In this second part, Father Robert Skeris opened a Colloquium on Musica Sacra at Christendom College on 25 June 1992, with this address:
The available evidence, when analysed, allows us to conclude that if a special presence of the Divine is to be found anywhere in man's historical world, it is to be found in its most concentrated form in a sacred ritual action, and because of their relationship to this sacred action, persons, places, times and objects are also called "sacred."But what is an actio praecellenter sacra? It is simply the accomplishment of an action, a rite, performed by a community in a non-ordinary way. Let us be very precise: we are speaking here of the celebration of the Eucharistic mysteries during which there occurs the Exceptional par excellence, the uncommon and extraordinary in the absolute sense of those words - God's physical presence among men under the forms of bread and wine. The meaning of this divine Presence for man is precisely rapi - to be enraptured, carried up and away beyond the Here and Now. And nothing could be more obvious to a man of faith than to act "differently" within such a circumscribed context, "differently" than he acts otherwise, on the tennis courts, for instance, or at the supermarket. One speaks a language which is obviously human but yet "different;" "special," somehow, in delivery, in style, in diction and grammar, in vocabulary. What then of the musica sacra which forms an integral part of this actio praecellenter sacra? What must its distinctive characteristics be? Will it sound, for example, like ordinary, everyday pop music to which more or less "pious" texts have been joined? Will it sound like common, everyday entertainment music? like a more or less inconspicuous background accompaniment for toothpaste commercials? . . .
The Sacrament of the Eucharist is received and eaten because food and drink better symbolise the specific effects of the grace of this Sacrament. The Eucharist is both sacrifice (insofar as it is offered) and sacrament (insofar as it is received). The Church offers up the Mass, for it is a sacrifice; but Holy Communion is a food, a gift, a privilege, something not offered but enjoyed. The real distinction between Sacrifice and Sacrament is to be sought in the contrary aspects of suffering and joy, though in a sacrifice, suffering plays a different role than does joy in the case of a meal. Suffering is a necessary pre-condition of the sacrifice, whereas joy is a necessary consequence of a meal. To summarise: a meal as meal cannot be a sacrifice, and a sacrifice as sacrifice cannot be a meal. To represent one "in the form of" the other is to present a tragedy "in the form of" a comedy, or to depict a circle "in the form of" a square. In liturgico-musical terms: if Holy Mass is indeed a sacrifice, an actio praecellenter sacra, then one of its integral and necessary parts will be a music which is also sacra. But if a fraternal meal is actually being celebrated, then very different music will be appropriate . . . a "polka Mass," for instance.
During the ad limina visit of the Brazilian bishops of Pastoral region Sul-I, on 20 March 1990, Pope John Paul II made these significant remarks: Legitimate and necessary concern for current realities in the concrete lives of people cannot make us forget the true nature of the liturgical actions. It is clear that the Mass is not the time to "celebrate" human dignity or purely terrestrial claims or hopes. It is rather the sacrifice which renders Christ really present in the sacrament.
