‘Grant that we who worship Christ in this holy mystery may reverence him in the needy of the world by lives poured out for the sake of that kingdom.’ Opening Prayer B, Feast of Corpus Christi. 1989 Roman Missal.

Among the missives prepared by bishops to mark the feast of Corpus Christi was a pastoral letter entitled Adoring the Eucharistic Lord: ‘Let us kneel before the God who made us.’

After a careful study of the letter, the main message seems to me: ‘kneeling most clearly reveals what we believe about God and our relationship to Him.’

Commending kneeling

The archbishop lists when we kneel at Mass: genuflecting when we arrive in the church and leave; the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, and again as the host is broken and we “behold the Lamb of God.”

But then personal preference comes into play.

The archbishop makes a point of commending kneeling to receive Communion, as “a perfectly valid option envisaged by the current Missal”, and he reminds us that it was the “default position of receiving communion in the Latin church for many centuries.”

So why is the archbishop failing to mention what changed that default position?

Unity and posture

A key principle of the liturgical reform of Vatican II is unity.

The church instructs that the communion hymn express the unity of the communicants (GIRM 86) as does uniform bodily posture. (GIRM 42)

Surely the sign of the one body approaching the one table is weakened when some choose to kneel to receive while the majority stand?

A claim without evidence

The next idea is new to me.

The archbishop declares that some Catholics consider kneeling “degrading,” “grovelling,” “unbecoming of the children of God.” He suggests this could be the reason church leaders removed kneelers from pews and confessionals and, apparently, even instructed people not to kneel.

Those of us who were there at the time know this opinion to be false and to have been offered without evidence.

Even so, clergy have been instructed: “to restore kneelers in every church where they are missing.” Even though for decades those assemblies are exercising their priesthood by respectfully standing for the Eucharistic Prayer and communion?

Pope Leo in Madrid

Meanwhile, Pope Leo celebrated Corpus Christi—locally the day of charity—in Madrid. He too spoke about kneeling, but before God and our neighbour.

‘The Christ who processes through the streets in the monstrance is the same one who identifies with the poor, the downtrodden, those who are alone and forsaken.’

While replacing kneelers might be important to some, Leo’s teaching to ‘reverence Christ in the needy of the world,’ which is the altar upon which we are to offer sacrifice, is assuredly more important.

• Carmel Pilcher RSJ, PhD is a Liturgy and Culture Consultant and Educator, Darug and Gundungura country.