Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Lectionary: 501

Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight, they arose and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of burnt offerings that they had made.

On the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had defiled it, on that very day it was reconsecrated with songs, harps, flutes, and cymbals.

All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised Heaven, who had given them success.

The Divine Author of the Books of Maccabees took particular pleasure in noting that the temple was reconsecrated "on the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had defiled it." Who laughs last laughs best!  After all they had suffered at the hands of Greeks with their foreign customs, the Jews enjoyed the work of restoring the temple and its priesthood, ceremonies, sacred vessels and adornments. God had taught them to pray in this house in these ways many centuries before, and they would not surrender their history and customs to hostile strangers with new ideas.

The human being is a historical creature, unlike any other. Some animals are said to have long memories, but only the human remembers the building of the pyramids, the civilizations of China, and the arrival of the dingo with the first humans in Australia. No other animal wonders if the hobbits of Indonesia were of the same species and had souls. We remember -- and reenact -- operas of the eighteenth century and the plays of Sophocles. I have heard that whales develop and create new songs as they swim the oceans, but do any discover lost concertos in sunken chests to reintroduce them to the world?

Language itself is living history as we use words that have developed through many centuries and continue to evolve. I studied Latin in high school and college, and though I never got to first base with it, I recognise the Latin roots of words we use every day. People who stay abreast of culture pay attention to words and phrases and how language is developing. Speakers who use words without an awareness of both their historical roots and contemporary usage can appear very foolish, like the priest who encouraged his congregation to pray with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and many ejaculations. (He meant brief exclamations like, "Saint Michael, pray for us.")

Historians labor to remember the past but religion maintains a more vital link with ancient times. With every religious celebration we experience the treasured presence of many our ancestors. They heard the same scriptures and offered the same prayers. The psalms, known as the "prayer book of the church," were written thousands of years ago; Jesus, Mary and the Apostles sang them as we do today. Receiving them in the Spirit of the Lord we recognize the same stresses, grief, and hope for salvation as those who created the songs. Their Spirit is ours, and we are the same people.

Many of our Catholic customs, ceremonies and sanctuaries were overhauled in the 1960's and 70's; and much was apparently discarded. The intent was to scrape off the barnacles which had attached themselves to our ceremonies so that the Eucharist might be recognized as a heavenly banquet. I believe the reforms were necessary. If many people could not accept "the changes," more would have walked away in any case. The cultural, technological, medical, and entertainment revolutions in America following World War II overwhelmed every religion. Only the most rigid communities have kept to the old ways, often with much internal violence. 

I remember my mother, a young woman at the time, reading about the Vatican Council in the newspaper, remarking that we would have to pray to accept whatever came. The future is always coming at us, and it is often turbulent. She liked some of the reforms and blamed me for the ones she didn't! But she kept the faith of her ancestors, both Catholic and Protestant.

It is the Spirit that gives life, the same Spirit who cheered and comforted the saints of one and two and three thousand years ago. We have kept the faith because God is faithful.