The Use of Cultural Art in Eucharistic Celebration: An Encounter Between the Christian Faith and Culture

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the use of cultural arts in a liturgical environment, with specic interest of the use of the mask. Sometimes when there is a cultural encounter there is difculty in determining what liturgical expression to use to convey the desired catechetical visual aids. Like the appearance of a masquerade in the celebration of the Mass. The article seeks to enlighten and catechize on the centrality of the Eucharistic celebration, use of the mask (masqurades), and the place of images at worship in the church. Using an expository, investigative and analytic methods, the discourse draws the implication that African cultures are impregnated with the sense of the religious and the holy, so that in Africa attention to culture and the encounter of the Christian faith with other religions go together. For the inculturation of the liturgy, however, this is a reminder that the incorporation of any cultural pattern must face the question of how well its symbolically expressed values harmonize with the Gospel.