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Unholy Prayers
in Holy Mass? - The prayer
crisis in the Church
The crisis of faith is a crisis of God, which also
finds expression in the liturgy of the Church and requires
a solution in the management of the problem of secularization
The problematic image of God in our liturgy and prayers:
1.
Do not look at
our sins, but at the faith
of your Church"??
The priest's prayer before the greeting of peace expresses fear of a God from whom we want
to hide with our sins. That sounds like a fear that God
might turn away from us or cast us off because of our sins.
The annunciation of
previous generations made believers
get the idea that God was constantly
paying attention, above all, to our
sins and that avoidance of sins was the most important
concern of every
Christian. A mentally healthy
way of dealing with guilt
and sins, however, would be, on the one hand, a very
close look at man's problematic behavior in order to deal with them honestly and salutary and, on the other hand,
to honestly entrust oneself to God, even with these shadow sides. It is important not
to ignore - that would be repressing the guilt - and it is important not
to ask God to look the other way - that would mean man is shirking his
guilt.
This prayer is emotionally unhealthy, reveals a fearful image of God, and contradicts the message of Jesus, the Physician
of the soul, who can only
help us if we practice not
a culture of looking away, but of looking close.
What do victims of sexual abuse think
when they hear a priest praying
at the altar in this way?
2.
"Pray sisters and brothers
that my sacrifice
and yours may be pleasing to God the Almighty Father." - "The Lord accept
the sacrifice from your
hands,
??
This alternate prayer and many
offertory prayers ask God to accept
the sacrifice. This is reminiscent of the Old Testament story of Cain and Abel (literally in the
First Canon: Look upon it (bread and
wine) reconciled and kindly, and accept it as once the gifts of your righteous
servant Abel.,
).
The background for this alternate prayer is the fear
of a rejection by an unpredictable
and arbitrary God, of whom it is
not obvious in the Cain and Abel story why he does not accept
Cain's sacrifice: May he please not
treat us like that today!
This is devotional gibberish and an expression of a
negative, fearful image of God,
but unfortunately it is not
soul nourishment as one would expect from a Christian worship service - and it is by no means an expression of Jesus' image of God.
As Christians we must not pray like this!
3.
Are these the words that
Jesus spoke??
The blood of Jesus
- "shed for the forgiveness of our sins": an ancient Jewish blood rite for the forgiveness of sins has found its
way into Christian worship through a later modification of the words of Jesus.
The religious tradition of the oldest texts of
Jesus' words at the Last Supper
do not contain any reference to a thought of atonement! (>>> Comparison of the texts)
Instead, the covenant idea in the foreground is: celebration of the bond between man and God and blood siblingship between people (comparable to the blood
brotherhood among some
Native American peoples). The bond with God (with
Christ) animates the relationship
between people - and this worldwide!
The problem structure changes: from human - God => to human - human. (Cf. parable of the "Merciful Father": It is not the "father" who is to be asked for mercy, but the "brother")!
God does not need blood sacrifices
for his mercy (A frightening image of God - created by the interpretation of
the destruction of Jerusalem -70 A.D.- and natural disasters of all kinds as
punitive actions of God).
It is probably a "theological import" from Jewish
priests who became Christians after the destruction of Jerusalem. This is why, unfortunately,
the atonement thought still dominates the Holy Mass from the beginning to
the end and thus a negative image of God, but not
the covenant thought in the spirit
of Jer 31,33f, where it is about
maturity and responsibility
of man.
Quote from a father
of four children: "I have the impression I have more love and feelings of mercy
and kindness toward my children than
this God, who is read
about and prayed for in church."
4.
The "almighty" God
who "reigns"??
The formulation
"almighty God" is not a wording
of the New Testament! Jesus' changed
view of God's work in the
world has not been perceived, proclaimed, or transformed into appropriate liturgical texts
by the Church.
In the minds of many
Christians, a "ruling God"
is the God who punishes or cruelly tests by means of the forces of nature in
the case of strokes of fate and natural disasters.
But a love relationship is
not a relationship of domination and possession.
5.
"Lamb of God, you take
away the sin of the world" ??
The request of
"taking away" the
sin is related to the old idea that sin separates us from God (Cf. "Preface for Sundays VIII" in
the Missal of the Catholic
Church, page 412: "Sin had separated
men from you (God)"). But therapeutically as well as
spiritually, it is not about
"taking away" sins and guilt, but about accepting
and transforming guilt by becoming aware of our guilt, confessing
it, taking responsibility for its consequences, and learning from it
for our future path in
life.
And according to
the message of Jesus, God is on the side of the sinner towards his guilt
problem and wants to help him to solve this. In the case of
a sinner who is willing to repent,
sin does not separate God from man!
6.
Lord, I am not worthy that you
enter in my house"??
We need both: humility, since we are creaturely, limited and needy beings, and a healthy self-awareness as "children of God" loved and respected by God, animated with divine dignity and charged with being careful caretakers of His Creation entrusted to us. But the formulations
in Holy Mass, which portray people primarily as sinners, as
guilty and unworthy, are completely disproportionate in
the foreground. Man is rather made small and emotionally
weak, instead of being enabled to develop their conscience
sensitivity to the problems
of the time, to become emotionally
alert and ready to take responsibility,
and to recognize their specific vocation.
7. Orations
Many prayers in the Holy Mass
have the relationship
pattern God-Man-World from the pre-conciliar
period since the 13th century or since the Tridentinum (16th century):
Thus, without creation theology, with a
negative understanding of history and without Catholic social teaching.
Looking at the prayers of the
Church, we should consider the word of Jesus: When children ask for bread, will we give
them a scorpion or a stone
(poisonous, scary, or indigestible stuff)?
If in our time responsible persons in economy and administration
have to check very carefully and subtly their communication behavior and their language for unconscious incapacitating and depreciating statements in expensive special courses, then our
talking about God and speaking to God should be important
enough for us to exercise at least
the same care and clairaudience
as the "children of this world" do for worldly interests!
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These points of criticism can be continued
in many ways if one carefully examines the texts of
the Eucharistic celebration
against the background of today's
biblical theological, psychological and scientific
knowledge.
If we consider the theology and the spiritual effect
of the traditional prayers
of the liturgy, it is not surprising
that often people who are mentally very awake and sensitive leave the church and stay away - not only
the comfortable and indifferent
ones.
As the most important
organization for value issues and value-oriented
lifestyle, how should the
Church have social significance
and be a role model when it proclaims a completely outdated image of God every day in its most important
ritual, namely in the celebration of the Eucharist?
Manfred Hanglberger (www.hanglberger-manfred.de)
Translated by: Ingeborg Schmutte
Link
to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-unholy-prayers.htm
Other texts in English >>>
Index of the texts about Eucharist
>>>