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Back in early August, I raised some questions (here, here, and here) concerning what bad theology of the Mass and made-up liturgies mean for Catholic thought about the state, civil society, the work of being human, and so forth.  Today I stumbled across a fascinating psychological study, co-authored by the always interesting Paul Vitz (emeritus in psychology at NYU) and his son, that has now shown that part of what accounts for the liturgical "creativity" that seems to be almost everywhere in evidence is -- lo! -- the celebrant's narcissism.  Check out their account!  In a culture in which self-definition by self-assertion is the principal cultural and moral problem, it is not surprising that self-assertion would reorient even the sanctuary during Mass.  In such a culture, it is correlatively even more needful that the liturgy exemplify how self-definition by self-assertion is the problem to be overcome, not the omega point of human history.  This is not about Latin, lace, or the location of the celebrant's seat per se, but rather our respective orientations in the action of the liturgy and who's at the center of the act of worship.   

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