Cdl. Sarah: Bad Faith Causes Bad Liturgy

It is necessary to recognize that the serious, profound crisis that has affected the liturgy and the Church itself since the council is due to the fact that its center is no longer God and the adoration of Him, but rather men and their alleged ability to "do" something to keep themselves busy during the Eucharistic celebrations.

Sarah noted that the crisis of faith caused by misguided liturgical practices can't be overlooked any longer: "[W]e cannot close our eyes to the disaster, the devastation and the schism that the modern promoters of a living liturgy caused by remodeling the Church's liturgy according to their ideas."

He highlights the fact that these reformers forgot that a "liturgical act is not just a prayer, but also and above all a mystery in which something is accomplished for us that we cannot fully understand."

The cardinal explains that participation at Mass isn't external so much as it is internal: "It is not about exclusively external activity, the distribution of roles or of functions in the liturgy but rather about an intensely active receptivity."

Even priests and bishops have a problem of seeing the Mass as sacrifice, says Cdl. Sarah. "The serious crisis of faith, not only at the level of the Christian faithful but also and especially among many priests and bishops, has made us incapable of understanding the Eucharistic liturgy as a sacrifice."

He notes that instead of seeing the Mass as a sacrifice, clerics and liturgical reformers often see the Mass as a "convivial meal" or the "community's celebration of itself."

Cardinal Sarah says many prelates refuse to see the crisis for what it is. "Many refuse to face up to the Church’s work of self-destruction through the deliberate demolition of her doctrinal, liturgical, moral and pastoral foundations," he comments.

He adds that in this crisis the number of heretical prelates is continuing to grow: "[M]ore and more voices of high-ranking prelates stubbornly affirm obvious doctrinal, moral and liturgical errors that have been condemned a hundred times and work to demolish the little faith remaining in the people of God."

According to him, bad liturgy is sometimes preferred as a diversion owing to a guilty conscience that stems "from the fear of meeting God face to face, because His glance unveils and obliges us to look truly and unflinchingly at the ugliness of our interior life."