Liturgical Formation - A Few Lessons from Desiderio Desideravi

 Published in the annual magazine of the Dominican Studentate at Nagpur, Veritas, Vol. 19 (2022-23), pp. 48-49.

A moth is drawn to a flame so irresistibly that it is inevitably consumed by it, the very object

of its desire. Indeed, desire is one of the most powerful emotions that we, as human beings

feel, and the samething that we see even in other species. For instance, the plant’s innate

desire for the sun, leads it to direct its growth in the sun’s direction. Likewise, animals too,

following their sense appetite go in search of the fulfillment of their natural desires. Desire,

then, is something that is imbued by the Creator into nature, a gift that helps to sustains the

order of the Universe. Man, the crown of God’s creation, is blessed with the desire for God,

and nothing less than God can satisfy him. But even this is not the greatest desire. For, far

greater than every desire of man, is God’s desire, a desire so wonderfully expressed by Jesus

on the night of the Last Supper: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before

I suffer.” (Lk 22:15)

On 29 th June 2022, Pope Francis wrote an Apostolic Letter to the entire Church entitled

‘Desiderio Desideravi’ (“I have earnestly desired”) on the Liturgical Formation of the People

of God. Drawing from those very words of Jesus at the Last Supper, the Holy Father writes,

“These words of Jesus, with which the account of the Last Supper opens, are the crevice

through which we are given the surprising possibility of intuiting the depth of the love of the

persons of the Most Holy Trinity for us.” (DD 2) In other words, every time we participate in

the liturgy, we are given to understand the immense love of God for each of us – a love so

great that it was nothing less than the offering of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Son of

God, for us on the cross. This, the greatest of all love, is communicated to us in a very real

sense in the liturgy, particularly in the Eucharistic Liturgy. Every time we participate at Holy

Mass, we must be convinced that we are sharing in the very Last Supper of Jesus, as well as

in the very act of his self-offering on the Cross. How tremendous is the mystery of the Holy

Eucharist! The Last Supper is a supper to which “all had been invited”, or in other words, “all

had been drawn there by the burning desire that Jesus had to eat that Passover with them.”

(DD 4) This desire of Jesus urges us on to the task of evangelization, so that all may one day

come to share in this supper. We are also asked to remember that none of us is ever deserving

to participate in the gift of this supper, a gift that calls for us to have the right dispositions to

receive it.

When we are faced with the immense mystery and grandeur of the Eucharistic Liturgy, how

is it that, so often, we are unable to participate well in the liturgy? This is largely due to the

lack of liturgical formation within the Church.

Modern man has lost the ability to connect with the symbolic world, whereas the liturgy

makes extensive use of symbolical realities in conveying spiritual realities. For instance, St.

Francis of Assisi could address the sun as ‘Brother Sun’ and recognize in it a representation

of God. In today’s world, we are accustomed to treating the earth, water, fire etc. as mere

commodities from which we strive to extract the maximum possible benefit. Our bodies too,

are symbols of the souls that are united to them. The use of our bodies in gestures such as

kneeling or making the sign of the Cross would be quite devoid of meaning unless we were

able to relate to the symbolic nature of our bodies in these gestures. The renowned liturgist,

Romano Guardini wrote, “Here there is outlined the first task of the work of liturgical

formation: man must once again be capable of symbols.” (Guardini, Liturgische Bildung; DD

44)

In this Apostolic Letter, the Holy Father also writes at length on the Ars Celebrandi, the ‘art

of celebration’ of the liturgy – something that is required not only for priests, but for the laity

as well. Like any other art, the ars celebrandi requires different kinds of knowledge – an

understanding of the dynamism that unfolds throughout the liturgy, knowledge of how the

Holy Spirit acts in every celebration, as well as an understanding of the dynamism, nature

and efficacy of symbolic language. The document especially urges the priests who preside at

the liturgy to be extremely mindful of the important role that they play in bringing Christ to

the liturgical assembly, as well as in leading the assembly to the true experience of God. It is

necessary that “the priest have a keen awareness of being, through God’s mercy, a particular

presence of the risen Lord.” (DD 57) In order to fulfill this role adequately, priests must reject

those ways of celebration that are inconsistent with the true nature of the liturgy. These

include “rigid austerity or an exasperating creativity, a spiritualizing mysticism or a practical

functionalism, a rushed briskness or an overemphasized slowness, a sloppy carelessness or an

excessive finickiness, a superabundant friendliness or priestly impassibility.” (DD 54)

The ars celebrandi is not something reserved only for the clergy. The entire people of God,

through the meaningful use of gestures, words and silence contributes to the dignified

celebration of the liturgy. We are also called to rediscover the beauty of the Lord’s Day and

the Liturgical Year, allowing these observances to make an imprint on our lives, so that we

may be, from Sunday to Sunday and from year to year, increasingly immersed in the mystery

of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. When the liturgy is celebrated devoutly, it itself will

become the greatest agent of liturgical formation – a formation that is not only a knowledge

of the liturgy, but more importantly, a formation that the liturgy imprints on those who

participate in it, so that we may be truly “formed in Christ.” (Gal 4:19)

Desiderio Desideravi aims to lead us to rediscover the beauty of the liturgy, inviting us to

abandon our divisions and gather in unity around the Lord’s table. It is worth noting that this

document is written in the context of a lot of liturgical division in the Church, the so-called

“liturgical wars”, which prized one or the other style of liturgical celebration over others. The

Pope quotes St. Irenaeus, the newly-proclaimed Doctor Unitatis (Doctor of Unity) who

famously said, “The glory of God is man alive, and the life of man consists in seeing God.”

(Adversus Haereses IV, 20, 7; DD 43) May our active, devout and reverent participation in

the liturgy lead us to come to the fullness of life – the vision of the glory of God.