Continued...

Sursum Corda

their forefathers before them had done…" In their list of demands, the leaders of the rebellion stated: "We will have our old service of Matins, Mass, Evensong and Procession in Latin, not in English, as it was done before." They wished their priest to revert to "his old popish attire and sayeth Mass and all such services as in times past accustomed." The rebellion was eventually crushed by a brutality I pray we will never witness in our own country.

"Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. It means that it still matters what Penn did two hundred years ago or what Franklin did a hundred years ago; I never could feel in New York that it mattered what anybody did an hour ago." -G.K. Chesterton

People sometimes wonder why the prodigious St Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church and Hammer of Heretics, is now most commonly invoked to find lost objects. Well, as an addled friend of mine sometimes says, "It’s not brain science." Anyone who has misplaced a purse or lost an heirloom is aware that losing something of value is not a trivial matter. Our Lord in Luke 15 tells us that when the shepherd finds his lost sheep he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, then he calls his neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep." Later we hear of the woman who had ten silver coins. She immediately searches for the one that had been lost: "And when she finds it, she likewise calls her friends together and says, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin." The Prodigal’s father embraces his newly returned son and declares, "Let’s have a feast and celebrate."

So I suggest we have reason to rejoice now, for a great treasure that was for all practical purposes lost has been found.

This treasure is simply the Gregorian Roman liturgy, the most ancient of all rites, which had been handed down virtually without molestation until the present time. This most sublime cultural treasure of the West, the channel of grace to generations, was nearly obliterated by a Church hierarchy which ruthlessly brought all its might and authority to bear against it. Make no mistake: it was a close thing for a while, a true near-death experience.

However, a small group of clergy and laity (whom we now identify as traditionalists), refused to allow the Traditional Latin Mass to die. Because of them, our Roman Missal, Pontifical, Breviary and all the venerable Roman liturgical books did not become extinct, and with the help of God will not only survive but outlast whatever it is that passes for Western liturgy these days.

It would have seemed inconceivable only a short time ago, but now there are over thirty institutes of various types dedicated to the traditional liturgy. There are a small number of personal parishes that use only the traditional liturgy, and increasing numbers of priests being trained to celebrate it. This is not meant to imply that we should be complacent when told: "You got your old Mass now, so shaddup." No, that’s not enough. It will not be "enough" until the traditional Roman liturgy is installed in every Latin Rite Church in the world, along with the rest of the liturgical books, functioning within a society that acknowledges the sovereignty of Christ as King.

Here is something else to be happy about: as Father Time marches on, Vatican Council II is rapidly fading in the rear view mirror along with love beads and psychedelic rock. With its roots in the revolutionary atmosphere of the 1960’s it has become totally outdated, simply not responsive to the problems of the Church today. The documents retain a sort of paradigmatic presence, an incantatory value both to progressives and neo-Catholics who invoke them for essentially the same purpose: a harbinger for a springtime that never comes or a talisman to conjure a blissful future that is always out of reach. Well, no matter how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney.

There is a useful Americanism known as "Plan B." When you think about it, doesn’t that describe salvation history?

God’s original Plan was for mankind to live sinless and without disease of body or soul in the Garden of Eden. But the Fall destroyed that original state of being. It necessitated the implementation of an alternate program, "Plan B," which is redemption through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This changed everything, even the meaning of virtue and vice. For example, Adam did not have to work, was never intended to weary body and soul for the sake of subsistence. But now a person who avoids work is not a virtuous pre-lapsarian Adam, but simply a bum. Similarly, to call someone a "hard worker" is considered high praise, turning the effects of a curse into a blessing.

Going further, human beings were likewise never meant to sin. So aren’t we all creating our own Plan B whenever we seek mercy through Confession, whenever we respond generously to the needs of others who suffer the effects of the Fall? Endless repetition of the mantra of "mercy" should not harden us to Our Lord’s commission to show benevolence to all living creatures. Of course this is not mercy on the cheap without repentance and rehabilitation. I’m speaking of mercy that arises from the awareness that life itself is hard: hard for all of us in varying degrees. The people we encounter while walking on the street, with whom we interact at the grocery store: we don’t know what burdens these children of God might be bearing. Why not treat everyone with the respect due to their inevitable sufferings, their inherent human dignity? Why pile burdens, even minor ones, upon one another when life on earth itself is quite efficient in doing so? What this means is that at all times we should try to follow the most difficult advice of the Cure of Ars: "Never do anything you cannot offer to God."

Mature Christians know that no happiness here below is lasting or perfect, that ashes settle on all earthly pleasures. But if this is where we stop, we would be wise only as the virtuous pagans were wise; we would dwell in the dreary world of the Stoics who met both fortune and misfortune with equal equanimity rather than in the surprising, multi-colored world of Christianity. The happy fact is that no matter how evil the times, it is possible for the Catholic to live a life of virtue. And because of this there is real felicity to be had even in this fallen world of ours. Aristotle tells us that the attainment of

eudaimonia

(a state of blessed happiness) is inextricably aligned with "virtuous activity in accordance with reason."

There are corollary advantages to this.

Though none of us can avoid the pain of sense or of loss, it is much more bearable if the pain of regret is not added to the mix, if our humble reception and bestowal of mercy softens the hard edges of this vale of tears.

So let’s get it through our heads that the

Te Deum,

the Church’s greatest hymn of praise, is appropriate for every age.

Though we all must suffer, it doesn’t follow that we have to be miserable.

We certainly don’t need to banish the motive of personal happiness from any one of our actions. I cannot go too far in antipathy to the insidious spiritual disease of Jansenism, which too often affects the righteous. Christians are allowed, encouraged, and even enjoined to be happy. Though happiness does not consist entirely in pleasure, neither does it exclude pleasure. Of course this isn’t the superficial, vanishing "good times," the mere satiation of the appetites that the world uses to usurp the reality of pleasure. It is a rational good, based solidly in the recognition of the truth of God as revealed in His creation.

In fact, the obstinate refusal to be happy is an act of the will, and actually a lack of gratitude to God for everything He has given us.

As a graduate student at the University of Illinois, I used to ride the bus to campus.

I often sat next to a semi-retired professor of classics. Once I asked him where he had done his graduate studies. He pulled up a sleeve and showed me the tattoo on his arm: "Auschwitz" he said. Then, without further elaboration, he proceeded to the subject on his mind: would I write a review of a book he and his wife had just written? I agreed before knowing the subject. To my surprise it was not a despairing meditation on suffering or the wickedness of man, but a serene philosophical meditation on the subject of "Happiness."

You Wascically Wabbit!

With the certainty that we will often judge poorly and make mistakes, in the acknowledgement that we have little power except in the limited sphere of our own lives, the best most of us can do in these perplexing times is cooperate with the graces of our state in life, participate as best we can in the Church’s Liturgical Year, and live righteously and happily.

So march onward in the vigorous pursuit of Plan B, you funeral-faced, creedreciting Catholics! Never give up, never settle, and also, if your state in life permits, and so far as God provides –

breed like rabbits

– and understand we can’t go "too far" in the service of Tradition. In fact, I look forward to the time when there is no such thing in the Church as the "Traditionalist Movement." We are not a faction. We just try to do what Catholics have always done, to believe and worship in ways that would have been considered unremarkable at any almost other time. Patient reader, whether you buy into the Benedict Option, become a hermit in the woods, move to a traditionalist stronghold in Idaho, choose life in the big city or the suburbs—whatever is best for you—you will still be living

in partibus infidelium.

Those Rossinian moments will just keep on coming. You are going to continue to wake up every morning to a culture increasingly irrational and decadent, to the sleazy, self-serving behavior of our political and social leaders, to a Church hierarchy that lurches between crackpot social theories and Teilhardian poppycock. But do not be disheartened by verbal snakes on a plane! We are going to win this war.

This is what I believe: the traditional liturgy will be universally restored as the primary liturgical form and norm of our faith; the misbegotten Roman Missal of 1970 will become a historical aberration, a curiosity available only in research libraries. Pontiffs will pass down what they have received, prudently govern the Church, and won’t dare disrupt our piety.

Our prelates will be holy and modest but have iron in their spines.

Now I wouldn’t be surprised if you interject at this point, "Do you really know what you’re talking about? Maybe you should just keep quiet." How can I be so sure? Because I am convinced that this is what Christ our King wants. To adapt an old phrase: "If the King ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy." From the Preface of the Mass on the Feast of the Sovereignty of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Supreme King: He will grant us: "an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life; a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace."

In conclusion, I can leave you with no better advice than that given after every sermon by Msgr. Vincent Giammarino, who was pastor of St. Michael’s Church in Atlantic City in the 1950’s: "My dear good people: Do what you have to do, When you’re supposed to do it, The best way you can do it, For the Love of God. Amen." ■