It has often been said in support of the posture of facing the people that it was in order that
the people “could see what is going on.” But what is going on is not visible to natural vision,
only to the eyes of faith. Could it be that the unrealized promise of physically seeing what is
going on is a factor in the current decline in Eucharistic faith? At the least, facing the people
increases the possibility that the dialogue between priest and people will leave God as a remote
observer, rather than the transcendent object of the entire proceeding.