Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae   3

 

ARTICLE IV
We now consider the essence of the Sacrifice. The New Order of Mass no longer explicitly expresses the mystery of the Cross. It is obscured, veiled, imperceptible to the faithful.14 Here are some of the main reasons:

1. THE MEANING OF THE TERM "EUCHARISTIC PRAYER"

The meaning the Novus Ordo assigns to the so-called "Eucharistic Prayer" is as follows:

"The entire congregation joins itself to Christ in acknowledging the great things God has done and in offering the sacrifice." 15
Which sacrifice does this refer to? Who offers the sacrifice? No answer is given to these questions.

The definition the Instruction provides for the "Eucharistic Prayer" reduces it to the following:

"The center and summit of the entire celebration begins: the Eucharistic Prayer, a prayer of thanksgiving and sanctification." 16

The effects of the prayer thus replace the causes.

And of the causes, moreover, not a single word is said. The explicit mention of the purpose of the sacrificial offering, made in the old rite with the prayer Receive, Most Holy Trinity, This Oblation, has been suppressed, and replaced with nothing. The change in the formula reveals the change in doctrine.

2. OBLITERATION OF THE ROLE OF THE REAL PRESENCE

The reason why the Sacrifice is no longer explicitly mentioned is simple: the central role of the Real Presence has been suppressed. It has been removed from the place it so resplendently occupied in the old liturgy.

In the General Instruction, the Real Presence is mentioned just once, and that in a footnote which is the only reference to the Council of Trent. Here again, the context is that of nourishment.17 The real and permanent presence of Christ in the transubstantiated Species -Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity -is never alluded to. The very word transubstantiation is completely ignored.

The invocation of the Holy Ghost in the Offertory, the prayer, Come, Thou Sanctifier, has likewise been suppressed, with its petition that He descend upon the offering to accomplish the miracle of the Divine Presence again, just as he once descended into the Virgin's womb. This suppression is one more in a series of denials and degradations of the Real Presence, both tacit and systematic.

Finally, it is impossible to ignore how ritual gestures and usages expressing faith in the Real Presence have been abolished or changed. The Novus Ordo eliminates:

Genuflections. No more than three remain for the priest, and (with certain exceptions) one of the faithful at the moment of the Consecration.

Purification of the priest's fingers over the chalice.

Purification of sacred vessels, which need not be done immediately nor made on the corporal.

Protecting the contents of the chalice with the pall.

Gilding for the interior of sacred vessels.

Solemn consecration for movable altars.

Consecrated stones and relics of the saints in the movable altar or on the "table" when Mass is celebrated outside a sacred place. (The latter leads straight to "eucharistic dinners" in private houses.)

Three cloths on the altar, reduced to one.

Thanksgiving for the Eucharist made kneeling, now replaced by the grotesque practice of the priest and people sitting to make their thanksgiving, a logical enough accompaniment to receiving Communion standing.

All the ancient prescriptions observed in the case of a host which fell, which are now reduced to a single, nearly sarcastic direction: "It is to be picked up reverently." 18

All these suppressions only emphasize how outrageously faith in the dogma of the Real Presence is implicitly repudiated.

3. THE ROLE OF THE MAIN ALTAR

The altar is nearly always called the table:19 "...the altar or Lord's table, which is the center of the whole eucharistic liturgy..." 20 The altar must now be detached from the back wall so that the priest can walk around it and celebrate Mass facing the people.21 The Instruction states that the altar should be at the center of the assembled faithful, so that their attention is spontaneously drawn to it. Comparing this Article with another, however, seems to exclude outright the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament on the altar where Mass is celebrated.22 This will signal an irreparable dichotomy between the presence of Christ the High Priest in the priest celebrating the Mass and Christ's sacramental Presence. Before, they were one and the same Presence.23

The Instruction recommends that the Blessed Sacrament now be kept in a place apart for private devotion, as though It were some sort of relic. Thus, on entering a church, one's attention will be drawn not to a tabernacle, but to a table stripped bare. Once again, private piety is set up against liturgical piety, and altar is set up against altar.

The Instruction urges that hosts distributed for Communion be ones consecrated at the same Mass. It also recommends consecrating a large wafer,24 so that the priest can share a part of it with the faithful.

It is always the same disparaging attitude towards both the tabernacle and every form of Eucharistic piety outside of Mass. This constitutes a new and violent blow to faith that the Real Presence continues as long as the consecrated Species remain.25

4. THE FORMULAS FOR THE CONSECRATION

The old formula for the Consecration was a sacramental formula, properly speaking, and not merely a narrative. This was shown above by three things:

A. THE TEXT EMPLOYED
The Scripture text was not used word-for-word as the formula for the Consecration in the old Missal. Saint Paul's expression, the Mystery of Faith, was inserted into the text as an immediate expression of the priest's faith in the mystery which the Church makes real through the hierarchical priesthood.
B. TYPOGRAPHY & PUNCTUATION
In the old Missal, a period and a new paragraph separated the words, "Take ye all of this and eat" from the words of the sacramental form, "This is My Body." The period and the new paragraph marked the passage from a merely narrative mode to a sacramental and affirmative mode which is proper to a true sacramental action.
The words of Consecration in the Roman Missal, moreover, were printed in larger type in the center of the page. Often a different color ink was used.
All these things clearly detached the words from a merely historical context, and combined to give the formula of Consecration a proper and autonomous value.

C. THE ANAMNESIS
The Roman Missal added the words "As often as ye shall do these things, ye shall do them in memory of Me" after the formula of Consecration.
This formula referred not merely to remembering Christ or a past event, but to Christ acting in the here and now. It was an invitation to recall not merely His Person or the Last Supper, but to do what He did in the way that He did it.
In the Novus Ordo, the words of Saint Paul, "Do this in memory of Me," will now replace the old formula and be daily proclaimed in the vernacular everywhere. This will inevitably cause hearers to concentrate on the remembrance of Christ as the end of the Eucharistic action, rather than as its beginning. The idea of commemoration will thus soon replace the idea of the Mass as a sacramental action.26
The General Instruction emphasizes the narrative mode further when it describes the Consecration as the Institution Narrative 27 and when it adds that, "in fulfillment of the command received from Christ...the Church keeps his memorial." 28
All this, in short, changes the modus significandi of the words of Consecration, how they show forth the sacramental action taking place. The priest now pronounces the formulas for Consecration as part of an historical narrative, rather than as Christ's representative issuing the affirmative judgment "This is My Body." 29
Furthermore, the people's Memorial Acclamation which immediately follows the Consecration, "Your holy death, we proclaim, O Lord...until you come" introduces the same ambiguity about the Real Presence under the guise of an allusion to the Last Judgment. Without so much as a pause, the people proclaim their expectation of Christ at the end of time, just at the moment when He is substantially present on the altar, as if Christ's real coming will occur only at the end of time, rather than there on the altar itself.
The second optional Memorial Acclamation brings this out even more strongly:
"When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory."
The juxtaposition of entirely different realities, immolation and eating, the Real Presence and Christ's Second Coming, brings ambiguity to a new height.30

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FOOTNOTES  1 - 25               FOOTNOTES   25 -60