J.A.Jungmann, one of the truly great liturgists of our [20th] century, had defined liturgy in his time as a "liturgy fruit of a development", as it was understood in the West, represented mostly by historical research; probably also contrasting with the Eastern notion which does not view historical evolution and growth in the liturgy, but only the reflection of the eternal liturgy, whose light, throughout the sacred unfolding, enlightens our ever-changing time with its unchanging beauty and grandeur.
Both concepts are legitimate and are not irreconcilable.
What happened after the Council was altogether different: instead of a liturgy fruit of continuous development, a fabricated liturgy was put in its place. A living growing process was abandoned and the fabrication began. There was no further wish to continue the organic evolution and maturation of the living being throughout the centuries and they were replaced -- as if in a technical production -- by a fabrication, a banal product of the moment.
Gamber, with the vigilance of a true visionary and with the fearlessness of a true witness, opposed this falsification and tirelessly taught us the living fullness of a true liturgy, thanks to his incredibly rich knowledge of the sources. As a man who knew and who loved history, he showed us the multiple forms of the evolution and of the path of the liturgy; as a man who saw history from the inside, he saw in this development and in the fruit of this development the intangible reflection of the eternal liturgy, which is not the object of our action, but which may marvelously continue to blossom and to ripen, if we join its mystery intimately.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Preface to the French edition of K. Gamber's
Die Reform der römischen Liturgie: Vorgeschichte und Problematik
Preface to the French edition of K. Gamber's
Die Reform der römischen Liturgie: Vorgeschichte und Problematik
