I'm Not Here...

...I'm here:

Truth: The Paradox of Beauty...please do check it out!

Book Review: The Mass in Scripture

The Mass in Scripture is book one of the Lectio Divina Bible study series by Stephen J. Binz. Endorsed by a whole host of bishops and archbishops, Binz does a masterful job of presenting the beauty and truth of the liturgy; all in preparation for the new translation of the Roman missal.

The book is both a solid resource for personal study and the perfect parish level study guide for a small group or even larger gathering. In fact, I recommend any parish looking to implement a study about the Mass, new translation or not, to use this book. It doesn't get bogged down in the minutia, but instead focuses on showing the reader the beauty and truth of the Eucharistic Celebration drawing from the Sacred Scripture as its primary source. In this way, The Mass in Scripture fulfills Pope BXVI's mandate in Verbum Domini to study the Scripture which is the "soul of sacred theology" (not to mention the Bible is the Catholic Church's book).

Theologically, the book is as solid as you can get. One looking for hosts of latin formulae might be disappointed, but anyone hostile to the Novus Ordo should read this book. While the Holy Spirit may not have worked through the Church to bring about such deforms as liturgical dancing, mad ad-libbing or silly songs with Larry during the recessional; the vernacular translation along with certain aspects that are unique to it are deeply indebted to the Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture; something Binz copiously evidences.

Love Scripture? Love the Mass? Want to learn how the Mass is the "exhale" of the "inhale" of the spirit of the Sacred page? For only $10, you can have this wonderful resource for yourself, your family or your parish.

4 Reflections On My First Traditional Latin Mass

I attended my first Traditional Latin Mass this last week while on pilgrimage in St. Louis, MO. I'm still reflecting upon the experience but wanted to share with you a few reflections I've had so far.

1. A church can be beautiful

St. Francis de Sales Oratory is breathtaking. I also had the fortune of spending time in the basilica in St. Louis which is incredible in its own right. But, the three-dimensional art in the Oratory still has me scratching my head. Beauty communicates Truth in a way that indelibly leaves a mark on the soul, not just the intellect. 

Both in the oratory and the basilica, I was moved by the appropriateness of the response to the holiness and grandeur of God. If God came to us in the flesh and comes to us in the Eucharistic mystery, let's respond to that love with a church that celebrates just how amazing God's grace is.

2. Ad Orientem makes a lot of sense.

As Mass started at St. Francis de Sales Oratory, tears welled in my eyes because I understood something I had never understood before. We, with the priest, come to God to offer our lives to the Father through the Eucharistic sacrifice We are not mere witnesses to the Eucharist, we are participants. The Eucharist is our prayer.

Ironically, when the priest faces the congregation that important truth can fail to take hold. What can get unintentionally communicated is that the priest is putting on some type of show and that the direction of the Mass is toward the people. Ad Orientem reminds us that it is toward God. The movement of the Mass is vertical, the paschal sacrifice is for the Father, and the Eucharist is our prayer to God and His answer to that prayer.

That all said, I had the honor of being at Mass with Cardinal Burke on Sunday--Novus Ordo--that was celebrated with the solemnity appropriate the Holy Eucharist.

3. I still appreciate the vernacular.

Say the black. Do the red. 

My friend and I commented to each other after our time at the Oratory, that the Latin Mass without catechesis is a recipe in the modern world for a loss of faith. (I also think that with catechesis, the resurgence of the Latin Mass is the recipe for a resurgence of faith)

The fall-out post-Vatican II had little to do with the new Mass and mostly to do with poor catechesis. Leaving the Church isn't an option if Christ has "the words of life", but if the faithful don't know those words it can be difficult to remember why we linger with Him through this life of suffering. Moreover, behind every Mass innovation is a failure in appreciating the Truth of the Mass--a failure of catechesis. We doctor up what we think is broken.

We are in the era of the New Evangelization. I believe the vernacular Mass serves two purposes. One, it calls all men and women into accountability for their faith. No one can say, "I didn't know because I didn't understand". When we profess our faith or when the priest says "The Body of Christ", we are left without excuse if we respond in lifeless apathy or disbelief. Christ said His Father would separate the goats and the sheep. He's doing that.

Two, it opens the door to bring unity to the Church--particularly amongst the separated brethren in the protestant communities. Mass being in the vernacular was essential to my conversion to the Catholic faith. If for not that reason alone, I will always be endeared to it.

4. Why did we get rid of communion rails?

This is absolutely one of the most beautiful parts of our faith. The imagery is of a wedding feast. The linens are pulled out. We kneel as beggars. We, poor banished children of Eve, receive the Fruit of New Eve's womb.

Restore communion rails and dignity for the Eucharist will be restored tomorrow. It seems just that simple.  Further, this seems a rather uncontroversial reform. Right? Isn't everyone interested in the Eucharist being treated with respect? Too many times, I've witnessed our Lord being treated carelessly--communion on-the-go or our Lord shuffled around in the hand as if He were a pocket candy. Surely these displays do not increase our faith in the Eucharistic Mystery. Let's pray that we see a reform to these irreverent practices.

Ave Maria!

My First Mass

After my first Mass, I'll never forget sitting in the coffee shop with my friend. I was staring out a window, sipping some coffee and thinking about what I had just experienced. Tears welled up in my eyes and I asked in bewilderment, "Why are we separated? That was the most Christ centered 'service' I have ever been to."

I remember thinking that this whole Protestant/Catholic thing was a big sham. I grew up my entire life thinking that Catholics were unbiblical, disregarding Jesus, and instead worshiped idols, Mary, and worked their way to heaven. I was expecting something foreign at Mass. But what I got went something like this:

• Prayer and repentance (to Jesus)
• Old testament reading
• Psalm
• New Testament Reading 
• Gospel (we stand up because Jesus is talking)
• Prayer
• Partake of Jesus in the Eucharist
• Prayer

In 155 A.D., St. Justin Martyr describes something eerily similar here. I had read that before, but it didn't click; but it would make sense when I would read it later. In Luke 24, after the Resurrection, Jesus does something very similar to this with his disciples.

A question that emerged for me on my journey was "Why do all of the ancient churches practice a somewhat similar liturgy?" Was this a novelty or was it something that Christ taught them? I think the logistical limitations of early Christians make it being a novelty quite impossible. Rather, what makes a lot more sense, is that Jesus taught his disciples how to worship and that they went out and established communities who worshiped within those liturgical frameworks. I think we get more than a shadow of it in Luke 24. What this conclusion also bears is the reality of extra biblical tradition. I will talk about that on another day.

When I considered the Mass, I also noticed a beautiful narrative that unfolds. The story of salvation history. As I started to understand the Mass as heavenly worship brought to earth and as the priest operating in persona Christi (because there is only One High Priest), the procession into the Church of the priest only made sense. When we stood we were acknowledging Father Neff not qua John Neff, we were acknowledging Father Neff qua Jesus Christ. This was his time. And, what the brief run-down above shows is that all of us must enter into the historic unfolding of salvation in time and space to understand the The Good News: The Gospel. However, that is not enough. 

Like the disciples our hearts are "burning for him" (Luke 24:32), but even when Christ himself preached the Gospel to them, their eyes were not truly open until he "took the bread, blessed it ("this is my body"), and gave it to them" (Luke 24:31). At their realizing he vanished from their sight. That morning I will admit that I did not see Jesus in the flesh kind of like the disciples who in receiving the Blessed Sacrament looked up to find their Lord disappeared. However, I was certain that He was there. Somehow, Christ was with us that morning. To the side of the altar was a place where they put the communion that was not consumed after the consecration. Because Catholics believe that it is truly Jesus and no longer bread, they could never disgard it like a common piece of trash. Instead, left over "hosts" are put in a tabernacle. As I peered over in the direction of the tabernacle, I asked myself, "Jesus, could it be YOU?"

If it was, I knew how this story would go.

The Assumption in Church History

No woman is like you. You are more than Eve or Sarah, blessed above all nobility, wisdom, and sanctity. (Sermon, Feast of the Visitation, 1537). -Martin Luther

 

"So then, the great Mother of God, so mysteriously united to Jesus Christ from all eternity by the same decree of predestination, immaculately conceived, an intact virgin throughout her divine motherhood, a noble associate of our Redeemer as he defeated sin and its consequences, received, as it were, the final crowning privilege of being preserved from the corruption of the grave and, following her Son in his victory over death, was brought, body and soul, to the highest glory of heaven, to shine as Queen at the right hand of that same Son, the immortal King of Ages." -Venerable Pope St. Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (The most bountiful God)

In order to understand the historical precedent for the doctrine of the Assumption, we have to look back into the early liturgical life of the Church. In the Biblical record, we certainly do not have any direct statement saying that Mary was assumed into heaven. Can the Church know something after the Biblical narrative? Is the Book of Acts open to future "acts" and are those "acts" worthy of Christian assent? Orthodox and Catholic Christians celebrate the assumption of Mary into heaven (the Orthodox call it "Dormition") since, well, it happened. As Taylor Marshall has pointed out in the link above, Catholics believe in the Assumption of Mary "as, say, the fact that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated or the fact that the St. Louis Cardinals won the 2006 World Series. One day Mary's body lay in a tomb. The next day it did not."

Of course there is the possibility that Mary's body was taken by someone to make credible the miraculous claim. However, this claim is not historically plausible in much the same way that a similar story regarding Christ would be false. There is theory and then there is historical evidence.

The actual celebration of the Assumption dates to St. Cyril of Alexandria in the 5th century.  The earliest western account of the Assumption of Mary can be found in Gregory of Tours work Glory of the Martyrs. In Glory, it is recounted that the Blessed Virgin died, her body was taken away by the Apostles with much fare, and then 3 days later her body was assumed into heaven. It should be noted that the Church was just newly emerging from persecution and it is reasonable to assume that her liturgical calendar would evolve slowly.

Do we know the exact date of the Assumption? Historian Warren Carrol in his work The Founding of Christendom places the date of the Assumption of Mary approximately A.D. 49. Taylor Marshall suggests that A.D. 63 is the best candidate from the tradition.

The question that still begs is why wait so long to define the Assumption as dogma (1950)? Why have a defined dogma, wouldn't it just work as a myth of Christian piety? The Church has always only defined a dogma that she holds once it is sufficiently challenged by heresy. The Church also, generally, in these acts of defining dogma upholds other doctrines insomuch that by defining a new dogma, she strengthens the others. The Assumption acts like this.

Take into consideration the opening quote from Luther regarding the Blessed Virgin. Does this sound like the sentiment of most Protestants today? No. So, clearly there was a general degradation of the understanding of Mary amongst protestants from the reformation through the four centuries that would pass before the Assumption was defined as dogma. Conversely, the doctrine of the Assumption redeems Mary's dignity that was lost over those 400 years, reaffirms the Christocentricity of Marian dogmas, and thereby fortifies, even more, the humanity of Christ and thus our salvation.

However, this was not just a Protestant problem. Pope St. Pius XII had just recently written in his encyclical Humani Generis about the prevailing tide of modernism in the culture; even calling to attention the scientism which sought to discredit all supernatural phenomena. These philosophical novelties in the culture at large were certainly in the spirit of the attitude that would discredit the historical reality of the Assumption. I do not think it was an accident that the three months later Pope St. Pius XII would solemly define Mary's assumption as dogma.

As Pope St. Pius XII says , "(Mary) defeated sin and its consequences, received, as it were, the final crowning privilege of being preserved from the corruption of the grave and, following her Son in his victory over death, was brought, body and soul, to the highest glory of heaven." Keeping these facts in mind, I believe we can say the dogma of the Assumption:

(1) Affirms Mary's conquering of sin (and thereby affirms the perpetual virginity of Mary)

(2) Connects her Assumption to the victory won by her Son

(3) Reaffirms her unique privilege in salvation history

(4) Confronts the radical modernism prevalent in culture and beginning to pervade religion

(5) And, "Looses" (Matt 16:19) what is in heaven for the sake of bringing the "kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven"(Matt 6:10)

(Next: The Assumption in Sacred Scripture)