Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 8, 2007
Say to them, “The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
If you happen to get a few days off and go into town (Dallas) you might be able to visit the West End. There is a restaurant there, the Old Spaghetti Warehouse. If you need to make a phone call and you happened to forget your cell phone and go to use the payphone there, you might feel like you are walking into Church. In fact, people immediately recognize the telephone booth in the restaurant installed in 1970; it was the confessional from the Cathedral. Evidentially some people had interrupted the changes of the Second Vatican Council incorrectly and their interpretation meant getting rid of the confessionals. Of course now there are fewer confessions heard in the Cathedral and more people talk on phones inside church. An irony isn’t it? It is very sad. This is something that needs to be corrected.
This is just an example of something that changed and the Church never intended to happen, it is something that is very tangible and there is something absent in the Cathedral that should be there. Someone donated that confessional, which had served for decades until it was tossed out and landed in a restaurant, which is sad.
The figure on the front of the bulletin is of St. Benedict. That is the statue of St. Benedict built in front of the place where he was born; a church is built on the site of his birth. St. Benedict was very excellent in following the instructions that the Church gives us; they are called Rubrics, which instruct how to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and dispense the Sacraments. The figure of St. Benedict looms over that square in front of the Church in Nursia. His feast day is Wednesday, July 11th.
How fitting that Pope Benedict released a document yesterday, that is going to be referred to by me right now as a “change”, but it is really a clarification. He has made a clarification and has put things to order. For the sake of this homily, you will hear me refer to it as a “change”. The changes that his Motu Proprio, his own decisions have made will help us to understand the Mass as it was celebrated for centuries, up to about 1970. There are people who believe that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has always been “this”, because they have no experience with the Mass as it was before for century after century. It is interesting; the Holy Father is putting things in order. Of course for a man who has received Holy Orders and has gone from deacon to priest, from priest to bishop, from bishop to cardinal, and from cardinal to pope, this is as it should be.
There is a letter that accompanied the pope’s document, Motu Proprio; it is a cover letter to help us understand what is going on and what IS NOT going on. I have numbered the paragraphs for you so you can follow along easier. Notice the last sentence of paragraph #1.
This is not something that the pope just decided to do last week. If you followed the writing of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict, he has been writing since the Second Vatican Council about this subject extensively. He has been studying and talking with others, as well as praying about this. This is not something that happened suddenly or by surprise. Everyone who knew him as cardinal knew his positions on these matters. His writings still exist. He was an expert along with Pope John Paul II, who was an archbishop from Poland, at the Second Vatican Council. So, as an expert assistant to his Archbishop from Munich at the Second Vatican Council, he knows all about the Council and then also about what was transmitted as having come from the Council when in fact, it really didn’t. Look at paragraph #2. The second sentence is very revealing.The document is the fruit of much reflection, numerous consultations and prayer.
There has been a lot of confusion and static about a document that wasn’t published until yesterday. I wonder how they do that? They are making it up, is the answer. They are making it up and the pope is asking how this can be possible. Welcome to modern times!"News reports and judgments made without sufficient information have created no little confusion. There have been very divergent reactions ranging from joyful acceptance to harsh opposition, about a plan whose contents were in reality unknown.
If you look back, there was a treasure that was lost in this country and around the world. During the Second Vatican Council newspaper headlines proclaimed that nuns, sisters, women religious no longer had to wear their habits. The bishops did not state this during the Second Vatican Council. What happened? Many of them left their habits and then left the convents after that. What a loss of a treasure that this nation and the Church suffered because of confusion, static, and misinformation. If I read it in the newspaper, it MUST be true! Tell that to Arson Wells and War of the Worlds. Remember that radio broadcast? The aliens have landed and evidentially they now monitor many newspapers.
In the 3rd paragraph the Holy Father is going to focus on two fears that people have. The first fear is that this document detracts from the authority of the Second Vatican Council. He says that it doesn’t, in fact, what the Holy Father has done is to declare this Mass, the new Mass if you will, as the “Ordinary” form, and the old Mass if you will, as the “Extraordinary” form of the Mass. Ordinary…Extraordinary… and that is how I will be referring to it because it is not really appropriate to say the “new Mass” and the “old Mass.” That is a mess! We are attending the “Ordinary” form right now, and the other is the “Extraordinary” form.
The people who say that you can’t turn back the clock… where do you live? What is it…spring forward and fall back? Of course we turn back the clock unless you have one of those atomic clocks; it turns itself back but it still counts. The Holy Father is not trying to undo what was done during the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. Look at paragraph #5. He says,
If we were playing football we would say that the people who did away with the old Mass were, “off sides” and that it was done but done as a foul. It was never juridically abrogated. What happened with the changes is that, one day the Extraordinary form of the Mass was our most treasured possession and the next day, flipping a switch, the new Mass is. The old Mass has been represented as “BAD”, in a glib way over the last 40 years. So, children who have no experience concerning the Mass as it was for centuries will hear it stated, or read it in print,I would like to draw attention to the fact that this Missal was never juridically abrogated and, consequently, in principle, was always permitted.
“THIS GOOD, THAT BAD!”
I am sorry, even Tarzan would object to such a glib generalization. In paragraph #5 the pope is talking about the changes that took place after the Second Vatican Council.
People didn’t follow the Rubrics, the instructions, as I mentioned about St. Benedict, who followed all intently.This occurred above all because in many places celebrations (Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal,
And boy, were they and are they hard to bear. The pope says,… but the latter actually was understood as authorizing or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear.
I first learned about Cardinal Ratzinger, who is today Pope Benedict, in the mid 1980’s. Well, I should say in the early 80s because he came to visit the seminary here in Dallas. It was just a brief visit. After he shook my hand he was able to leave and go back to Rome. I am sure it is why he came. In the mid 80s I started reading the writings of Cardinal Ratzinger and I remember how painful it was for me to read that in the late 80s he had to write an instruction sent to every bishop around the world; you can’t just send it to one. It was something like a memo telling them that a certain change that had popped up in this country of course, was not to be permitted in any diocese under any circumstances.I am speaking from experience, since I too lived through that period with all its hopes and its confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church.
What I am about to tell you is not a joke; I am not kidding and not making it up. This is something, which spells out exactly the kind of deformation and the way people thought that you were required to create your own Mass as though it is some omelet you can order at a hotel.
”I don’t like that, don’t put that in there; oh just dump it all in, I don’t care.”
When I was in seminary in the late 80s there was something that was spreading like wildfire through this country. Priest would dress as a circus clown with the nose, hair and make-up, as well as the big shoes. They would celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in this way and it was called a Clown Mass. How absurd! What a terrible abuse of the Hoy Sacrifice of the Mass. The way this was being broadcast was that, this is so children will understand the Mass. It wasn’t a Mass but a mess!
Cardinal Ratzinger, who was Pope John Paul II’s right hand man had to correct this error and see that it didn’t happen again. He said that there is no way we can study the Old and New Testaments and see God revealing himself to us as a clown. Every diocese in which this happened had a bishop and a bishop allowed that to happen. Thanks be to God this isn’t happen anymore. There are still abuses of the Mass. I have heard so many reports of someone dancing during Mass in a body leotard, who never should wear a leotard in the condition they are in. What possesses them to put on a leotard, much less dance in Church in a body stocking? Heaven help us.
These are abuses that are just one of many that have crept in…well, crept in like a flood since the Second Vatican Council. These are the kind of deformations the pope is referring to, among others. You walk into a church today and in every Church in the world, it is different. Before these changes you could go to any church in the world and hear the same Mass. How beautiful! But we made sure that since everyone loved it and commented about it that we got rid of it. It has never been rid of as the pope says in paragraph #5; it was never juridically abrogated. So many were told that this Mass could not be offered without permission but we see this wasn’t the case.
I would like to summarize paragraph #6 just by saying that people are going to be inclined to deal with this in a glib way and say,
“Well, I like the Mass in English.”
Others are going to say,
“I like the Mass in Latin”
It is as if either of those are suitable statements. Those statements represent a personal opinion but they are not helpful. The heart wants what the heart wants; that is why they make chocolate and vanilla. Of course some will be drawn to one form or another, but it doesn’t mean one is better and one is inferior. There are those who could say that one Mass is better and they only want to receive Holy Communion at “that” Mass because Holy Communion at the other Mass is not 100%. What a travesty and what a lie. People that want to say those kind of things…do me a favor…stay away from me, from my ear shot. Get away from me if you want to say this. There will be those who gravitate to one or the other because the heart wants what the heart wants.
Going on to paragraph #7 and the second fear that the pope addresses in #3. The second fear is that this is going to lead to division. NO! The pope points out very clearly that what leads to division in the Church is when a priest, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass doesn’t follow the Rubrics, doesn’t follow the instructions. This is what led to a clown Mass and dancing and all other abuses in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I have no problem with someone dancing but why does it have to be in the Church?
“Well, if we do it somewhere else then nobody will come.”
Exactly! Forcing people…why not just make it official and get a shotgun and force people to watch things they do not want to be present for. Not following the instructions is exactly what leads to divisions. The Holy Father is saying in paragraph #8 that the Ordinary Form will be to inspire the Extraordinary form and the Extraordinary form will inspire the Ordinary form; that a rising tide will lift all boats. That is an appropriate thing to say after so much rain. Both forms will benefit by being placed side by side.
Here is an example. The Holy Father doesn’t want to bring in an Extraordinary Mass and present it to people today as if it is a museum piece; he wants it to be used. It is the Mass of the Ages and it ties us with many Catholics like parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. Now I am back to where St. Boniface preached to the barbarians in Germany.
The Holy Father mentions that, since Vatican II there has been a wildfire of canonizations and a lot more saints on the calendar. He is leaving the possibility that if there is a day on the old calendar when there are no saints for that day, that some of these new saints could be used. You can see how the Ordinary form can inspire the Extraordinary form? How can the Extraordinary form inspire the Ordinary form? How about a sense of reverence and awe while in the presence of God? Isn’t that what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel?
Say to them, “The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.”
Jesus being in our very midst should move us to awe and reverence. I cannot tell you how sad it is when I see someone talking on a phone in Church. I have no problem with phones; I love phones but they just don’t belong in Church. Right? When we are in Church we are supposed to be talking to God! Just the other day someone was talking on the phone in Church and I was trying to Baptize someone. This is not done by intention but we have gone so long in letting things go that reverence has just gone out the window and washed away.
So, in paragraph #8 the Holy Father shows both forms will inspire each other, and who will benefit? We will all benefit. Paragraph #9 shows another reason; an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church. In other words, he is putting things in order, but I would also like to stretch this to include not only the SSPX but to include those separated from the Latin Rite by centuries. For example in 1054 the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople got into a back and forth that was very confused and mishandled by many of their representatives, which kind of came up to the year 1453-54 when the Moslems took over Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. In one day every Catholic Church in that city became a Moslem Mosque. What happened was that the Greek Orthodox and the Latin Rite pulled apart. A schism if you will.
This has been the work of so many popes since 1453-54. In fact, Pope Benedict chose his name for Pope Benedict XV, who during WWI was pope for a brief time, and one of the goals of his time as pope was to end the schism between the Latin rite and the Greek Orthodox. The Lord founded “a” Church and this schism, while it is acknowledged and goes on, it is not the will of Christ and it must be our concern.
This Ordinary form of the Mass, in fewer ways, resembles the Mass of the Greek Orthodox, but the Extraordinary form of the Mass does resemble in many ways the day to day experience of the Greek Orthodox in offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. So, it has a lot of ramifications there.
I am so proud of this Holy Father just as I was of Pope John Paul II. I love the pope; he knows what he is doing and he has done it with dedication, resolve, and intelligence. He does none of this on the spur of the moment. For us to receive it as if it is some flourish or some fly by night decision as if it is a whim because it is something he “likes”, is to mistreat the Holy Father. This is something which is being given to the Church by Pope Benedict that will have amazing repercussions; it is a way of putting things in order that have been cast asunder or exploded, if you will; dynamited in some cases.
The benefits that will come from this also include the Sacraments. You have heard me speak of Baptism under the old form. The Baptism is very different under the old form, the Extraordinary form, like a piece of salt being placed on the tongue of the child. Jesus said,
You are the salt of the earth.
There are minor exorcisms in the Extraordinary form such as the priest blowing on the face of the baptized in the form of the cross, three times. This is amazing. The Sacraments are also being allowed to be administered in the Extraordinary form. This is amazing and also extends to the Roman Breviary, the Lectionary in use before the changed in 1970. This is a high-water mark in the Church; it is going to help inspire many in the Church in many ways.
For about 40 years we have been told that anything is possible as long as it is creative and now, the pope, by bringing this document to our attention is showing us that there are limits to creativity. The Mass is not “my little project” today. It is like when you go into a restaurant and they hand the kids some colors and a picture. They can color it any way they want, but the Mass, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Kingdom of God and is at hand. It is the most intimate thing anyone can do in the span of a day.
We are experiencing a slice of Heaven on earth and to the credit of the pope; he has revealed the problems and difficulties that have arisen over the past 40 years. It is like the end of an examination of conscious. The Holy Father is bringing it all together and pronouncing the remedy for what has afflicted so many for so long. This is a good plan and a good model.
We must pray for the Holy Father, who said that he expects bishops, priests, and laity around the world will receive this in a peaceful and serene manner. By giving you this letter on the second day after its publication, you can begin to read and study it on your own. You are going to hear a lot of lies about this and you are going to read in “so-called” Catholic publications more lies about this. You need to remember these comments and treasure that letter by the pope and actually look up the Motu Proprio and read it for yourself. I know that some parts are a little difficult to handle but we must all learn about the restoration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and this is truly a blessing for the Church.
Say to them, “The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen