I have read over the past days various exchanges via Facebook and via email about why the crucifix should be or should be not at the center of the altar during the celebration of the Mass.
There are a lot of education stuff I read about this placement of the altar and various reasons why the Piero Marini formula of placing the cross on the side of the altar is way better and unobstructive and even one "child" and "student" of our fave monk according to his "Order" called the crucifix on the altar and center as "hideous" and hides the view of the greatest miracle in the Mass, the transubstantiation, covered by the crucifix in the center.
I have made posts to support the position of our gloriously reigning Pope, Benedict XVI, about the centrality of the crucifix in the altar. The practice of placing the altar on the side of the altar happened only at the late 80s when the liturgical revolutionaries led by Piero Marini and his troops here in the Philippines led by Anscar Chupungco and Genaro Diwa began instructing "diocesan and parochial liturgists" to never place a crucifix and candles on the altar. This phenomenon happened because the focus of these liturgists is not the worship of Christ nor even the people witnessing the transubstantiation. Quite frankly, I have assisted in Fr. Genny Diwa's Mass for a couple of time and he does not even elevate the consecrated host for the people to see and adore. So what is this student of Fr. Chupungco to even say about "not seeing the host because the cross is standing in the way?"
So what was the underlying reason for the change?
IMHO, it was all about the EGO. Priests who love the set-up of taking the cross out of the altar wants the attention directly on him, not on HIM. The priest wants to see the faces of the people, see the reaction while he says the Mass. Is this how the Mass should be? Is this how the priest should be focusing on?
Imagine, if the narcissistic priest has that urge, which he usually has, of making the Mass his own brand of entertainment show, the cross will stand in the way and remind him of why he is standing there in the first place.
If the student of Fr. Anscar was really asking for that unobstructed view of the transubstantiation and having the cross at the center, a sort of win-win solution for both sides, why not try this?
To read more about WHY THE CROSS SHOULD BE PLACED ON AND AT THE CENTER OF THE ALTAR, read this.
In the roman canon once the priest raised his head like in Te igetur and elevatis oculis in caelum the priest look in the heavens or if the crucifix is present he look on the crucifix. The crucifix is the image of the Son of the Father. Jesus Christ is the mediator between earth and heavens, between men and the Father.
ReplyDeleteIf a priest could look into the heavens then what more if the priest will look instead to the image of the God crucified.
The Holy Mass is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in unbloody manner. The crucifix reminds us always that what is happening on the altar is indeed the same sacrifice on calvary.