What is the big deal?

There is quite a stir still in Rome about whether or not kneeling to receive the Sacrament is permitted or forbidden.  It has a history, to be sure, but it is mostly recent.  In fact, it does not have that much to do with Vatican II since the Council never addressed the subject and the permission to stand was inaugurated prior to the Council.  It came at the the insistence of bishops and priests, based on practical reasons and appeals to Church history rather than theology, and was the subject of as much mythology as fact in the anecdotal sources of the modern practice.  At one point, however, surveys said it was the most disliked liturgical change - even among Roman Catholics who approved of other liturgical changes taking place in the Mass at the time.  Prominent members of the Liturgical Movement, a theological and pastoral initiative which promoted liturgical reform and active participation in the liturgy, argued for standing for the reception of the Sacrament and insisted it was the most desirable method.  They claimed it was the ancient practice and, perhaps more importantly, it was modern and more efficient (shorter Mass times!).  Not to mention that the removal of the altar rail made for a more egalitarian feel to it all absent the fenced in holy space at the altar.

What began as an accommodation when the crowds were large became the rigidly enforced norm for all people (at least that is how it is in most Roman Catholic dioceses).  What is amazing is that some Roman Catholic bishops have issued strident orders against receiving the Sacrament kneeling even though prior to the mid-1960s that was the universal and long standing practice of the Roman Catholic Church.  So why are those bishops all fired up about this?  What does it matter?  Why would somebody like Cardinal Timothy Nolan, of St. Patricks NYC fame, tell the priests to stop asking for altar rails?  Really, I wish I knew.  While sometimes I would long for a GIRM (General Instruction on the Roman Missal) for sloppy Lutheran practices, I cannot for the life of me figure out why this would be such a big issue in Rome.

The norm for reception of Holy Communion in the dioceses of the United States is standing. Communicants should not be denied Holy Communion because they kneel. Rather, such instances should be addressed pastorally, by providing the faithful with proper catechesis on the reasons for this norm.

So in roughly a generation and a half, the universal practice of kneeling for the Sacrament had become something you need to teach people NOT to do.  Honestly, it defines understanding and no amount of explanation makes reasonable what is arbitrary and capricious.  How strange that this could created such a fuss when other abuses in the Mass are ignored!   Is it because those bishops are so jealous for their control of things they do not like that they cannot even tolerate what was once normal?   If I had the pope's ear I would gently catechize him on the things that Rome ought to be reforming and to leave the matter of the posture for the reception of the Sacrament up to the people and their priest.  What worries me is that we Lutherans have the same tendency to take what was once ordinary and make it exceptional and to take what was once exceptional and make it ordinary.  Except with us it is not a rail but the very Liturgy itself.  But do not worry, I am sure Rome is not that far behind us. . .