When I went to Oxford University on July 2011 to visit one of my nephews,George John, who is studying there on a Rhodes Scholarship, I visited the Catholic church near one of the colleges of the University and said mass on one of the side altars. What surprised me was that all the masses in the church were said facing the altar as in pre-Vatican days.
This practice should be viewed in the background of the controversies that bedevil the Syro-Malabar church in Keala on litrugical practices.Facing the East or facing the people has become such a bone of contention that it has erected walls in communication among the dioceses and priests of the Syro-Malabar church.
Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI favors facing the East or the altar when saying the mass.He gives very cogent reasons for facing the East in his book :"The Spirit of the Liturgy."
With regard to liturgical controversies, he notes that what is important is the experience of the Eucharist which is such an ineffable experience that every other controversy or dispute fades before it.In the "Light of the World", he speaks of the Eucharistic experience: "The decisive thing is that that we enter into something that is much greater. That we can get out of oursleves, as it were, and into the wide open spaces....Liturgy is an event by means of which we let oursleves be introduced into an expansive faith and prayer of the Church."
The above words of the Holy Father are a clear warning to all those who want to erect barriers among people on account of the divisons based on liturgical practices. What is important is that the participation in the Eucharist gives one an opportunity to become united with God.That is the unique experience that one receives in the Eucharist....
A total transformation of one's self is what happens through our participation in the Eucharist.Reconciliation with God and man and forgiveness of sins are the changes that one experiences through Eucharistic participation. All other features have value only in so far as the Eucharist leads us to this transformation.
With regard to facing the East, the Holy Father says in the same book: "This is the reason why the early Christians prayed facing East, in the direction of the rising sun, the symbol of the returning Christ.In so doing, they wanted to show that whole world is on its way toward Christ and that he encompasses the whole world.This connection between heaven and earth is very important.It was no accident that ancient churches were built so that the sun would cast its light into the house of God at a very precise moment.Nowadays , we are redisovering the importance of the interactions between the earth and the rest of the universe, and so it makes perfect sense that we should also relearn to recognize the cosmic character of the liturgy as well as its historical character.Which means recognizing that someone did not just one day invent the liturgy, but that it has been growing organically since the time of Abraham....the issue was internal reconcilation with our own past, the intrinsic continuity of faith and prayer in the Church.(p.105)
Facing the East offers one thus,1. continuity with the past traditions,2.makes one aware of the second coming of Christ, the new Sun,3. a coninuing link with the Earth. It creates a cosmic bond in our liturgical participaton by allowing the rays of the sun to fall upon the altar as we raise our hearts to God.
In the Spirit of the Liturgy, the Holy Father observes the following with regard to facing the East:
"Praying toward the East is a tradition that goes back to the beginning.It is a fundamental expression of the Christian synthesis of cosmos and history.It is appropriate, now as in the past, that we should express in Christian prayer our turning to God who has revealed himself to us.
"Our speaking to God should be "incarnational."...In what direction should we pray during the Eucharistic liturgy?...Byzantine church building faced the East..(In Rome a different arrangement...and Rome was copied by other churches...)
"Turning to the East is not turning to the wall..but the priest and the people facing in the same direction.
"Looking at the priest has no importance.What matters is looking together at the Lord.
It is not now a question of dialogue but of common worship.What corresponds with the reality of what is happening is not the closed circle but the common movement forward,expressed in a common direction for prayer."
Facing the East or the altar has a cosmic as well as an incarnational dimension.
