspects of the way in which the liturgy affects art: sacred images, sacred music and sacred language.
2.1 Devotion Images
The Gospel message is not only verbal, because the Word was made flesh (Jn 1.14). The Holy Scriptures announce that Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1, 15), "reflects the glory of ... [the Father] and stamp of his nature" (Heb 1.3). Jesus says "whoever sees me sees the Father" (Jn 14.9): ie, in the mystery of the person of Christ shines in a tangible form the whole divine reality, the Christian faith by delivering an irreplaceable visual content. In the Incarnation, the life of the invisible God became "visible" to men, as a response to the needs of human nature. In a lecture given in 1981, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "To approach the mystery of God, man needs to see, to stop and see, and to ensure that this becomes a touching to see. He must climb the 'ladder' of the body, to find it on the road to which faith invites him ".17 The Word that was made visible thus became the face or icon of God The importance of art sacred liturgical and devotional traditions of the Christians must be understood in this perspective.
The mystery of the Word made flesh, and provides the basis for the argument of the worship of images. The representation of God - beyond the explicit prohibition of the Old Testament (cf. Ex 20, Dt 4 and 5, 8) - in the New Economy is made possible by the Incarnation of the Son of God has God made his image, Jesus Christ. In the Incarnation, the invisible life of God became visible to men starting the uninterrupted series of seasons that have collected the works of the greatest artists.
Yet, in the history of the Church, there have been discussions and debates about this cult. The period of persecution was followed by the period of construction of the great basilicas and lit the discussion of sacred images, because they feared the risk of idolatry. We can not forget about the Synod of Elvira (304) when he says: they do not debere Picturas in ecclesia, it quod et colitur adoratur in parietibus depingatur. We also remember the anti-iconic theology of Eusebius of Caesarea in his letter to the Empress Constance. This letter was one of the patristic testimonies to the images of hostility, which the iconoclasts of Byzantium in the eighth century, used to support their struggle. In the theology of Eusebius, the great historian of the Church, there really is a connection between his opposition to the icon of Christ, his general thinking on the image and its very spiritualistic conception of the sacraments. It is noted that the issue of sacred images is, after all, a theological question. The iconoclastic phenomenon is present in various periods in the history of Christianity, as well as that of the Byzantine iconoclastic movement, the result of many complex causes, do not forget that of the early modern Calvinism, even the twentieth century has seen schools of theology dismissive of figurative representations in religious art. In any case, iconoclastic movements are always symptomatic of a crisis of faith in the mystery of the Incarnation.
However, the sense of the faith of Christians, theological reflection, the Magisterium of the Church and the examples of the saints have always been in favor of art and iconography. The popes of the eighth and ninth centuries gave their support to the decree of the Council of Nicaea (787) who declared lawful the possession and the veneration of images of Christ, the Virgin of the Angels and Saints. From St. Gregory the Great to the scholastic theologians (Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, William Durando) developed a discourse of legitimation that recognized the images a triple role: mystagogical or memoirs (remember them), educational (they teach), affective (they moved).
First, images are able to give a brief presentation Mystagogical the mystery of Christ (the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, the Parousia), the monumental cross serves this purpose, but the iconographic tradition presents us with other models (Ascension Thursday, Pantokrator, etc. Transfiguration. ), these images are suitable to be placed on the back wall of the chancel, to form a backdrop to the holy Eucharist. In this tradition has placed symbolic images evoking the sacrifice of the Holy Mass (as the Lamb of Revelation).
Secondly, the images are also important didactic, instead of the biblical, organized in an iconographic program designed to transmit a catechetical content Illustration of salvation history. This category may also include decorative programs of sacred furnishings (altar, ambo, baptistery, etc..), With suitable episodes, chosen from the Old and New Testament based on, for example, the typological reading (or prophecy).
The third category is that of devotional images, which includes a very varied type. There are in fact the image of Christ (Sacred Heart, miraculous Crucifix etc..), The Virgin and the saints, patrons of the city or the church or otherwise venerated by the Christian community, the subject of public worship and private devotion, remind us of the communion with the Church in heaven.
It seems to me that it is still present as saying Pius XII in Mediator Dei should be avoided if "with a wise balance the excessive realism on the one hand, and the exaggerated symbolism on the other, taking into account the needs of the Christian community, rather than the trial and personal taste of artists "(IV, 2).
2.2 Sacred Music
Christian tradition has always affirmed that song and sacred music, offering glory to God in the solemnity of the celebration, foster prayer and active participation in the holy mysteries of those who assist you, uniting the public and solemn prayer of the Church. In sanctifying the faithful and in educating the taste, sacred music also makes explicit the mysterious unity of the Mystical Body. St. Augustine in his Confessions describes the emotion I felt alive to participate in celebrations in Milan in which the faithful performed the singing of psalms and hymns of St. Ambrose .18 In his sermon the same St. Augustine says: "The man knows what the new song again. Singing is an expression of joy and, if we think that with a little 'more attention, is an expression of love ".19
Numerous papal and conciliar documents of the last century drew to the solemn celebration of the divine offices and in hand, the presence of active fedeli.20 It must however be noted that unfortunately, in recent years, perhaps underestimating the learning and the aesthetic taste of a shareholders' meeting that, until shortly before, and knew Memory Gregorian melodies, but are usually offered chants and songs, however, even involving the assembly, often missing in the form and content. For its part, however, the Magisterium does not require an indistinct participation of all the people in performing a repertoire often complex, but believes that the proper coordination of all, according to their individual roles and ministries, "flows the right climate spirit that makes the liturgical moment truly intense, participatory and fruitful ".21 It should also be clarified properly what is meant for active participation: in short, is not simply to take part in the liturgy, but to be conscious of belonging to Christ, to be part of the ecclesial Body of which Christ is the Head.
The Gregorian chant, closely united to the biblical, patristic and liturgical, is part of the lex orandi, which has been forged over a period of more than fifteen centuries. The assembly of the faithful in the celebration of the sacred liturgy, and especially in the Holy Mass, participate in singing the Gregorian chant the parts that belong to them, is not only possible, but is above all desirable. It is not a personal opinion, but the thought of the Church! See in this regard is the extensive documentation that the Motu Proprio Among the concerns of St. Pius X to the present day, through Pius XII (Musicae sacrae discipline), chap. VI of the Constitution on the Liturgy of Vatican II, the next Education of the then Congregation of Rites in 1967, and the autograph of John Paul II in 2003, commemorating the centenary of the motu proprio Among the concerns.
In his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis Post-Synod, Benedict XVI said: "The Church, in its two thousand year history, has created and still creates, music and songs which represent a heritage of faith and love which must not be lost. Indeed, the liturgy can not say that one song is the other. In this regard, it should avoid the Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration. Consequently everything - texts, music, execution - ought to correspond to the sense of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons. Infine, pur tenendo conto dei diversi orientamenti e delle differenti tradizioni assai lodevoli, desidero, come è stato chiesto dai Padri sinodali, che venga adeguatamente valorizzato il canto gregoriano, in quanto canto proprio della liturgia romana ”.22
Il canto gregoriano assembleare non solo può ma deve essere ripristinato, accanto a quello della schola e dei celebranti, se si vuole il rispetto dell'insegnamento del Vaticano II, il ritorno alla serietà della liturgia, alla santità, alla bontà delle forme e all'universalità che devono caratterizzare ogni musica liturgica degna di questo nome, come insegna San Pio X e ribadiscono sia Giovanni Paolo II sia Benedetto XVI. Credo si potrebbe iniziare dalle acclamazioni, dal Pater noster, dai canti dell'ordinario della S. Messa, specie il Kyrie, il Sanctus, l'Agnus Dei. In molti paesi il popolo conosceva bene il Credo III e l'intero ordinario della messa VIII (de Angelis), e non solo! Come sapeva pure il Pange lingua, il Veni Creator, la Salve Regina e altre antifone. L'esperienza insegna che il popolo, a seguito di un semplice invito, si mette a cantare anche la Missa brevis e altre melodie gregoriane facili, che ha nell'orecchio, anche se è la prima volta che le canta. C'è un repertorio minimo da imparare, contenuto nel famoso “Jubilate Deo” di Paolo VI, ma dove è finito?, o nel “Liber cantualis”, ma dove è finito? Se si abitua il popolo a cantare quel repertorio gregoriano che gli si confà, sarà allenato a imparare anche i canti nuovi nelle lingue vive; quei canti, si intende, degni di stare accanto al repertorio gregoriano, che dovrebbe conservare sempre il primato. La questione è che devono cadere i pregiudizi ideologici!
Senza il canto gregoriano la musica di chiesa è mutilata. Non può esserci musica di chiesa, nella Chiesa latina, senza canto gregoriano. I grandi maestri della polifonia sono ancora più grandi quando si basano sul canto gregoriano, mutuandone le tematiche, la modalità e la poliritmia. Per questo spirito che ne informa la raffinata tecnica, per questa fedele aderenza al testo sacro e al momento liturgico, sono stati grandi Palestrina, di Lasso, da Victoria, Guerrero, Morales, e via dicendo. E non solo nelle composizioni complesse o corali, ma anche nel creare nuove melodie, in latino o in volgare, sia per la liturgia che per gli atti devozionali. Il vero canto popolare sacro – peraltro preziosissimo – tanto più sarà valido e sostanzioso quanto più si ispirerà al canto gregoriano. Giovanni Paolo II ha fatto integralmente suo il noto principio di San Pio X: “ Una composizione di chiesa è tanto più sacra e liturgica, quanto più nell'andamento, nell'ispirazione e nel sapore si accosta alla melodia gregoriana, e tanto meno è degna del tempio, quanto più da quel supremo modello si riconosce difforme ”.23
Il canto gregoriano riecheggerà suadente, e amalgamerà il popolo nel vero senso della cattolicità. E lo spirito del canto gregoriano informerà le composizioni di nuovo conio, e guiderà col vero sensus Ecclesiae gli sforzi di una retta inculturazione. Bisogna ricordare che questa musica era insolita anche alle orecchie di Carlo Magno o di san Tommaso d'Aquino, di Monteverdi o di Haydn. Ed era tanto estranea ai tempi loro quanto lo è ai nostri giorni. Oggi, tuttavia, si è meglio disposti verso la musica di altre culture di quanto non lo fossero i cristiani di molti secoli fa. Anzi, direi che le melodie delle varie tradizioni locali, anche di paesi lontani e di cultura ben diversa dalla nostra, sono parenti prossimi del canto gregoriano, e anche in questo senso il canto gregoriano è veramente universale, a tutti proponibile, e capace di fare da ponte, nel rispetto dell'unità e della pluralità. D'altronde sono proprio questi paesi lontani, queste culture che si sono affacciate di recente sull'orizzonte della Chiesa cattolica ad insegnarci l'amore per il canto tradizionale della Chiesa. L'educazione ecclesiale autentica va sempre nel senso della continuità e tale continuità è ben lungi dall'essere fissismo. Si cammina “in eodem sensu” e si cammina arricchendosi, non depauperandosi.
2.3 Lingua sacra
Non voglio chiudere queste riflessioni sugli aspetti liturgici che incidono sull'arte senza far notare una delle numerose brevi opere letterarie che la liturgia stessa contiene. Intendo le orazioni del rito romano, soprattutto quelle antiche della domenica. Il latino liturgico era un fortuito combinarsi di un rinnovamento della lingua, ispirato dalla novità della Rivelazione, e di un tradizionalismo stilistico fermamente radicato nel mondo romano. Dato che il latino del Canone Romano e delle orazioni della S. Messa era una lingua fortemente stilizzata e rimossa dall'idioma della gente comune, non si tratta semplicemente di un'adozione della lingua “vernacola” nella liturgia. La forza unificatrice del papato era tale che il latino divenne l'unica lingua liturgica dell'Occidente. Questo fu un fattore importante per favorire la sua coesione ecclesiastica, culturale e politica.
Queste composizioni hanno un valore artistico-letterario che è ben apprezzato anche dai filologi. Un autorevole dizionario tedesco di letteratura dice: “ Gran parte delle orazioni … e dei prefazi è stata tramandata nei sacramentari del V e VII secolo. In tutti questi testi – soprattutto da una prospettiva strettamente letteraria – è presente la sostanza del Missale Romanum: creazioni di alta espressività teologica, modellate sulle regole della prosa letteraria della tarda latinità. Forme di una monumentale semplicità e di un'affascinante precisione. Esse, conservate essenzialmente immutate, sono di una tale perfezione da essere ancor oggi la forma di preghiera della Chiesa cattolica ”.24
Le orazioni mantengono una classica generalità, perché esse sono la preghiera pubblica della Chiesa per tutta l'umanità, tuttavia hanno un contenuto che riesce a toccare anche il singolo lettore, perché in esse la Chiesa esprime la sua confidenza nella Grazia di Dio, che solo può aprire il cuore dell'uomo peccatore. Perciò, quelle orazioni succinte quanto sostanziose costituiscono una scuola di sensibilità sacramentale.
Quindi non sorprende che la Chiesa riaffermi il valore perenne della lingua latina nella liturgia. Come dice il Santo Padre nella sua recente Esortazione Apostolica Post-Sinodale: “Più in generale, chiedo che i futuri sacerdoti, fin dal tempo del seminario, siano preparati a comprendere ea celebrare la santa Messa in latino, nonché a utilizzare testi latini ea eseguire il canto gregoriano; non si trascuri la possibilità che gli stessi fedeli siano educati a conoscere le più comuni preghiere in latino, come anche a cantare in gregoriano certe parti della liturgia”.25 Solo che quanto il Santo Padre chiede dovrebbe subito diventare prassi. La “communio” deve essere effettiva non solo “applauditiva”. Già il Vaticano II chiedeva che tutti i fedeli sapessero rispondere anche in latino. È un “anche” e non un “solo”. Tutto si può fare con equilibrio e senza fanatismi di sorta e senza polemiche. Questo è lo stile ecclesiale. Ma cosa è successo della richiesta del Concilio?
In un'epoca contrassegnata da grande mobilità e globalizzazione, una lingua liturgica comune serve come vincolo di unità fra popoli e culture, a parte il fatto che la liturgia latina è un tesoro spirituale unico, che ha alimentato la vita della Chiesa per molti secoli. Infine, è necessario preservare il carattere sacro della lingua liturgica nella traduzione vernacola, come fa notare l'istruzione della Congregazione per il Culto Divino Liturgiam authenticam del 2001.26
3. Conclusione
Infine, vorrei sottolineare la necessità di formazione iniziale e permanente, innanzitutto del clero, a seguito di una serie di documenti del Magistero, dal Decreto del Concilio Vaticano II sulla formazione sacerdotale Optatam totius alla recente Esortazione Apostolica Postsinodale Sacramentum Caritatis del Santo Padre Benedetto XVI.27 Certamente il primo lavoro da fare riguarda la formazione dei candidati al sacerdozio, chiamati ad essere promotori delle arti sacre. Purtroppo sempre più diffusamente si constata una carenza quanto mai grave, di una vera educazione alla grande tradizione artistica della Chiesa, anzi talvolta della più elementare formazione musicale e il prosperare di banalità, di cattivo gusto, di rozzezza, di superficiali giovanilismi. Anche la formazione permanente del clero ad un'autentica comprensione ed utilizzazione dei beni culturali e artistici in senso ecclesiale è un'esigenza del nostro tempo. Naturalmente ogni cosa bella e buona ha un costo. Sebbene sia molto importante la buona volontà, a volte questa non basta. Per ottenere buoni risultati, è necessario investire delle risorse, soprattutto nella formazione, nella quale vanno impiegati veri professionisti, anche a tempo pieno. Dobbiamo ricordare che la formazione artistica e musicale del clero non è un lusso, ma fa parte dell'ars celebrandi. Così si serve anche alla santificazione del clero nell'esercizio stesso del sacro ministero.
La liturgia, con l'arte e la musica sacre, serve a far incontrare l'uomo con la bellezza della fede: “ Ammirare le icone, e in generale i grandi quadri dell'arte cristiana, ci conduce per una via interiore, una via del superamento di sé e quindi, in questa purificazione dello sguardo, che è una purificazione del cuore, ci rivela la Bellezza, o almeno un raggio di essa. Proprio così essa ci pone in rapporto con la forza della verità…la vera apologia della fede cristiana, la dimostrazione più convincente della sua verità, contro ogni negazione, sono da un lato i Santi, dall'altro la bellezza che la fede ha generato. Affinché oggi la fede possa crescere dobbiamo condurre noi stessi e gli uomini in cui ci imbattiamo a incontrare i santi, a entrare in contatto col Bello”( Joseph Ratzinger, Intervento al Meeting di Rimini 2002 ).
+ Mauro Piacenza
Arcivescovo tit. di Vittoriana
Segretario della Congregazione per il Clero
1 Sacrosanctum Concilium, 122.
2 Gaudium et spes, 36.
3 Benedetto XVI, Esortazione Apostolica Post-Sinodale Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 febbraio 2007, 35.
4 T. Verdon, Vedere il mistero. Il genio artistico della liturgia cattolica, Milano 2003, p. 13.
5 JH Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons VI, 19: 'The Gospel Palaces', San Francisco 1997, p. 1355: “The glory of the Gospel is not the abolition of rites, but their dissemination; not their absence, but their living and efficacious presence through the grace of Christ”.
6 S.Th. II-II, q. 81, a. 7
7 S.Th. II-II, q. 81, a. 7, ad 2.
8 Cfr III, q. 61, a. 1.
9 Concilio di Trento, Sessione XXII (1562), DS 1740; citato in CCC, 1366.
10 Concilio di Trento, Sessione XXII (1562), DS 1746.
11 Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 48.
12 Fonti Francescane, pp. 131-132.
13 Tommaso da Celano, Vita seconda, in Fonti Francescane, p. 713.
14 Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 48.
15 San Giovanni Damasceno, Difesa delle immagini sacre 2, 14: Es 25, 31-40.
16 Congregazione per il Culto Divino, Redemptionis Sacramentum, 24 aprile 2004, n. 117.
17 J. Ratzinger, Il Mistero pasquale. Contenuto e fondamento profondo della devozione al Sacro Cuore di Gesù, in Id., Guardare al Crocifisso. Fondazione teologica di una cristologia spirituale, Milano 1992, pp. 43-61, part. p. 49 (Conferenza al Congresso sul Sacro Cuore di Gesù, Toulouse, 24-28 luglio 1981).
18 Sant'Agostino, Confessioni IX, 7, 15-16.
19 Sant'Agostino, Sermo 34, 1.
20 Sacrosanctum Concilium, 113
21 Giovanni Paolo II, Chirografo sulla musica sacra Mosso dal vivo desiderio, 23 novembre 2003.
22 Sacramentum Caritatis, 42; Cfr. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 166; Ordinamento Generale del Messale Romano, 41.
23 Tra le Sollecitudini 3; Mosso dal vivo desiderio, 12.
24 Kindlers Literaturlexikon, vol. IV (1968), col. 2721.
25 Sacramentum Caritatis, 62.
26 Congregazione per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti, Quinta Istruzione “per la retta Applicazione della Costituzione sulla Sacra Liturgia del Concilio Vaticano II” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 36). Liturgiam authenticam: L'Uso delle Lingue Vernacole nella Pubblicazione dei Libri della Liturgia Romana, Città del Vaticano 2001.
27 Cfr Conc. Ecum. Vat. II, Decr. sulla formazione sacerdotale Optatam totius, 6; Codice di Diritto Canonico, can. 241, § 1 e can. 1029; Codice dei Canoni delle Chiese Orientali, can. 342, § 1 e can. 758; Giovanni Paolo II, Esort. ap. postsinodale Pastores dabo vobis (25 marzo 1992) 11.34.50; Congregazione per il Clero, Direttorio per il ministero e la vita dei presbiteri Dives Ecclesiae (31 marzo 1994), 58; Sacramentum Caritatis, 21.
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Archbishop Piacenza on theology, anthropology, art and liturgy
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican II states that the Church "has always been a friend of the liberal arts and has always sought their noble service, especially because things belonging to the sacred worship were truly worthy, dignified and beautiful, signs and symbols supernatural realities, and formed the artists' .1
From this important statement of Sacrosanctum Concilium I would submit, in a rather essential aspects affecting liturgical art. First we reconsider now the theological foundations of the relationship between liturgy and art. Then we shall refer to three particular elements by which the liturgy affects art: sacred images, sacred music and sacred language.
1. Theological Foundations
For the Church, which has the mind '"autonomy of earthly realities," intesa2 correctly, the art serves mainly a function of worship. It is the essence of the religious phenomenon, which, if personal and intimate in scale, has also necessarily an act of community and public. The sacred buildings, pictures, furniture, furnishings, liturgical books, the same liturgical texts and the musical repertoire, are works of art that are created to be placed at the service of divine worship.
The art is not a factor extrinsic to the liturgy, nor is it purely decorative, it is rather an integral part of worship, as Benedict XVI points out in his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis Post-Synod: "The relationship between creed and worship is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical category of beauty. The liturgy, in fact, like the rest of Christian Revelation, is inherently linked to beauty: it is Veritatis Splendor. In the liturgy shines the paschal mystery, in which Christ draws us to himself and calls us to communion. In Jesus, as Saint Bonaventure would say, we contemplate the beauty and splendor at their source. This attribute, which we refer is no mere aestheticism, but the manner in which the truth of God's love in Christ encounters us, attracts us and delights us, enabling us out of ourselves and drawing us towards our true vocation, which is love " .3
1.1 Art at the service of divine worship in the Old Testament
The art historian Timothy Verdon, reflecting on the "artistic genius of the liturgy," notes that "in almost all ancient cultures, the monumental art is religious worship and specifically. That is produced in the service of the liturgy, such as 'vision of the mystery'. The liturgy then - the complex of rituals by which a civilization outside his relationship with God - is in itself a work of art and generative art. " "In some cultures," Bishop Verdon continues, "the creative genius in the service of worship is even considered a gift of God, and art in all its forms ... is designed in relation to the sacred. In the Old Testament, for example, the origin of the arts is clearly presented as a function of the cult, and 'the artists that the Lord had endowed with wisdom and intelligence that they might be able to carry out the work of construction of the sanctuary', are taught by Moses in person, why do 'all things according to what the Lord had commanded' (Exodus 36.1) ".4
The exodus to Israel in the wilderness represented the foundational experience of his education in the people of God significant moments of this route are not only the passage of the Red Sea, in which God manifests his saving power (cf. Exodus 14, 15 to 15 , 21), or the proclamation of the Alliance and the delivery of the Ten Commandments to Moses, as a sign of Uncle Predil ¬ ¬ it in Israel (see Exodus 19, 1 - 20, 21), but also the construction and erection of the sanctuary, with an indication of the materials to be used and the detailed description of the furnishings and vestments, which occupies sixteen chapters of the book of Exodus (ch. 25-31 and 35-40). It is clear that the organization of worship by the prescriptions of the rites, including the claims on functional objects to the execution of the latter with precision and brilliance, is considered in Sacred Scripture, the most important means to achieve the encounter of God with his people.
In this course Israel than other nations with which it was not brought into contact in the form of innovations in worship. It drew substantially universal religious feeling which leads man to turn to the gods by offering the best fruits of their work as a thank you and as an invocation, a sentiment reflected in the sacrifices of Cain and Abel in Genesis described (4, 3-5). The novelty of Jewish worship consisted in the fact that it was addressed to one God and that it contained within itself the seeds of its spiritualization, which was announced by the prophets (Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah), would be fulfilled in Christ.
1.2 Worship in spirit and truth in the New Covenant
During his meeting with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, Jesus declares that "the time has come, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks worshipers" (John 4, 23).
How often in the Gospel according to John, that the Fathers of the Church have called the "spiritual Gospel", you can pick up a few ways complementary.
First, Christian worship is distinct from the worship of the Samaritans and Jews, because it is "in spirit", that is not limited to a single sanctuary, such as Mount Gerizim for the Samaritans and the temple of Jerusalem for the Jews. This does not mean that, under the Gospel, there should be no rites and ceremonies, no public worship or any religious building. Such a conclusion would be wrong, if only for the fact that almost two thousand years of Tradition Ecclesiae speak against it. The Lord told the Samaritan woman that there should be places and buildings for worship in the New Covenant, so the prophecy about the destruction of the temple, the divine Master is not for nothing that says you should never build another house honor of God, but rather that there should be many homes. This truth has found beautiful expression in a sermon of Cardinal John Henry Newman: "The glory of the Gospel is not the abolition of the rites, but their spread, not their absence, but their presence, and powerful by the grace of Christ ".5
Secondly, back to the subject of Jesus, Christian worship is "in truth", because it is not affected by the errors of idolatry and syncretism, which have plagued the Samaritans. There is an ancient rule, dating from the fifth century, which is often cited in the formula: lex orandi, lex credendi. We should be cautious about the interpretation of this principle, because faith comes not from the liturgy, rather than the celebration of the mysteries of faith presupposes the proclamation of the Gospel. Nevertheless, public worship is an expression of faith and witness of an infallible Church, and should help to understand in a profound sense that our desires and our aspirations for all that is good, that is true, which is nice, they are rooted and fulfilled the transcendent reality of God
The worship "in spirit and truth" advocated by Jesus, has never been warned by the Church as a waiver of the outward form of worship and praise to God, we must rather understand Christianity as a religion in which the external features are the expression of purity of heart and virtue.
1.3 Considerations theological and anthropological
St. Thomas Aquinas is very clear to observe that we must give honor to God not only in spirit. Since humans are creatures of the body, the senses are always involved. Since the human mind knows the invisible through the visible, it follows that "the worship of God is necessary to use corporeal things, that the human mind is moved by the signs to make these spiritual acts by means of which makes the ' union with God ".6
We are not "pure spirits", but we are made of soul and body, which is why we need sensible signs to purify our hearts and feed our desire for union with the invisible God. However, S. Thomas recognized that the end of the liturgy is a spiritual offering made by those who participate in it. But the union of body and soul is such that the internal expression of the soul, if it is genuine, look at the same time a demonstration outside the body. The inner life is supported by external acts, liturgical acts. The Doctor communis observes: "The external things are offered to God, not as if you need them ... but as signs of internal and spiritual works, which are acceptable to God" .7 It is the will that we should offer God's providential signs visible in our spiritual offering, because it is external signs that humans, as embodied creatures, comunicano.8
In this sense, the decree of the Council of Trent on the sacrifice of the Mass S, in an important passage of his first chapter, then quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares: "[Christ] ... our Lord God and the Last Supper, the night he was betrayed (1 Cor 11:23), [he wanted] to leave the Church, his beloved Bride, a visible sacrifice (as required by the human nature), which was the bloody sacrifice which he offered once for all on Cross, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and (1 Cor 11:23), applying his saving power to the remission of our sins daily ".9
This specifically affecting our thinking is the description of the Eucharistic sacrifice as "visible", the Council adds that the proposition "as required by human nature." In the fifth chapter of that decree this proposition is explained thus: "And because human nature is such that it is not easy to meditate on divine things, without external devices, for this reason the Church, pious mother, has established certain rites .... He established, similarly, ceremonies, blessings as mystical uses candles, incense, clothes and many other items transmitted from teaching and the apostolic tradition, which is highlighting the majesty of so great a sacrifice, and the minds of the faithful are drawn to these visible signs of religion and piety, to the contemplation of high things, which are hidden in this sacrifice ".10
The Last Supper of Jesus with the Apostles is not a simple dinner, you must understand that it's Supper in which Christ offers himself in anticipation of his sacrifice for us on Calvary and by instituting the sacrament of his body and his blood. For this reason, be careful not to trivialize the celebration of the Eucharist. In this sense, the sacred art should help to understand that it is the sacrifice God made man, avoiding things that are commonplace around the altar, as well as songs and music
1.4 Teachings of the Magisterium and witness of the saints
In his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the Servant of God John Paul II, to the theological, in which it explained the theological foundation of the Sacrament, is followed by a part of liturgical art in a chapter entitled "Pattern of the liturgy" (Nos. 47-52), in which directions are given for the very important relationship between the liturgy and art.
The encyclical says that Christ himself wanted the decor: for this is reminiscent of the preparation room of the Last Supper (cf. Mark 14, 15, Luke 22, 12) and the Anointing at Bethany (cf. Matthew 26, 8 and parallel), which anticipates the institution of the Eucharist. In this episode, a woman identified as Mary the sister of Lazarus, anoints the Lord with precious ointment. In the face of outraged objection of Judah and in which it is not difficult to see many of the attitudes of our times demagoguery "It could help many poor with that money," Jesus said that while the poor you have always had with it not He, showing very appreciative of this gesture of the woman, because she made with love towards your person. It is the affirmation of the goodness of decorum!
Elsewhere, the Pope quotes the passage from St. John Chrysostom, which states that the decoration is not luxury, and must always be related to an essential poverty: it is certainly not fair to have precious chalices and raising columns of gold, if Christ died in poor on the road. However, the Church has always been both a lover of decorum, is active in charity. It is particularly eloquent noted that the great saints of charity and poverty have always been distinguished for evangelical love the splendor of divine worship. This does reflect, observe and even take the consequences. The Church, the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia reads, "not afraid to 'waste', devoting the best of her resources to expressing her wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist," to spend money on beauty and decorum. The purpose is the "wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of" .11 The decor is intended to elicit admiration for the mystery contained in the Sacrament of the Altar.
That is a false problem to contrast the value of the spirit of poverty to the preciousness of the furnishings shows, among others, San Francisco, the "Poverello" of Assisi, who always told his brothers the utmost respect of the word and the Lord's body, to be expressed with the use of precious vases. He recommended it in his Testament (1226): "And these most holy mysteries than anything else I want to be honored, revered, and in precious places. And wherever you find the names and holy words written in indecent places, I want to collect them, and pray that they are collected and placed in a becoming place "; 12 while his biographies report that" being filled with reverence for this venerable sacrament [...] would send their brothers throughout the world with precious pyx, because putting in place the most worthy can the price of redemption, would see him everywhere preserved with little decorum ".13
The decor is, of course, first of all, an attitude, and the art is fully part of it, because it is expressed in art and the perception of beauty is in the service of the content. The decor is designed to facilitate the sacred prayer and awe for the mystery that is. From this same source came the Christian liturgy that flows from the feast, and, therefore, from a festive atmosphere and beauty. Just the desire to manifest externally the interior disposition of devotion, the Church has produced a rich heritage of art, which is a testimony of faith can speak a universal language through the ages.
The attitude of the Church, to make available to the cult of the most beautiful and precious it is possible to produce, in order to prepare an environment worthy of the great mysteries that are celebrated in it, is precious in Jesus himself confirms. The Savior has willed that the Last Supper the disciples were going to prepare as needed in the house of a friend who had a "great room and decked out" (Luke 22:12). The encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia said: "No less than the first disciples charged with preparing the 'big room', she has felt the need, down the centuries and in different cultures, to celebrate the Eucharist in a setting worthy of so great a mystery ".14
Therefore, even the furniture, furnishings, vestments and sacred buildings themselves, while material objects, fall into this spiritual vision of Christian worship which, by virtue of the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, does not despise matter, but considers place of the manifestation of the glory of God is clear then as St. John Damascene has justified the veneration of images and the use of sacred furnishings:
"That's also the matter becomes valuable, it is despised it with you. What is more vulgar and goat's hair color? Or maybe not the color crimson, purple and hyacinth? And behold the works of human hands and the figures of cherubim: and also, the whole tabernacle was a picture. In fact, look - God says to Moses - and run according to the model that you are shown on the mountain. And yet it is revered on every side from all over Israel. And what should I say the cherubim? They were not before the eyes of the people? And the ark, the candlestick, the table, the golden urn and the rod, the people watched and worshiped? I do not venerate matter, but I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, has taken up residence in the matter and through matter worked my salvation ".15
For fidelity to divine revelation and the perennial Tradition Ecclesiae, it is certainly urgent to put an end to demagogic speeches and attitudes to various forms of pauperism and of intellectualism or archeology, rather than to follow the example of the Saints. It is now, against the God-with-us, which is in the Blessed Sacrament, to let your heart speak, to respond to Love the language of love. Then - as has always happened - the dignity of divine worship, devoted to the majesty of all that is the expression, will achieve the fervor of charity towards our neighbor. Charity proves the truth of religion and the dignity of worship demonstrates the truth of love.
For this reason, the Church, in the various provisions of celebration and worship of the Eucharist, it never fails to recommend the preciousness of the sacred vessels for containing the Body and Blood of Christ during Holy Mass (chalice, paten, ciborium) and during Eucharistic adoration (monstrance reliquary). Recently, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a statement "on some things to be observed or avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist" in which, among other things, remember that these items must be forged with materials considered noble according to the various regions and cultures (and therefore the gold or other precious metals, but also semi-precious stones, precious woods, etc..) containers and avoided customary or without any artistic value (such as baskets, glass vases, clay or other fragile material or porous), and this is because "with their use becomes honor to the Lord and to avoid completely the risk of diminishing the eyes of the faithful the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharistic species" .16 These are not only advice, but provisions to be put into practice worldwide. Provisions very, very disappointed. I do not think it would be useful to produce pastoral instructions to explain or implement the Education o and then apply the widespread system of the silencer.
2. Practical guidelines
Now consider three aspects of the way in which the liturgy affects art: sacred images, sacred music and sacred language.
2.1 Devotion Images
The Gospel message is not only verbal, because the Word was made flesh (Jn 1.14). The Holy Scriptures announce that Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1, 15), "reflects the glory of ... [the Father] and stamp of his nature" (Heb 1.3). Jesus says "whoever sees me sees the Father" (Jn 14.9): ie, in the mystery of the person of Christ shines in a tangible form the whole divine reality, the Christian faith by delivering an irreplaceable visual content. In the Incarnation, the life of the invisible God became "visible" to men, as a response to the needs of human nature. In a lecture given in 1981, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "To approach the mystery of God, man needs to see, to stop and see, and to ensure that this becomes a touching to see. He must climb the 'ladder' of the body, to find it on the road to which faith invites him ".17 The Word that was made visible thus became the face or icon of God The importance of art sacred liturgical and devotional traditions of the Christians must be understood in this perspective.
The mystery of the Word made flesh, and provides the basis for the argument of the worship of images. The representation of God - beyond the explicit prohibition of the Old Testament (cf. Ex 20, Dt 4 and 5, 8) - in the New Economy is made possible by the Incarnation of the Son of God has God made his image, Jesus Christ. In the Incarnation, the invisible life of God became visible to men starting the uninterrupted series of seasons that have collected the works of the greatest artists.
Yet, in the history of the Church, there have been discussions and debates about this cult. The period of persecution was followed by the period of construction of the great basilicas and lit the discussion of sacred images, because they feared the risk of idolatry. We can not forget about the Synod of Elvira (304) when he says: they do not debere Picturas in ecclesia, it quod et colitur adoratur in parietibus depingatur. We also remember the anti-iconic theology of Eusebius of Caesarea in his letter to the Empress Constance. This letter was one of the patristic testimonies to the images of hostility, which the iconoclasts of Byzantium in the eighth century, used to support their struggle. In the theology of Eusebius, the great historian of the Church, there really is a connection between his opposition to the icon of Christ, his general thinking on the image and its very spiritualistic conception of the sacraments. It is noted that the issue of sacred images is, after all, a theological question. The iconoclastic phenomenon is present in various periods in the history of Christianity, as well as that of the Byzantine iconoclastic movement, the result of many complex causes, do not forget that of the early modern Calvinism, even the twentieth century has seen schools of theology dismissive of figurative representations in religious art. In any case, iconoclastic movements are always symptomatic of a crisis of faith in the mystery of the Incarnation.
However, the sense of the faith of Christians, theological reflection, the Magisterium of the Church and the examples of the saints have always been in favor of art and iconography. The popes of the eighth and ninth centuries gave their support to the decree of the Council of Nicaea (787) who declared lawful the possession and the veneration of images of Christ, the Virgin of the Angels and Saints. From St. Gregory the Great to the scholastic theologians (Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, William Durando) developed a discourse of legitimation that recognized the images a triple role: mystagogical or memoirs (remember them), educational (they teach), affective (they moved).
First, images are able to give a brief presentation Mystagogical the mystery of Christ (the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, the Parousia), the monumental cross serves this purpose, but the iconographic tradition presents us with other models (Ascension Thursday, Pantokrator, etc. Transfiguration. ), these images are suitable to be placed on the back wall of the chancel, to form a backdrop to the holy Eucharist. In this tradition has placed symbolic images evoking the sacrifice of the Holy Mass (as the Lamb of Revelation).
Secondly, the images are also important didactic, instead of the biblical, organized in an iconographic program designed to transmit a catechetical content Illustration of salvation history. This category may also include decorative programs of sacred furnishings (altar, ambo, baptistery, etc..), With suitable episodes, chosen from the Old and New Testament based on, for example, the typological reading (or prophecy).
The third category is that of devotional images, which includes a very varied type. There are in fact the image of Christ (Sacred Heart, miraculous Crucifix etc..), The Virgin and the saints, patrons of the city or the church or otherwise venerated by the Christian community, the subject of public worship and private devotion, remind us of the communion with the Church in heaven.
It seems to me that it is still present as saying Pius XII in Mediator Dei should be avoided if "with a wise balance the excessive realism on the one hand, and the exaggerated symbolism on the other, taking into account the needs of the Christian community, rather than the trial and personal taste of artists "(IV, 2).
2.2 Sacred Music
Christian tradition has always affirmed that song and sacred music, offering glory to God in the solemnity of the celebration, foster prayer and active participation in the holy mysteries of those who assist you, uniting the public and solemn prayer of the Church. In sanctifying the faithful and in educating the taste, sacred music also makes explicit the mysterious unity of the Mystical Body. St. Augustine in his Confessions describes the emotion I felt alive to participate in celebrations in Milan in which the faithful performed the singing of psalms and hymns of St. Ambrose .18 In his sermon the same St. Augustine says: "The man knows what the new song again. Singing is an expression of joy and, if we think that with a little 'more attention, is an expression of love ".19
Numerous papal and conciliar documents of the last century drew to the solemn celebration of the divine offices and in hand, the presence of active fedeli.20 It must however be noted that unfortunately, in recent years, perhaps underestimating the learning and the aesthetic taste of a shareholders' meeting that, until shortly before, and knew Memory Gregorian melodies, but are usually offered chants and songs, however, even involving the assembly, often missing in the form and content. For its part, however, the Magisterium does not require an indistinct participation of all the people in performing a repertoire often complex, but believes that the proper coordination of all, according to their individual roles and ministries, "flows the right climate spirit that makes the liturgical moment truly intense, participatory and fruitful ".21 It should also be clarified properly what is meant for active participation: in short, is not simply to take part in the liturgy, but to be conscious of belonging to Christ, to be part of the ecclesial Body of which Christ is the Head.
The Gregorian chant, closely united to the biblical, patristic and liturgical, is part of the lex orandi, which has been forged over a period of more than fifteen centuries. The assembly of the faithful in the celebration of the sacred liturgy, and especially in the Holy Mass, participate in singing the Gregorian chant the parts that belong to them, is not only possible, but is above all desirable. It is not a personal opinion, but the thought of the Church! See in this regard is the extensive documentation that the Motu Proprio Among the concerns of St. Pius X to the present day, through Pius XII (Musicae sacrae discipline), chap. VI of the Constitution on the Liturgy of Vatican II, the next Education of the then Congregation of Rites in 1967, and the autograph of John Paul II in 2003, commemorating the centenary of the motu proprio Among the concerns.
In his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis Post-Synod, Benedict XVI said: "The Church, in its two thousand year history, has created and still creates, music and songs which represent a heritage of faith and love which must not be lost. Indeed, the liturgy can not say that one song is the other. In this regard, it should avoid the Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration. Consequently everything - texts, music, execution - ought to correspond to the sense of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons. Infine, pur tenendo conto dei diversi orientamenti e delle differenti tradizioni assai lodevoli, desidero, come è stato chiesto dai Padri sinodali, che venga adeguatamente valorizzato il canto gregoriano, in quanto canto proprio della liturgia romana ”.22
Il canto gregoriano assembleare non solo può ma deve essere ripristinato, accanto a quello della schola e dei celebranti, se si vuole il rispetto dell'insegnamento del Vaticano II, il ritorno alla serietà della liturgia, alla santità, alla bontà delle forme e all'universalità che devono caratterizzare ogni musica liturgica degna di questo nome, come insegna San Pio X e ribadiscono sia Giovanni Paolo II sia Benedetto XVI. Credo si potrebbe iniziare dalle acclamazioni, dal Pater noster, dai canti dell'ordinario della S. Messa, specie il Kyrie, il Sanctus, l'Agnus Dei. In molti paesi il popolo conosceva bene il Credo III e l'intero ordinario della messa VIII (de Angelis), e non solo! Come sapeva pure il Pange lingua, il Veni Creator, la Salve Regina e altre antifone. L'esperienza insegna che il popolo, a seguito di un semplice invito, si mette a cantare anche la Missa brevis e altre melodie gregoriane facili, che ha nell'orecchio, anche se è la prima volta che le canta. C'è un repertorio minimo da imparare, contenuto nel famoso “Jubilate Deo” di Paolo VI, ma dove è finito?, o nel “Liber cantualis”, ma dove è finito? Se si abitua il popolo a cantare quel repertorio gregoriano che gli si confà, sarà allenato a imparare anche i canti nuovi nelle lingue vive; quei canti, si intende, degni di stare accanto al repertorio gregoriano, che dovrebbe conservare sempre il primato. La questione è che devono cadere i pregiudizi ideologici!
Senza il canto gregoriano la musica di chiesa è mutilata. Non può esserci musica di chiesa, nella Chiesa latina, senza canto gregoriano. I grandi maestri della polifonia sono ancora più grandi quando si basano sul canto gregoriano, mutuandone le tematiche, la modalità e la poliritmia. Per questo spirito che ne informa la raffinata tecnica, per questa fedele aderenza al testo sacro e al momento liturgico, sono stati grandi Palestrina, di Lasso, da Victoria, Guerrero, Morales, e via dicendo. E non solo nelle composizioni complesse o corali, ma anche nel creare nuove melodie, in latino o in volgare, sia per la liturgia che per gli atti devozionali. Il vero canto popolare sacro – peraltro preziosissimo – tanto più sarà valido e sostanzioso quanto più si ispirerà al canto gregoriano. Giovanni Paolo II ha fatto integralmente suo il noto principio di San Pio X: “ Una composizione di chiesa è tanto più sacra e liturgica, quanto più nell'andamento, nell'ispirazione e nel sapore si accosta alla melodia gregoriana, e tanto meno è degna del tempio, quanto più da quel supremo modello si riconosce difforme ”.23
Il canto gregoriano riecheggerà suadente, e amalgamerà il popolo nel vero senso della cattolicità. E lo spirito del canto gregoriano informerà le composizioni di nuovo conio, e guiderà col vero sensus Ecclesiae gli sforzi di una retta inculturazione. Bisogna ricordare che questa musica era insolita anche alle orecchie di Carlo Magno o di san Tommaso d'Aquino, di Monteverdi o di Haydn. Ed era tanto estranea ai tempi loro quanto lo è ai nostri giorni. Oggi, tuttavia, si è meglio disposti verso la musica di altre culture di quanto non lo fossero i cristiani di molti secoli fa. Anzi, direi che le melodie delle varie tradizioni locali, anche di paesi lontani e di cultura ben diversa dalla nostra, sono parenti prossimi del canto gregoriano, e anche in questo senso il canto gregoriano è veramente universale, a tutti proponibile, e capace di fare da ponte, nel rispetto dell'unità e della pluralità. D'altronde sono proprio questi paesi lontani, queste culture che si sono affacciate di recente sull'orizzonte della Chiesa cattolica ad insegnarci l'amore per il canto tradizionale della Chiesa. L'educazione ecclesiale autentica va sempre nel senso della continuità e tale continuità è ben lungi dall'essere fissismo. Si cammina “in eodem sensu” e si cammina arricchendosi, non depauperandosi.
2.3 Lingua sacra
Non voglio chiudere queste riflessioni sugli aspetti liturgici che incidono sull'arte senza far notare una delle numerose brevi opere letterarie che la liturgia stessa contiene. Intendo le orazioni del rito romano, soprattutto quelle antiche della domenica. Il latino liturgico era un fortuito combinarsi di un rinnovamento della lingua, ispirato dalla novità della Rivelazione, e di un tradizionalismo stilistico fermamente radicato nel mondo romano. Dato che il latino del Canone Romano e delle orazioni della S. Messa era una lingua fortemente stilizzata e rimossa dall'idioma della gente comune, non si tratta semplicemente di un'adozione della lingua “vernacola” nella liturgia. La forza unificatrice del papato era tale che il latino divenne l'unica lingua liturgica dell'Occidente. Questo fu un fattore importante per favorire la sua coesione ecclesiastica, culturale e politica.
Queste composizioni hanno un valore artistico-letterario che è ben apprezzato anche dai filologi. Un autorevole dizionario tedesco di letteratura dice: “ Gran parte delle orazioni … e dei prefazi è stata tramandata nei sacramentari del V e VII secolo. In tutti questi testi – soprattutto da una prospettiva strettamente letteraria – è presente la sostanza del Missale Romanum: creazioni di alta espressività teologica, modellate sulle regole della prosa letteraria della tarda latinità. Forme di una monumentale semplicità e di un'affascinante precisione. Esse, conservate essenzialmente immutate, sono di una tale perfezione da essere ancor oggi la forma di preghiera della Chiesa cattolica ”.24
Le orazioni mantengono una classica generalità, perché esse sono la preghiera pubblica della Chiesa per tutta l'umanità, tuttavia hanno un contenuto che riesce a toccare anche il singolo lettore, perché in esse la Chiesa esprime la sua confidenza nella Grazia di Dio, che solo può aprire il cuore dell'uomo peccatore. Perciò, quelle orazioni succinte quanto sostanziose costituiscono una scuola di sensibilità sacramentale.
Quindi non sorprende che la Chiesa riaffermi il valore perenne della lingua latina nella liturgia. Come dice il Santo Padre nella sua recente Esortazione Apostolica Post-Sinodale: “Più in generale, chiedo che i futuri sacerdoti, fin dal tempo del seminario, siano preparati a comprendere ea celebrare la santa Messa in latino, nonché a utilizzare testi latini ea eseguire il canto gregoriano; non si trascuri la possibilità che gli stessi fedeli siano educati a conoscere le più comuni preghiere in latino, come anche a cantare in gregoriano certe parti della liturgia”.25 Solo che quanto il Santo Padre chiede dovrebbe subito diventare prassi. La “communio” deve essere effettiva non solo “applauditiva”. Già il Vaticano II chiedeva che tutti i fedeli sapessero rispondere anche in latino. È un “anche” e non un “solo”. Tutto si può fare con equilibrio e senza fanatismi di sorta e senza polemiche. Questo è lo stile ecclesiale. Ma cosa è successo della richiesta del Concilio?
In un'epoca contrassegnata da grande mobilità e globalizzazione, una lingua liturgica comune serve come vincolo di unità fra popoli e culture, a parte il fatto che la liturgia latina è un tesoro spirituale unico, che ha alimentato la vita della Chiesa per molti secoli. Infine, è necessario preservare il carattere sacro della lingua liturgica nella traduzione vernacola, come fa notare l'istruzione della Congregazione per il Culto Divino Liturgiam authenticam del 2001.26
3. Conclusione
Infine, vorrei sottolineare la necessità di formazione iniziale e permanente, innanzitutto del clero, a seguito di una serie di documenti del Magistero, dal Decreto del Concilio Vaticano II sulla formazione sacerdotale Optatam totius alla recente Esortazione Apostolica Postsinodale Sacramentum Caritatis del Santo Padre Benedetto XVI.27 Certamente il primo lavoro da fare riguarda la formazione dei candidati al sacerdozio, chiamati ad essere promotori delle arti sacre. Purtroppo sempre più diffusamente si constata una carenza quanto mai grave, di una vera educazione alla grande tradizione artistica della Chiesa, anzi talvolta della più elementare formazione musicale e il prosperare di banalità, di cattivo gusto, di rozzezza, di superficiali giovanilismi. Anche la formazione permanente del clero ad un'autentica comprensione ed utilizzazione dei beni culturali e artistici in senso ecclesiale è un'esigenza del nostro tempo. Naturalmente ogni cosa bella e buona ha un costo. Sebbene sia molto importante la buona volontà, a volte questa non basta. Per ottenere buoni risultati, è necessario investire delle risorse, soprattutto nella formazione, nella quale vanno impiegati veri professionisti, anche a tempo pieno. Dobbiamo ricordare che la formazione artistica e musicale del clero non è un lusso, ma fa parte dell'ars celebrandi. Così si serve anche alla santificazione del clero nell'esercizio stesso del sacro ministero.
La liturgia, con l'arte e la musica sacre, serve a far incontrare l'uomo con la bellezza della fede: “ Ammirare le icone, e in generale i grandi quadri dell'arte cristiana, ci conduce per una via interiore, una via del superamento di sé e quindi, in questa purificazione dello sguardo, che è una purificazione del cuore, ci rivela la Bellezza, o almeno un raggio di essa. Proprio così essa ci pone in rapporto con la forza della verità…la vera apologia della fede cristiana, la dimostrazione più convincente della sua verità, contro ogni negazione, sono da un lato i Santi, dall'altro la bellezza che la fede ha generato. Affinché oggi la fede possa crescere dobbiamo condurre noi stessi e gli uomini in cui ci imbattiamo a incontrare i santi, a entrare in contatto col Bello”( Joseph Ratzinger, Intervento al Meeting di Rimini 2002 ).
+ Mauro Piacenza
Arcivescovo tit. di Vittoriana
Segretario della Congregazione per il Clero
1 Sacrosanctum Concilium, 122.
2 Gaudium et spes, 36.
3 Benedetto XVI, Esortazione Apostolica Post-Sinodale Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 febbraio 2007, 35.
4 T. Verdon, Vedere il mistero. Il genio artistico della liturgia cattolica, Milano 2003, p. 13.
5 JH Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons VI, 19: 'The Gospel Palaces', San Francisco 1997, p. 1355: “The glory of the Gospel is not the abolition of rites, but their dissemination; not their absence, but their living and efficacious presence through the grace of Christ”.
6 S.Th. II-II, q. 81, a. 7
7 S.Th. II-II, q. 81, a. 7, ad 2.
8 Cfr III, q. 61, a. 1.
9 Concilio di Trento, Sessione XXII (1562), DS 1740; citato in CCC, 1366.
10 Concilio di Trento, Sessione XXII (1562), DS 1746.
11 Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 48.
12 Fonti Francescane, pp. 131-132.
13 Tommaso da Celano, Vita seconda, in Fonti Francescane, p. 713.
14 Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 48.
15 San Giovanni Damasceno, Difesa delle immagini sacre 2, 14: Es 25, 31-40.
16 Congregazione per il Culto Divino, Redemptionis Sacramentum, 24 aprile 2004, n. 117.
17 J. Ratzinger, Il Mistero pasquale. Contenuto e fondamento profondo della devozione al Sacro Cuore di Gesù, in Id., Guardare al Crocifisso. Fondazione teologica di una cristologia spirituale, Milano 1992, pp. 43-61, part. p. 49 (Conferenza al Congresso sul Sacro Cuore di Gesù, Toulouse, 24-28 luglio 1981).
18 Sant'Agostino, Confessioni IX, 7, 15-16.
19 Sant'Agostino, Sermo 34, 1.
20 Sacrosanctum Concilium, 113
21 Giovanni Paolo II, Chirografo sulla musica sacra Mosso dal vivo desiderio, 23 novembre 2003.
22 Sacramentum Caritatis, 42; Cfr. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 166; Ordinamento Generale del Messale Romano, 41.
23 Tra le Sollecitudini 3; Mosso dal vivo desiderio, 12.
24 Kindlers Literaturlexikon, vol. IV (1968), col. 2721.
25 Sacramentum Caritatis, 62.
26 Congregazione per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti, Quinta Istruzione “per la retta Applicazione della Costituzione sulla Sacra Liturgia del Concilio Vaticano II” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 36). Liturgiam authenticam: L'Uso delle Lingue Vernacole nella Pubblicazione dei Libri della Liturgia Romana, Città del Vaticano 2001.
27 Cfr Conc. Ecum. Vat. II, Decr. sulla formazione sacerdotale Optatam totius, 6; Codice di Diritto Canonico, can. 241, § 1 e can. 1029; Codice dei Canoni delle Chiese Orientali, can. 342, § 1 e can. 758; Giovanni Paolo II, Esort. ap. postsinodale Pastores dabo vobis (25 marzo 1992) 11.34.50; Congregazione per il Clero, Direttorio per il ministero e la vita dei presbiteri Dives Ecclesiae (31 marzo 1994), 58; Sacramentum Caritatis, 21.