Fr Z of the WDTPRS blog has posted a marvelous pair of before/after shots of masses in the Sistine Chapel.

To my (clearly far too young to understand) mind it is obvious that in one of these photos Christ is the focus and in the other he looks like a long forgotten ornament.

Meanwhile, Amy Welborn has posted a similar photo and asked for peoples views:

In a charitable, clear manner, explain what you see here. What gratifies you about the action in the photograph. What bothers you. Those who see it as beautiful, explain why and its deeper relation to your Catholic faith. Those who are bothered by it or mystified by it, explain why.

You can see the responses here. In her followup post Amy says:

As I've said before, my big ah-ha moment over the past couple of years has been the realization that most of us - myself included - have been formed to think of the Mass as a prayer meeting. A highly structured prayer meeting, but a prayer meeting nonetheless, one which emphasizes community and who we are in the here and now, a prayer meeting which should somehow be expressive of who we are as individuals and a community.

Prayer meetings are good. But that's not what the Mass is.

And that understanding is what I see reflected in the comments below. It seems fairly obvious to me - those who respond positively to the photo seem to emphasize the Sacrificial aspect of the Mass, and the necessity of the ritual and other externals reflecting that reality.

I also find Fr Rob Johansen's anlysis of this particularly interesting. You can read his full analysis here.