"...and has it been thought thru. (sic)" This is a comment made in a recent note I received. The parishioner who wrote this I thought, at first, was very bold. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that this is just the problem. Many people think we must be bold in our attempts to cease the reclaiming of our Catholic Heritage, for some reason. Nevertheless, we should rejoice that the heritage of the Catholic Faith is not being lost, rather our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is very clearly helping the Church to re-establish herself in what was her glory before the Second Vatican Council. Not to say that anyone is necessarily rejecting anything that happened at Vatican II, because this is not the stated purpose of Pope Benedict XVI.
Rather, it is clear that many things that have been in danger of being lost to history are now in the process of being restored. Someone sent me this link, which I think is interesting on so many different levels. The Pope has, apparently, been celebrating the Mass according to the Missal of Bl. Pope John XXIII. Can you imagine? This is the same Mass, in some of its parts, that every Pope has celebrated going back perhaps as far as St. Peter himself! That is right, some historians argue that the Eucharistic Prayer I, known more properly as the Roman Canon, may go back as far as St. Peter's own pen? I think that is incredible myself. Could you imagine saying words in Latin which go back for sure at least to the 16th century and which only 264 other men could say they had said as Pope? I can't. What a joy to be the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church! Of course, I can only say this because I am not the Pope. No one probably has a clue as to the daily difficulties and tensions that the Pope deals with from across the face of the planet.
Even so, I think it is incredible for us to realize that our heritage is being "restored." We are not "taking" anything anywhere. To the question as to whether it has been "thought thru," I think we can honestly think about that and say yes! But whom has thought it through? Well, it seems to me that it is none other than our Lord himself. For was not the Church founded by Jesus Christ, and has He not continued to guide it with His own Holy Spirit till this day? True mankind has the ability to reject or modify or destroy what he has entrusted to us, yet the Church is constantly called to restore us and by that restoration to feed us for eternal life. This I think is the beauty and challenge of our obedience to the Holy Father. On the one hand, we must heed his direction if we are going to be fed most fruitfully. On the other, we must also challenge ourselves to understand where we are being led in his directives.
Let us realize, then, that our faith restores us to the Garden of Eden, and then takes us even further. This is the reason why for centuries theologians suggested that the "Tree of Life" which Adam and Eve rejected is symbolized by the Crucifix. For from the crucifix, that tree of death, we receive life and life more abundantly.
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7 comments:
Tomas,
According to the Cathoic News Service, " Claims that the pope celebrates his private Mass using the Tridentine rite are incorrect, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi told Ctholic News Service." So one should be more judicious in the postings.
The Roman Canon is not the oldest Eucharistic Prayer, Eucharistic Prayer II is the oldest. The saints mentioned in the Roman Canon were not all saints when St. Peter was alive if he was writing the prayer. Bad information!
Thanks for the comments, however the Roman Canon is the oldest. As I said, it is argued that "parts" of the Roman Canon were written by St. Peter himself - not as was implied - the whole prayer.
I don't find where the Fr. Lombardi mentioned this, would you mind providing the link?
Here it is: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0704072.htm
Though I think there is an interesting point of view here:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/07/cns-v-cwn-on-benedict-xvi-using-older-mass-in-private
It would surprise me, considering that the Holy Father saw fit to authorize the use of the 1962 Missal, to announce to the Church that it was never abrogated and is the right of any priest to say without permission, that he would not also celebrate it himself.
We know that he has done so for ordinations of the FSSP. If the commenter in the forum you link to is correct, he has a personal friend who has attended these Masses with the Holy Father.
It comes as no surprise that the Holy Father would want to promulgate Summorum Pontificum prior to allowing any information about him celebrating the Mass according to the Missal of 1962 to come out. He needs to lay down the legal framework of why such a thing is now and has always been good and proper to do. If word broke that he was doing this before the release of SP, I think pandemonium would have erupted on both sides, progressive and traditional.
The CNS is the official news service of the USCCB, and Fr. Lombardi is a Jesuit (who, it should be mentioned, does not claim to personally atend the private Masses of the Holy Father). Both of those biases need to be taken into account when we see one story directly contradicting a previous one.
Do we all remember how many contrary statements came out of the Vatican regarding John Paul II's supposed review of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ? The "It is as it was." comment attributed to JPII was hotly debated. He said it. He didn't say it. He said it. He didn't say it.
And everyone involved in the fray was a Vatican source. We must be wary of these sources and apply some common sense.
Thanks, Tomas, for your work on this blog. Keep it up! Be assured of our prayers.
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