Image Caption Above: Pope Francis celebrates Mass in the Sistine Chapel ad orientem on January 12, 2014. Photo credit: CTV
Table of Contents
Significance of Ad Orientem
Mass itself provides an orientation for the rest of the day. It helps organize the rest of the day, reminding us what saint Ignatius of Loyola would call “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” which is Latin for “For the Greater Glory of God”. The reason why the Mass helps orientate our day towards God Himself is precisely that the Mass is Christ/God centered (or at least it should be). For it is God whom we are offering sacrifice.
This is why I love the action that is done in several parishes, such as those which offer the Tridentine Mass or “Extraordinary Form” of the Mass. as well as most Eastern Rites such as the Byzantines and let us not forget the Ordinariate (formerly the Anglican Use) liturgies. They practice what is known as Ad Orientem worship. In such liturgies the priest is not so much facing “away from the people” as that he is facing somewhere “namely liturgical East.”
There are two main significant reasons for facing “East” “Ad Orientem.” One of them is theological and the other practical. The main theological reason for Ad Orientem (facing liturgical East) is that it is a sign of hope for the theological reality of the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus Himself tells us in Matthew 24: 27:
For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man.
The Mass is about God
The other significant reason for Ad Orientem is more practical. It is that it is a gentle reminder that the priest is not the focus on the Mass nor is the people. Rather, the focus on the Mass is on God whom we are offering sacrifice too. We are offering Jesus to God the Father in every Mass that we attend.
As the Council of Trent reminds us:
We therefore confess that the Sacrifice of the Mass is and ought to be considered one and the same Sacrifice as that of the Cross, for the victim is one and the same, namely, Christ Our Lord, who offered Himself, once only, a bloody Sacrifice on the altar of the Cross. The bloody and unbloody victim are not two, but one victim only, whose sacrifice is daily renewed in the Eucharist, in obedience to the command of Our Lord; Do this for a commemoration of me (The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent pg. 275)
The priest faces the East. The priest faces the altar, the same direction as the congregation. This is a sign that the whole ecclesiastical community (The Church) is offering the same sacrifice to the same and Almighty God. It is one of syncretism and orientation towards the True God who is being offered sacrifice.
The problem of antrhopocentrism (putting humans at the center of the liturgy) is a serious problem that we have to watch out for. This is especially evident in the Liturgy, not intrinsically, but as practically and widely celebrated. Our architecture, songs and gestures, incessant announcements, and congratulatory rituals are self-referential and inwardly focused. The liturgy, as commonly celebrated seems more about us than God. Even the Eucharistic prayer which is directed entirely to God is usually celebrated facing the people.
It is never good, especially in the Church, to consign God to the margins. This marginalization of God is evident not only in the liturgy, but in parish life which is often top-heavy with activism rooted in the corporal works of mercy, but little attention to the spiritual works of mercy. Social organizations predominate, but it hard to find interest in Bible Study, traditional Novenas, and other spiritual works devoted to God.
The Church Promotes Ad Orientem
For this reason there are many recent theologians, cardinals, bishops and even popes that have promoted a return to Ad Orientem in principle and in practice. This is true mostly of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah. Many individual bishops have started to celebrate Mass Ad Orientem recently especially through the invitation of Robert Sarah and his frequent letters promoting it. But this is even true of our current Pope (Pope Francis) who has celebrate the Mass Ad Orientem a few times and who at one point made Cardinal Robert Sarah the President and prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship.
Let us first quote Pope Benedict XVI who stated regarding Ad Orientem in his masterpiece The Spirit of the Liturgy
The turning of the priest toward the people has turned the community into a self-enclosed circle. In its outward form, it no longer opens out on what lies ahead and above, but is locked into itself. The common turning toward the East was not a “celebration toward the wall”; it did not mean that the priest “had his back to the people”: the priest himself was not regarded as so important. For just as the congregation in the synagogue looked together toward Jerusalem, so in the Christian Liturgy the congregation looked together “toward the Lord. (Spirit of Liturgy, ch. 3 on problem of Versus Populum)
Pope Benedict XVI is saying that the purpose of Ad Orientem is to focus us on who really matters in the Liturgy (The Lord) whom Mass is being celebrated and offered for.
Pope Bedict XVI continues:
On the other hand, a common turning to the East during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of accidentals, but of essentials. Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord. (Spirit of Liturgy, ch. 3 ibid)
Cardinal Robert Sarah, as I mentioned, has also talked about the importance of “turning towards the Lord” in liturgical worship.
Here are a frew quotes by Cardinal Robert Sarah regarding the significance of Ad Orientem
Very often, our liturgies have become like theater productions. Often the priest no longer celebrates the love of Christ through his sacrifice, but just a meeting among friends, a friendly meal, a brotherly moment.”
…
If the Eucharistic celebrations are transformed into human self-celebrations, the peril is immense, because God disappears. One must begin by replacing God at the center of the liturgy. If man is at the center, the Church becomes a purely human society, a simple nonprofit, like Pope Francis has said. If, on the contrary, God is at the heart of the liturgy, then the Church recovers its vigor and sap! Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger prophetically wrote, “In our relationship with the liturgy, the destiny of the faith and of the Church plays out. (Cardinal Robert Sarah: How to Put God back in the center of our liturgies, National Catholic Register)
Lastly, Father Fessio the Founder of Ignatius Press said the following:
I don’t say Mass “with my back to the people” any more than Patton went through Germany with his “back to the soldiers.” Patton led the Third Army across Germany and they followed him to achieve a goal. The Mass is part of the Pilgrim Church on the way to our goal, our heavenly homeland. This world is not our heavenly homeland. We don’t sit around in a circle and look at each other. We want to look with each other and with the priest towards the rising sun, the rays of grace, where the Son will come again in glory on the clouds. (Jeanette Flood: Cardinal Sarah’s pastoral call to ‘turn to the Lord’ The Catholic World Report
