Liturgy: A Sensual Experience
Japanese restaurants where the food is prepared in front of hungry guests is a favorite with adults and children alike. That’s not necessarily because the food is extraordinary, but more so because our senses are stimulated by what happens before we eat. When we watch the talented chefs chop, flip, or twirl our ingredients, when we hear the sizzle of the savory meat and fresh vegetables on the grill, when we smell the bouquet of flavors, we can just about taste the food before we put the first forkful in our mouths. When we eat the food, we enjoy it because our senses have already triggered our expectations.
Scientists believe the more we can engage all of our senses when we eat, the more we will enjoy our food. The Church has known this for years. That’s why our liturgies engage all of our senses, so that we might better enjoy our Eucharistic meal.
Think of the last time you went to Mass. What did you smell? What did you touch or what did you feel? What did you hear? What did you see? What did you taste? When we reflect on these questions, we get a glimpse into the sensual experience of liturgy.
When we walk into the church, we smell flowers, candle wax, and perhaps incense. We touch holy water and then touch our forehead, our heart, and our shoulders as we make the sign of the cross. If the sprinkling rite is used, we feel the touch of the water on our bodies. We hear the sounds of music, the words of Scripture, and the sound of a community at prayer. We see our fellow parishioners and the liturgical ministers. We see the environment, the church décor and the colors of a particular liturgical season. If incense is used, we see its smoke rise up as a sign of our prayers ascending to God. We taste the bread, the Body of Christ, and the wine, the Blood of Christ.
When it comes to a more solemn liturgy, such as the Easter Vigil, we experience a sensual banquet. The fire lit in the darkness of night captures our senses of smell and sight. The words of salvation history and the music woven throughout the liturgy of the word animate our aural sense. Then we experience the sacraments of initiation, the colorful parade to the font, the encounter between the blessed water and the Elect, the smell of the balsam in the Sacred Chrism, and the touch of the minister as he anoints the forehead of the newly baptized with the holy oil. All of this helps to prepare the entire community to celebrate the Sacred Meal of Easter.
Liturgical rituals and symbols work through our senses to help us to see, to hear, to smell, to feel, and to taste a mysterious and invisible God. We who experience the presence of God through our senses are called to use those senses to make God present in the world, to see with eyes of love, to listen with ears of compassion, to touch others with hope, to be the “aroma of Christ for God,” (2 Corinthians 2:15) and to flavor the world with life-giving love.