The Novus Ordo: a Mass of Reduced Power? |
Can there be a more important topic? What is wrong with the new rite of Mass? Why is it failing and can it be fixed? And just as importantly, what role can the Traditional Mass play in this process? Jim Allen ponders these provocative questions. |
The recent instructions on the liturgy from Rome (Liturgiam Authenticam and Redemptionis Sacramentum) do indeed address many abuses and tie up some loose ends, but to my mind they leave untouched the main fault of the new rite of Mass: shifting the centre of gravity from the sacrificial part to the eucharist/communion. In fact the term 'eucharist' has now largely replaced 'sacrifice'. What exactly does the word 'eucharist' mean these days? I assume it still stands for the communion and thanksgiving of the priest and people after the sacrifice. To extend 'eucharist' to cover all of what was for ages called the 'Holy Sacrifice of the Mass' leads to confusion and does no service to theological precision, the quality that marks out Catholicism from all other Christian denominations. Could this fuss over liturgical minutiae be symptomatic of a deeper unease that something more important is wrong?
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The question I wish to raise is this: has there been a dumbing down of the supernatural in the new rite to such an extent as to cause a loss of spiritual power available to priest and people; and is this one of the main, if not the main, causes of our present decline? Can two canonically valid Masses be unequal in the amount of graces coming from them because of an inferior liturgy in one of them? These are profound but, I think, pertinent questions, a discussion of which might throw some light on our problems. Only God knows the complete answer. What follows is the opinion of one layman arising from a strong suspicion and leading to suggestions as to where really effective efforts at reform might be directed.
The supernatural Mass
At the moment Jesus said “It is finished” and died, Heaven and earth were re-united for the first time since the sin of Adam. Power immediately streamed down from Heaven and even inanimate nature responded. In the unnatural darkness the veil of the Temple “was rent in twain”, the “earth quaked”, “rocks were rent” and “graves opened”. This happened at the moment of sacrifice and not at the Last Supper and the liturgy should make this plain. According to Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars, in the fifteen century the high point of the Mass was very much adoration at the offering up of the sacrifice at the 'Great Elevation'. I was very much surprised to learn that this was considered more important than communion, which was not taken so often in those days. Personally I very much miss that defining moment and climax of the Mass of Ages. Here in clear body language the perfect sacrifice for our sins was offered up to the Father in a manner that all could understand. Artists always portrayed this moment of the elevation.
The Devil is frantically at work trying to destroy the living memorial of what defeated him – the sacrifice on Calvary. The obfuscation of the most sacred part of the Mass and the accentuation of the other parts in the Novus Ordo has given him a not inconsiderable victory. The Mass is an unbloody but real enactment of Calvary and if the crucifixion is partly obscured or understated out of existence, the main source of spiritual power is surely in some measure cut off and cannot flow through to the people and the Church; consequently, you are left with something that is less than the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – a devout memorial meal with Jesus as an honoured guest. The orientation of the priest says it all: face the people and you have a presider at a holy meal (with a few passing references to a sacrifice); face the traditional altar and reredos and you have a sacrifice offered up to a God who is beyond priest and people. After forty years of daily Mass-going this is my sense of the situation. I suggest that the Novus Ordo is not such an efficacious means of grace as the Tridentine Mass and the whole modern Church is now like an engine with its fuel line partly blocked. “The liturgy is the indispensable source of the Christian spirit”. The Mass is the summit and cornerstone of the liturgy and the source of all the Church's power; if it is watered down, can the Church function at full strength? Furthermore, the world at large is blindly dependent on the Mass, without which it would fall into a state even more evil than it is in now. It is no small matter to tamper with the Mass!
Sacrifice of the Mass
Luther hated the idea of sacrifice. Did those six spiritual sons of his co-opted as 'advisers' at the composition of the Novus Ordo in 1968 at Rome exert too much of an ecumenically-correct influence? If so, their efforts have been in vain since Protestants have not been attracted to a tamer Mass, but the exodus of Catholics from Sunday Mass has been horrendous. It has often been said but I will say it again: the new rite of Mass was in no way mandated by the Second Vatican Council.
In a recent BBC 'Sunday Worship' programme from a certain Catholic church the offertory procession was described as “bringing up the bread and wine for the communion”. This is the Protestant's 'Lord's Supper' pure and simple. The only time that the word “sacrifice” was used was in the prayer, “Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours…” Having thus been promised a sacrifice, however, we did not get one but were given a build-up to what was self-evidently the main part of the Mass – the consecration and the 'eucharistic sharing', (everything must be shared!): a typical example of the community aspect upstaging the supernatural. It was an excellent communion service but not substantial enough to stand on its own as the official worship ceremony of the Roman Catholic Church. This enforced 'communitarianism' also appears in the new rite translation of the Creed: in the current translation there are six uses of the word 'we' and no use of the word 'I'; in the traditional Credo there are four uses of the word 'I' and no use of the word 'we'.
I think that the problem is not so much getting words and rubrics perfect but of correcting an imbalance and giving the whole Mass back to the people. Restoring the complete Tridentine Canon would re-establish the sacrifice to its rightful position of pre-eminence over the liturgy of the word and the eucharist.
In my 1962 missal the various parts of the Mass (with sub-titles) are listed as follows: Preparation (before the sacrifice), Offertory (preparation of the sacrifice), Canon (oblation of the sacrifice), Communion (sharing in the sacrifice), Concluding Part. The word “eucharist” does not appear once. Whatever happened to all those sacrifices? This, together with the speed with which this fundamental change took place, a thing unprecedented in liturgical history, can only be described as a revolution, not a reform or development, and revolutions should not happen in the Roman Catholic Church.
In a recent Catholic Truth Society pamphlet, What Happens at Mass?, the parts of the Mass are listed as follows: Penitential Rite, Readings, Offertory, Eucharistic Prayer, Dismissal. Here, and in the longish notes under each heading, the word “sacrifice” does not appear. We just offer our prayers for the “needs of the world”, which is a neo-Protestant idea. Even a complete non-liturgist can see that the enormous difference in nomenclature and format between the modern Mass and the Mass of Ages cannot be right. Once you discard the word “sacrifice”, arguably the most important word in the Mass apart from the sacred names and the words of consecration, you have built in an inevitable spiritual deterioration. Does God's grace flow through such a liturgy in the same abundance as before?
Power of sacrifice
Does the Novus Ordo produce adequate power for a priest to carry out his more than human tasks? His main weapon, the sacrificial Mass from which comes that power, has been blunted and his own personal resources are not adequate as a substitute. I am sure that some more sensitive priests experience frustration and a lack of fulfillment at not being able fully to offer the sacrifice which was the main purpose of their ordination.
How exacting and precise are the rules for celebrating the Old Testament sacrifice! I do not see why we should not draw lessons from this. Would any priest, still less a layman, have dared to play about with the ceremonies of the Temple? In 1 Para. l3:10 (Douay) Oza, for helpfully steadying the swaying Ark of the Lord with his hand, is struck dead for his pains. It is not recorded whether he was a vibrant progressive liturgist as well as a rash fool but one thing is certain: after his little innovation he vibrated no more. Modern counterparts please note.
The Society of St Pius X have exposed all this with what is perhaps too devastating a logic and will have nothing to do with the Novus Ordo. Their Tridentine Mass celebration is meticulous almost to a fault but the overall impression given is that something extremely important is going on that requires the complete subordination of the individual personality according to the principle of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Our Lord: “He must increase; I must decrease”. Informal gatherings round the 'worship table' tend to reverse this sequence. Of course, if it is said exactly as laid down with right intention, the new rite is a valid Mass. However, if a priest modifies it according to his own eccentricities he runs into the danger of tipping it into invalidity and this is, of course, totally unacceptable. Here is seen the absolute necessity for a strict canon to be rigidly adhered to and with no ambiguities such as 'local needs' – much too vague a term and a licence unknown before Vatican II. If such loopholes are on offer Satan will creep through and lay smokescreens all over the place. This has happened and horror stories abound. Good Catholic people will be led to act wrongly without realising what they are doing, a common phenomenon these days.
True participation
At Traditional Latin Masses I have assisted at recently what struck me forcibly was the attentiveness of the congregation to what was going on at the altar, even though the priest had his back to them and was speaking sotto voce in a 'dead' language: their concentration was unmistakable. This must be very puzzling to progressive liturgists. The reason for this is that the people were experiencing a definite sense that the great redemptive act of their salvation – the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross – was being offered in front of them and the Lord had come down to visit His flock. To be present at this awesome visitation and to draw strength and consolation from its power was what they had really come for. For me and very many others the new rite of Mass just does not create this spiritual intensity. Perfection of words would make little difference, the main problem goes much deeper.
It is power radiating from the Blessed Sacrament that draws souls to Mass and Church and attracts converts. This is not power as the world knows it but a deep peace that draws the soul gladly into its embrace and makes Catholic churches like no others. This, plus the hope of Heaven and the fear of Hell, those prime motivators of spiritual effort, is presented in very low key today, if at all. I think that playing eucharistic party games in the sanctuary drastically lowers the tone and actually turns people away. Some home-grown parish 'liturgies' are vibrant indeed, but, then, so are pop concerts.
As for that much vaunted 'building community'; when the Mass is celebrated as it should be, priest and people are powerfully united in that strongest of all ties, the worship of Almighty God, “cor unum et anima una cum una voce”. Raising our hearts and minds to God, weighed down as they are with sins and worldliness, is difficult enough in a perfect liturgy, but to be distracted by the socialising shaking of hands during the very moments when we should be silent in awe at the miracle on the altar makes real worship all but impossible.
Confession and miracles
I note also that often during the first part of Traditional Masses another blocked indispensable source of grace is opened up – confession: the two things go together. This is a far more eloquent sign of grace than the usual spectacle of a whole congregation, mostly inadequately confessed, going to communion at new rite Masses: confession demands a real sacrifice of pride. To see these two great sacraments both being taken at once is a sight beautiful to behold. It is one hundred per cent Roman Catholic and nothing can replace it.
Throughout the history of the Church God has graced the Latin Mass with numerous miracles and all the saints were formed and nourished by this Mass. Padre Pio drew thousands from all over the world to his morning Mass (five am and it lasted up to one and a half hours depending on the graces of devotion given him). During his marvellous life miracles were almost commonplace. After 1968 he begged Rome to give him special dispensation to continue with the Traditional Mass and when this was granted he received the news with tears of gratitude. He did not make this request because he was a sick old man who would find it difficult to change his ways but for sound theological reasons. To my mind to see Padre Pio celebrating in the Novus Ordo would seem very strange, and to see him descend smiling from the altar to shake hands all round outright sacrilege! This, together with the fact that not one saint in history has found anything to object to in the Mass of Ages, impresses me more than all the architects of the Novus Ordo put together. Have there been any eucharistic miracles in the last forty years? I have not heard of any and the only known saint (at least, soon to be) to have made any comments on the subject, Mother Teresa, abhorred the lack of reverence in the new rite. If God really approved of this totally new Mass He would surely have given some sign by now. And miracles are His normal way of showing approval.
When looking at the modern Church the phrases 'Holy Church' and 'Bride of Christ' do not come readily to mind. They did in the 1960s when I converted.
Tradition restored
All this is quite something for an untrained layman to put forward and I am very much open to correction, but amateurish cries from the groundlings in the pews definitely have a place, I think. They swell the growing chorus of voices demanding real Catholicism and a liturgy to express it. I sense that the lowest point of the ebb tide has now been passed and some of the boats in the harbour are beginning to turn to face the incoming flood. It may not look very impressive yet but remember, there is an awful lot of water out there waiting to come back in, and the modernists, like Canute, can in no way hold it back.
Restoring a proper theological balance in the Mass would surely bring an increase of graces, perhaps a spectacular one. When God is the host, faulty theology and sloppy table manners are not likely to influence Him. It is one of the staples of 'letters to the editor' in the Catholic press to point out that, where traditional priests are running parishes (would there were more of them), there is no shortage of vocations and converts, the lapsed start to return and, most impressive of all, queues form outside those confessionals again. The Traditional Rite works! It is a terrible thing when bishops cluster parishes rather than appoint such priests.
Nor should we forget that glorious witness to the effectiveness of the old liturgies, the great annual Chartres pilgrimage. Here the young are taking to traditional and orthodox forms like ducks that have just discovered water. There are confessions galore at every stopping place along the seventy mile route from Paris and at the Traditional High Mass in the great cathedral, an overflow of thousands assist via a giant screen outside, singing Gregorian chant “cum una voce”.
A faulty cable has been repaired and full power restored.
[Taken from the Latin Mass Society's November 2005 Newsletter.]