INTRODUCTION
In Indonesia, we have three ways to receive communion, namely: Komuni Tangan (Communion by Hands), Komuni Mata (Communion by Eyes) and Komuni Dahi (Communion by the forehead).
Several times I went to several dioceses in Indonesia, I found this practice of
Komuni Dahi widely practiced. Perhaps
these three terms are very strange for liturgists in Europe because in Europe there are only two ways to receive
communion, by hand or by the tongue.
These three terms of "how to receive communion" are just only expressions of Indonesian language and It has a
special meaning. For Indonesian Catholics, in general,
the term “Communion” means accepting the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of bread that the priest has consecrated in the
Eucharist. However, in the daily spiritual
life of the faithful, communion has a broader meaning: "to accept Jesus in
its various manifestations.” Therefore,
there are three terms of how to receive Communion, whose explanation is as
follows:
·
Komuni Tangan (Communion by Hands): Communion by hand
means the acceptance of the Body of Christ (Sacred Host) in the celebration of
the Eucharist from the hands of priests or extraordinary minister of holy communion[1]
by hand. In Indonesia, the faithful are more prevalent to receive communion by
hand than the tongue.
·
Komuni Mata (Communion by Eyes): This term is raised by the liturgists in Indonesia
as a liturgical catechesis for the faithful. The priests use the term “communion
by eyes” to invite the faithful to look at the Body/Blood of Jesus when he
lifts the sacred host/wine after saying the words of consecration in the Eucharistic
prayer. This invitation is necessary
because most of the faithful bow their heads while raising their hands above
the forehead as the priest lifts the body and blood of Jesus.[2]
The term Communion of Eyes invites the people to stare Jesus that is being raised by the priest in the form of the sacred
bread/wine. Therefore, the term “communion by eyes” means contemplating the
Body of Christ that is being lifted by
the priest with the use of the eyes.
·
Komuni Dahi[3] (Communion by the forehead): unlike the
two terms above, the Komuni Dahi is a
blessing by priests or priest’s assistant, after the ritual of communion, on
the forehead of children/catechumens/Catholics who have some impediments to
receive the holy communion. Why is it called Communion? As already explaining
above, the "rite" is called Communion because at the moment
people are aware of the presence of a priest acting as “In persona Christi” who came to bless them. How this
"rite" is carried out will be described further in the section
description.
OBJECT OF STUDY
After a glimpse of the description above,
the object of study in this paper is a rite (Komuni Dahi) that does not exist in the Editio Typica but always
performed in the celebration of the Eucharist
in Indonesia. The author chose this theme to be appointed as a material because
it realized how this practice is already practiced long enough (approximately
since around 1980) and spread across almost all regions in Indonesia.
Unfortunately, the authors did not find any official documents or scholarly
writing discuss this “additional rites.” For that reason, it often appears the debate
among some of the liturgist in Indonesia in addressing this matter.
DESCRIPTION OF THE
RITE
When did this rite be performed
After the rite of Communion at the Sunday celebration of eucharistic.
The Subject of the rite
There are quite a lot of people involved in
this rite such as:
·
Children who have not received communion yet (because
they do not have enough age)
·
Infants and their parents
·
some Sunday school teacher who help
to direct the child to line up with a nice, neatly and orderly
·
The catechumens (baptismal candidates)
·
Catholics who have some impediments to receiving
the holy communion (usually due to problems in their marriage)
·
Priest (and sometimes assisted by extraordinary ministers)
How this rite is practiced
In general,
the practice of Komuni Dahi in
parishes is almost the same. However, since the Rite of Komuni Dahi is not written in any liturgical book, in practice there is sometimes little slight
variation here and there.
At the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist,
after the communion rite is over, the children (who have not received
Communion) stand in a line like one who will receive communion and advance to
the altar, but with arms crossed in front of their chests. However, not only the
children but also babies are carried by
their parents to come to the front of the altar to come before the priest for a
blessing. On this occasion, often
catechumens also come forward to receive blessings. In fact, Catholics who have
some impediments to receiving the holy
communion step forward to ask for this blessing.
Meanwhile, the priest stands in front of the altar,
greets them and blesses them by touching their heads or making the sign of the
cross on their foreheads. After receiving the blessing of the priest, they return to their respective seats
as if they had received Holy Communion.[4]
(see Picture 1, in the appendix, for the illustration).
THE MEANING OF KOMUNI DAHI
From the perspective of culture
Almost the same as other Asian countries,
the Indonesian has an unyielding altruism
culture. A culture that makes people love
to share everything with his fellow man.
In Indonesia, we have a tradition called Kenduri
or ater-ater.
Kenduri/ater-ater[5]
is an activity that person does when someone is about to manifest his or her thankfulness by inviting neighbors
to eat together or at least give food (in
a food box) and distributed to all neighbors equally. If one or two neighbors
did not come to the event or did not get the food, then it was regarded as
something very offensive, even if it was done by
accident. In Indonesian culture, it is important to make sure that
everyone gets their share. Social inequality is something to be avoided because
it creates an uncomfortable feeling among citizens and is often even regarded
as an insult. This powerful element of altruism is what would lead to the creation
of an "additional rite" in the
ritual of communion as a process of adaptation to Indonesian culture. It seems
that the kenduri/Ater-ater culture is so affecting the faithful to view the Eucharistic as a banquet. In the Eucharistic, all the faithful give thanks to
God for all the blessings they have received. In that same celebration,
everyone gets the blessing of God. A very special blessing is received in Holy Communion, that is when the Lord Jesus Himself is shared in the
form of bread. The culture of altruism makes the people feel that everyone who
attends the celebration must get the blessing equally. On the one hand, there
is an uncomfortable feeling (communal) when some people may accept the body of
Christ (blessing) and some are not. However, on
the other hand, the people are also aware that:
·
Children are still not worthy/ready to receive the Body of Christ because
they do not yet understand the true value of it
·
The catechumens are also still in their preparation for recognizing the
Catholic Church
·
The people who are unable to receive communion (usually due to marriage
cases) are also not worthy to receive communion in a state of sin
Therefore, finally,
there is an adaptation made to alleviate “the cultural inconvenience.” The Komuni
Dahi is held to bridge the gap between people who may receive the Body of
Christ and those who have not received the Body of Christ. With the communion
of the forehead at least everyone who cannot receive the Body of Christ can get
the Blessings of the priest. It is certain that the blessing cannot replace the
excellent value of the Body of Christ. Communion
by the forehead is taken as the least of
the bad (minus malum) for the sacred liturgical celebration.
From the Liturgical Viewpoint
This communion of the forehead can also be seen as a greeting to the children present
at the Eucharistic celebration. We knew together that the celebration of the liturgy is tough to understand by children. Communion by
the forehead is considered to help familiarize the children to be more
familiar/accustomed to the celebration of
the Eucharist. Those who have not been able to receive communion line up to
receive blessings on their foreheads. This communion of the forehead also helps
the parents of children who have not received the communion to dampen the
hearts of their children when the child sees that their parents may receive the
Body of Christ while they are not. The Communion by the forehead also avoids
the parents of sacrilege sin because often there are some parents, whom to ease the roar of their jealous children
that cannot receive the Body of Christ, flake a little piece of the sacred host
received to be distributed to their
children. Also, the Communion by the
forehead also becomes an opportunity to embrace those who have not/can not receive communion, especially
catechumens and those who have canonical
obstacles to receive communion, so that they remain welcome and feel placed in
the source and summit of our Christian life, The Eucharist.
EVALUATION
In this section,
the author will attempt to evaluate the adaptation of the addition of the
Communion of forehead in light of the principles of liturgical inculturation.
To analyze this rite the author uses four
important criteria that need to be considered
in the inculturation process of Paulo Giglioni's
writings (Chapter VI).
In general, this "Communion by the
forehead" does not want to create a new liturgy. The Rite of Communion by
the forehead appears to bridge the deeply altruistic culture that exists in
Indonesia, specifically to reduce the gap between those who receive communion
and those who have not been/have some
impediments from receiving communion.
A. Criteria of Faith
This criterion of faith
indicates that a proper process of Inculturation is a process that makes the
faithful more able to live the paschal mystery of Christ; directing people to
the Kingdom of Heaven; respecting to the Word of God and People of God; and
realizing the ultimate goal of human life that is to unite with God .
In my
opinion, Communion by the forehead is precisely a form of human longing to be always united with God, especially those who
have not / some impediments to receiving Holy Communion. This communion of
foreheads is an attempt made by the shepherds of the soul to keep unifying
those who have not / cannot receive this Body of Christ despite the
intercession of priestly blessing. It is necessary to do some catechesis first
for the faithful to truly understand that this priest's blessing in no way
replaces or displaces the excellent value
of the Body of Christ present in the Blessed
Sacrament. By doing the Communion by the forehead, they increase their desire to be more
united with Christ by eating His Body by seeking repentance and growth in faith
from day to day.
B. Liturgical Criteria
This liturgical criterion indicates that a real inculturation process always keeps the
faithful from all forms of superstition and errors and even more harmony with
the authentic liturgical spirit. Thus, a good
inculturation process recognizes that in the liturgy there are immutable
elements and can change (SC 21).
In the writer's reflection, liturgically
there is something less appropriate if it refers to the standard liturgical norms, which states that in the celebration of
the Eucharist there is usually only one common blessing during the Closing rite. However, this practice of Komuni Dahi is
far from any superstition, for there are children, catechumens, and Catholics
who are unable to receive communion who
want to manifest their faith and harmonize themselves with the liturgical spirit of responding to God's call
to holiness. This occasion also becomes
for them the encounter between man and the risen God. Practically indeed, in
reality, the practice of Komuni Dahi does a little disturbance to other people because
when many children standing in a row together would inevitably appear a bit of
rowdy atmosphere in the church. The faithful
who have just received Holy Communion may be troubled by this commotion. However, with the help of Sunday school teachers and continuous training,
this noise usually can be kept on a day-to-day basis.
C. Ecclesiology Criteria
This ecclesiological criterion indicates
that a good inculturation process always
shows a genuine nature of the Church,
which has both divine and human character in it. Therefore, every form of
adaptation must respect unity and continuity between the Universal and the Particular Church (SC 2).
In the writer's reflection, it is ecclesiological true that this “addition rite” only appeared about 20-30 years ago and no ancient textual reference shows the
continuity of the use of this rite since centuries ago. One of the scriptural
texts commonly quoted by Indonesian priests to justify this practice is when
Jesus blessed the children who came to Him (e.g. cf. Mt., 13-15). However, of course, this argument cannot be
accounted for because the liturgy is not just a dramatization of the passages
in Scripture. However, in this Komuni Dahi, the identity of the Church appear clearer.
The existence of this Komuni Dahi shows that the
Church consists of: children (who become the Church's future hope); The
catechumens (who show the works of the holy spirit who continually cultivate
faith and call people to believe in God until this very day); and sinners
(represented by those who are unable to receive communion, but the work of
Jesus' atonement can be felt clearer in them).
D. Anthropological Criteria
This anthropological criterion indicates
that a real inculturation process is a
process that prioritizes respect for the culture that shapes humans, the human
feelings that exist in the culture and promotes the mutualistic integration
between liturgy and culture.
In the writer's reflection, the human
anthropological dimension is the most wanted dimension in this adaptation. Komuni
Dahi wants to lift the anthropological side of Indonesian culture. The Komuni
Dahi greatly accommodates the adamant
culture of altruism in Indonesian culture and respects the human feelings in
it. Indeed, the liturgy should not rely on individual subjective feelings, but
also cannot just ignore it.
CONCLUSION
Since coming to Italy, one striking
difference, the author feels, with Indonesia is about the enthusiasm of the
faithful who attended the Liturgical Celebration. As far as the author's
experience, the atmosphere of the liturgical celebrations in Indonesia is much
livelier than the liturgical celebrations in some parishes in Rome, at least regarding the quantity of the number of people
present. Still fresh in my memories, the
last celebration of Easter Vigil, at that
time I celebrated the celebration of Easter vigil with the number of people
less than 100 people. Instead, In Indonesia, almost all parishes in every Easter
vigil, the number of faithful always
overflow (more than 1000 people per parish). This
experience makes the authors grateful that the enthusiasm of the
faithful in Indonesia towards the sacred liturgy is very high. However, this enthusiasm also that often makes
people so creative in making changes that are often said to be
"renewal" in the sacred liturgy that must be dealt with wisely.
Speaking of Komuni Dahi, from my brief analysis (theologically, culturally, and
pastorally), I did not find any grave errors or superstition in this practice.
However, it needs a thorough analysis to deepen it. It is the duty of
liturgical experts in Indonesia to help bishops consider the usefulness and
urgency of this adaptation with diligence and wisdom. Then after careful consideration (theologically,
anthropologically, historically, and pastorally) is obtained (SC 23. 37), if it
is deemed necessary as soon as possible to be submitted to the Apostolic See
for immediate implementation of the guidelines by
SC 40. One small input if this rite will be integrated with the sacred liturgy is that
the priest/extraordinary ministers should first put the ciborium that contains
the Body of Christ on the altar before giving his blessing in Komuni Dahi to prevent undesirable things.[6]
This evaluation process should continue to
deepen and evaluate so many variations of practice liturgy that developed in
Indonesia so that people not only do liturgy just because of habit but with full awareness so that bear
fruit in their daily life.
Bibliography
P. GIGLIONI, INCULTURAZIONE: Teoria
e prassi, Edizioni San Paolo, Milano 2015.
A.
J. CHUPUNGCO (ed.), Handbook for
Liturgical Studies, 2: Fundamental
Liturgy, Claretian Publications, Philippines 2004.
A.
J. CHUPUNGCO, Liturgical Inculturation: Sacramentals,
Religiosity, and Cathecesis, The Liturgical Press Collegeville, Minnesota 1992.
[1] Starting
2000 KWI (Bishop Conference of Indonesia) establishes the term “Asisten Imam” (which mean Priest’s
Assistant) for calling extraordinary ministers of holy communion, but there are
still many dioceses in Indonesia using the less precise / ambiguous term
“Pro-diakon” until now
[2] This
gesture appears in the Liturgy because of the strong influence of Javanese
culture. Javanese culture is a culture with a thick element of feudalism. In
Javanese culture, it is not polite to look from eye to eye to someone who has a
higher position than us, even when speaking. As a result, a child should not
look into the eyes of his parents when they are giving advice or talking to
them. People should not look up when meeting a King and they should listen to
the King who is speaking with his head down. So, when a person does not look
directly at the other person, he is giving a high honor. This is very contrary
to European culture. Therefore, when the priest lifts the Body and Blood of
Christ after praying the institution words, people with strong Javanese culture
will automatically bow their heads because they realize that at that moment
Jesus, King of Kings, is present before them.
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