4. The Language of Sacramental Memorial: Rupture, Excess and Abundance
David N Power (p135)
The presence of Christ is of the past and future (p135); ecumenical language of re-present &c must be used with caution; adopts Jencks' (narrow - KC) view of postmodernism as multiculturalism (p136). Vatican II (improbably - KC) defined as modernist in restoring the priesthood of the people. Two postmodern tendencies at odds with modernism: the Bonaventuran, neo-Platonic idealism; and new inclusive rituals (p137). Three breakdowns in narrative (says power), in handing down tradition: narrative breaks down in face of the repressed and uncontainable; order breaks down in the face of the exclusions from the roots of disorder; ritual breaks down in the face of the claims of an unabsorbed sensual aesthetic (none of this explained - KC); the breakdown of lex orandi as generative. Jencks on postmodernism: few styles too many genres; purist to kaleidoscopic; exclusion to inclusion. Considering sacrament as a language-event (p138). "It is in what is proclaimed as the Paschal Event that the redemptive operation of Word (logos - KC) and Spirit has its centre, and it is this which is at the heart of sacramental remembrance in the Church". The Sacramental event of time past relies on language to carry it forward in poesis and praxis (p139).
The modern narrative has been ruptured by the postmodern (the short story rather than the epic) (p14); Christianity's complicitness in evil (Steiner's silence) (p141); the plurality of Christian narrative because metaphor is an open sign; Christ disrupts human time of activity (p142) but the Christian narrative itself is disrupted by: our own evil acts; popular religion; being faced with "the other" (not explained - KC). Christian communities respond to the imperatives of rupture re-tells the story (scant evidence - KC) (p143). This reaction can be seen in new 'Eucharistic prayers in Africa. "Narrative and prayer are associated in all sacramental liturgies with ritual action" (excepting Penance - KC). "Rituals are deemed a theurgy, an action of transcendental or divine power. They are actions that order life and order community, that resolve conflict, that reconcile members, that guide through transitions, and that bring healing. They are said to engage with mystery ... while respecting and maintaining structures and their socialising power" though bodily actions can be disclosures of incompleteness or vulnerability (p144); Sacraments as domestic events (p145); Sacramentality no longer normative (p146); ritualisation: the adaption of the traditional to the contemporary (p147); popular religiosity (p148).
"The rupture of meta-narrative and of the hegemony of ritual opens the way to a new discovery of the abundance of language, as the truly open sign, in the interplay of metaphors, allowing speech to the marginal, and in ritual pointing to the location of divine power in the exchange of bread, wine, oil, and water, for those who experience the rupture of their existence and of their expectations". Chopp on "excess" (the truism, often ignored in history, that Sacraments are equally for all - KC) (p149). transmission of tradition (p150). Different ways of understanding and 'receiving' the Crucifixion (p151); "The Cross of Christ is a crossing-out" to be raised; Paul says the Cross is beyond religion or philosophy; it is personal (which leaves RC ecclesiology where? - KC) (p152). The nature of gift (p153). Presents are present, gifts are future (p154); Giving as Sacrament, an eschatologically-oriented gift (p155) Eucharist as Christ's presence and Christ's church resolved by Aquinas; the question of how the presence of Christ in truth relates to the Church; the misleading notion of "real presence" (p156).
Sacramental Meontology (p157-9).
Conclusion/Summary (p159): "To get beyond a metaphysics of causality and presence, or theories of the transcendental subject, Sacramental theology has to attend to the language of Sacramental celebration." (p159).
Jeanrod: Response to Power (p161): Résumé (p161-2); Six points: 1. Power has moved Sacrament from Ecclesial performance to creative process; revived Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi; (p163) 2. Can Penance be meontologised? 2. Given contemporary mistrust of words, is the emphasis on Sacrament as a language event too strong? (p164) 4. How open is Sacramentality to inter-religious understanding (my paraphrase - KC) 5. Should we not adopt a 'hermeneutics of suspicion' (Ricoeur - KC) to postmodernism? 6. Does he isolate the Crucifixion too much?.