Dietrich von Hildebrand Explains the Mass

[Denise]

Why We Worship: Dietrich von Hildebrand Explains the Mass

The Second Vatican Council had not even been imagined in 1933, when German philosopher and theologian Dietrich von Hildebrand penned Liturgy and Personality. At the time, there was no such thing as Mass in the vernacular; the term “liturgy wars” would have had no meaning to his readers at that time.

But reading his book, which has just been re-released for 21st century readers, I’m finding it eerily prescient of the Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. In Liturgy and Personality, Von Hildebrand answers the question of HOW we worship, by first explaining WHY we worship. “The Liturgy is not,” he explains,
“…primarily intended as a means of sanctification or an ascetic exercise. Its primary intention is to praise and glorify God.”

“Aha!” I thought. So when people say that the Mass is “boring” or when they prefer the social experience and the rock band in their local megachurch, they’re missing the point. We don’t go to Mass because it’s fun; we don’t go to socialize; we go because God is God, and we are not. We owe Him our worship, and Mass is where we fulfill that obligation. We also go to ask for the grace of God; but that is only a secondary intent.

But then what’s in it for us? Von Hildebrand explains that when we respond to God in the sacred Liturgy, when we are consumed by our love for Him, we are changed. The conscious, fully awakened act of performing the Liturgy imprints upon the soul the Face of Christ. “The soul grows wings–that is, the deepest inner transformation takes place–only if there is a real penetration of values and a real self-forgetfulness is achieved.” 

Von Hildebrand’s elucidation of the “spirit of the Liturgy” precedes the writings of the Council Fathers by thirty years, yet he accurately anticipates Vatican II’s emphasis on the sacredness of liturgical worship. Von Hildebrand looks at eight aspects of worship which find their fulfillment in the Holy Mass:  communion, reverence, response-to-value, awakenedness, Discretio (the sense of distinguishing as applied to the world-structure), continuity, the organic element, and the classical spirit.

So what, then, is the long-range result of participation in the most holy of sacrifices, celebrated anew upon the altar at Mass? The individual is transformed into what Von Hildebrand describes as a “great personality”–capable of discerning that which is truly good and that which is not. In his encounters with life, he gives the response that is due to each thing, loving the lovable and abhorring the despicable.

Bishop Robert Barron, in his introduction to Liturgy and Personality, acknowledges that some believers do not understand the primacy of the Liturgy. Those individuals may prefer other forms of private prayer or devotions. “…The Liturgy,” he writes, “in its organic relation to inner prayer and asceticism, is the God-given path for growth in Christ.”
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Dietrich von Hildebrand died in 1977, but his work has had a profound impact on the thought and life of the Church in the twentieth century.
This new reprint of Liturgy and Personality  was released November 15, 2016, and marks the launch of the Hildebrand Project Press, a new initiative of the Hildebrand Project which will advances the vital tradition of 20th century thinkers who have enriched the Western and Christian vision of the human person. The Hildebrand Project will offers publications, academic programs, and public events. For more information on future releases and events, visit www.hildebrandproject.org