Easter Day

Now that it's Low Sunday, I'm finally getting around to writing about Easter last weekend.  Our little group of Mass-hoppers decided to get up really, really early on Easter so we could go to the noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  Located on the campus of the Catholic University of America, the basilica is an enormous barn of a place in the Byzantine-Romanesque style, and it's said to be the largest Catholic church (non-cathedral) in North America.

Now, unlike the Episcopalian's National Cathedral, where (free) tickets are required to get in for the Easter morning Masses, the basilica has no such crowd control policy.  As a result, the place ended up being packed to the rafters, with standers packed into the narthex, the side chapels, the side aisles, and even some of the mid-side aisles of the nave and transcepts.  I gather the Catholics have never heard of the fire marshal.

Main altar at the basilica.
 

We wanted to make sure we had a seat, so we got there about the time we expected the ten o'clock Mass to be over.  It being Easter, though, that Mass was still doing communion, so we had to wait in the extra crowds of people, between those standing from the ten o'clock and those coming early for the noon.  Catholics have a bad habit of starting to leave the church just as soon as the recessional hymn starts, so as they vacated their pews, pew-watching vultures started slipping into the empty spots.  We at least waited until the hymn was over before we started moving into the nave.  It was a little frustrating, though, because no sooner did we get to some good areas, then the ushers started roping off big tracts of prime seating space.  As it turned out, they were reserving seats for a bunch of nuns.  I always hate going to Mass when there are a bunch of nuns there.  They always drink up all the communion wine, and leave nothing for the rest of the parish to drink.  That wasn't an issue on Easter, though, since the priests opted to administer only bread and no wine to the general congregation. Anyway, we finally found an okay place to sit in the north transcept right on an aisle, which had a great view until the latecomers started filling in and standing right by us.

For the prelude, the organist played Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C Major,  BWV 545.  Unfortunately, it finished about four minutes before noon, and we were left with musical silence while we waited for Mass to start.

About three minutes after noon, a brass and timpani ensemble placed with the choir in the apse back behind the altar announced the service with a fanfare that then segued into the processional hymn, Easter Hymn (Jesus Christ is risen today).  As His Excellency the Archbishop of Washington was the principal celebrant for this Mass, there was a huge troop of clergy in the procession.  The brass ensemble played an interlude between the third and fourth verses of the hymn, and then after all the verses were sung, the organist improvised a while so the Archbishop could finish incensing the altar and the enormous Pascal Candle down by the pulpit.

Then we got to the part of high holy days at the basilica that always makes me gag,  They always do a big Mass with the archbishop that is broadcast live on EWTV (Mother Angelica's network) and the Sirius Radio Catholic channel for these special days, so the rector of the basilica always makes a fulsome statement of welcome to the archbishop and the archbishop makes an equally fulsome response to Monsignor Rector.  They repeat the routine at the end of Mass, thanking one another for coming.  It's all particularly nauseating because the good monsignor and good bishop are two of the smarmiest and most unctious people I know.  I suppose people like that bring in the contributions, though, so they have their place.

For the Easter Mass setting, the choir sang a Gloria by Peter Matthews.  The Gospel Alleluia was an adaptation of the old traditional Easter hymn Christus Vincit.  They used Proulx's Mass for the City for the Sanctus and Benedictus, memorial acclamation, and great Amen. The Lord's Prayer was sung by the congregation in the traditional chant.  For the Agnus Dei, the choir sang it from the Missa Prima Sexti Toni by Giovanni Croce.  I found it interesting that a female cantor started the Mass, but when it was time for the Sanctus, they switched to a male cantor for the rest of the service.

The choir sang Mogens Pederson's setting of Victimae paschali laudes for a sequence anthem.  It was a little muddy.  Of course, they have the unfortunate habit at the basilica of miking their choir, so we never really know what the true sound and resonance of the singing is.  For the offertory, the choir sang "Sing ye to the Lord" by Edward Bairstow that sounded pretty good, at least when I could hear the singers over the brass ensemble (the disadvantage of miking the choir is that those microphones also pick up the adjacent brass instruments). For the communion anthem, they sang "Let all the world in every corner sing" from Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughn-Williams.  I think the sopranos were getting a little tired by that point, but it was pleasant.

The rest of the hymns for the congregation were O Filii et Filiae (O sons and daughters let us sing) for the communion procession and for the recessional they sang Ellacombe (The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad).  Even though they didn't need the extra time, the brass ensemble played an interlude between the second and third verses.

Finally, for the postlude, the organist played a rousing version of the Widor Toccata.  I was particularly interested to hear what was going to be played, because the service leaflet said it would be the Widor.  They had used the same leaflet at the ten o'clock Mass, though, and I distinctly heard the organist playing the Final from Symphonie No. 1 by Louis Vierne for the postlude at that Mass (remember back when we were scrounging around for a place to sit?).

After Mass, we saw former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich in the congregation, and then when we got outside, we were excited to see a special guest, the Easter Bunny!

I suppose I should say something about the great elephant in the room.

The press has been haranguing the Vatican so much this month about the latest chapter in the Catholic clergy child sexual abuse debacle and what the pope and the various prominent bishops around the world were saying, that I decided I would actually pay attention to the archbishop's sermon. For most of his talk, he did all the standard Easter Day banalities and didn't really add anything new to the argument.  I did like his comment, though, that people today are so self-absorbed that were the crucifixion to have happened today, most people would be so busy talking on their cell phones that they would walk right by the tomb and never notice it.

Towards the end of the sermon, the archbishop spent about five minutes talking about what a great job the pope was doing and what a hard job he had and how we should all pray especially for the pope.  Then he made a short, one-sentence statement that we should also pray for the victims of sexual abuse and abuse of people at the hands of the clergy.  Then he spoke for a while about how this is the international year of the priest, and we should pray for all priests, etc., etc.

Given the fact that the archbishop does not yet have his red hat, I think he made a predictable and politically safe statement that echoed the Vatican's party line while adding the realistic statement (however brief) that we should pray for the victims, since that's what the people in the pews wanted to hear, not to mention all the viewers and listeners from the live broadcast of the Mass.  So, we're obviously not going to resolve this crisis out of Washington;  I guess we have to start looking to the Vatican again to realize that the People want action, not constant attempts to spin the crisis to shift the blame away from the church leadership that very clearly dropped the ball and is still dropping it.  I really do need to write an editorial blog post on this topic.  Maybe when I get back to D.C., we'll see.

As with the Easter Vigil post (I wrote these on the bus to New York), when I get back home, I'll try to remember to edit and add some photos.

EDIT:  We now have pictures!