Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae 4

 

ARTICLE V
We now consider the question of who performs the Sacrifice. In the old rite, these were, in order: Christ, the priest, the Church and the faithful.

1. THE ROLE OF THE FAITHFUL IN THE NEW RITE

In the New Mass, the role attributed to the faithful is autonomous, absolute, and hence completely false. This is obvious not only from the new definition of the Mass ("...the sacred assembly or congregation of the people gathering together..."), but also from the General Instruction's observation that the priest's opening Greeting is meant to convey to the assembled community the "presence" of the Lord:

"Then through his greeting the priest declares to the assembled community that the Lord is present. This greeting and response express the mystery of the gathered Church." 31
Is this the true presence of Christ? Yes, but only a spiritual presence. A mystery of the Church? Certainly, but only insofar as the assembly manifests and asks for Christ's presence.

This new notion is stressed over and over again by:

Obsessive references to the communal character of the Mass.32

The unheard-of distinction between Mass with a Congregation and Mass without a Congregation.33

The description of the Prayer of the Faithful as a part of the Mass where "the people exercising their priestly office, intercede for all humanity." 34 The faithful's "priestly office" is presented equivocally, as if it were autonomous, by omitting to mention that it is subordinated to the priest, who, as consecrated mediator, presents the people's petitions to God during the Canon of the Mass.

The Novus Ordo's Eucharistic Prayer III addresses the following prayers to the Lord:

"From age to age you gather a people to yourself, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name."
The so that in the passage makes it appear that the people, rather than the priest, are the indispensable element in the celebration. Since it is never made clear, even here, who offers the sacrifice, the people themselves appear as possessing autonomous priestly powers.35 From this step, it would not be surprising if, before long, the people were permitted to join with the priest if pronouncing the words of Consecration. Indeed, in some places this has already happened.

2. THE ROLE OF THE PRIEST IN THE NEW RITE

The role of the priest is minimized, changed, and falsified:

In relation to the people, he is now a mere president or brother, rather than the consecrated minister who celebrates Mass "in the person of Christ."

In relation to the Church, the priest is now merely one member among others, someone taken from the people. In its treatment of the invocation to the Holy Ghost in the Eucharistic Prayer (the epiclesis), the General Instruction attributes the petitions anonymously to the Church.36 The priest's part has vanished.

In the new Penitential Rite which begins the Mass, the Confiteor has now become collective; hence the priest is no longer judge, witness and intercessor before God. It is logical therefore that he no longer recites the prayer of absolution which followed it and has now been suppressed. The priest is now "integrated" with his brothers; even the altar boy who serves at a "Mass without a Congregation" calls the priest "brother."

Formerly, the priest's Communion was ritually distinct from the people's Communion. The Novus Ordo suppresses this important distinction. This was the moment when Christ the Eternal High Priest and the priest who acts in the person of Christ came together in closest union and completed the Sacrifice.

Not a word is said, moreover, about the priest's power as "sacrificer," his consecratory action or how as intermediary he brings about the Eucharistic presence. He now appears as nothing more than a Protestant minister.

By abolishing or rendering optional many of the priestly vestments, in some cases only an alb and stole are now required37, the new rite obliterates the priest's conformity to Christ even more. The priest is no longer clothed with Christ's virtues. He is now a mere "graduate" with one or two tokens that barely separate him from the crowd38, "a little more a man than the rest," to quote from a modern Dominican's unintentionally humorous definition.39 Here, as when they set up altar against altar, the reformers separated that which was united: the one Priesthood of Christ from the Word of God.

3. THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN THE NEW RITE

Finally, there is the Church's position in relation to Christ.

In only one instance, in its treatment of the form of the Mass without a Congregation, does the General Instruction admit that the Mass is "the action of Christ and the Church." 40

In the case of Mass with a Congregation, however, the only object the Instruction hints as it "remembering Christ" and sanctifying those present. "The priest celebrant," it says, "...joins the people to himself in offering the sacrifice through Christ in the Spirit to the Father" 41, instead of saying that the people join themselves to Christ who offers Himself through the Holy Ghost to the Father.

In this context, the following points should likewise be noted:

The many grave omissions of the phrase through Christ Our Lord, a formula which guarantees that God will hear the Church's prayers in every age.42

An all-pervading "paschalism", an obsessive emphasis on Easter and the Resurrection, almost as if there were no other aspects of the communication of grace, which, while quite different, are nevertheless equally important.

The strange and dubious "eschatologism", a stress upon Christ's Second Coming and the end of time, whereby the permanent and eternal reality of the communication of grace is reduced to something within the bonds of time. We hear of a people of God on the march, a pilgrim Church, a Church no longer Militant against the powers of darkness, but one which, having lost its link with eternity, marches to a future envisioned in purely temporal terms.

In Eucharistic Prayer IV, the Church, as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, is abased by eliminating the Roman Canon's petition for "…all orthodox believers who keep the Catholic and Apostolic faith." These are now merely "…all who seek you with a sincere heart."

The Memento of the Dead in the Canon, moreover, is offered not as before for those who are gone before us "…with the sign of faith", but merely for "…those who have died in the peace of Christ." To this group, with further detriment to the notion of the Church's unity and visibility, Eucharistic Prayer IV adds the great crowd of "…all the dead whose faith is known to You alone."

None of the three new Eucharistic Prayers, moreover, alludes to a suffering state for those who have died; none allows the priest to make special Mementos for the dead. All this necessarily undermines faith in the propitiatory and redemptive nature of the sacrifice. 43

Everywhere desacralizing omissions debase the mystery of the Church. Above all, the Church's nature as a sacred hierarchy is disregarded. The second part of the new collective Confiteor reduces the Angels and the Saints to anonymity; in the first part, in the person of Saint Michael the Archangel, they have disappeared as witnesses and judges. 44 In the Preface for Eucharistic Prayer II, and this is unprecedented, the various angelic hierarchies have disappeared. Also suppressed, in the third prayer of the old Canon, is the memory of the holy Pontiffs and Martyrs on whom the Church in Rome was founded; without a doubt, these were the saints who handed down the apostolic tradition finally completed under Pope Saint Gregory as the Roman Mass. The prayer after the Our Father, the Libera Nos, now suppresses the mention of the Blessed Virgin, the holy Apostles and all the Saints; their intercession is thus no longer sought, even it times of danger.

Everywhere except in the Roman Canon, the Novus Ordo eliminates not only the names of the Apostles Peter and Paul, founders of the Church in Rome, but also the names of the other Apostles, the foundation and mark of the one and universal Church. This intolerable omission, extending even to the three new Eucharistic Prayers, compromises the unity of the Church.

The New Order of Mass further attacks the dogma of the Communion of Saints by suppressing the blessing and the salutation "The Lord Be with You" when the priest says Mass without a server. It also eliminates the Ite Missa Est, even in Masses celebrated with a server.45

The double Confiteor at the beginning of the Mass showed how the priest, vested as Christ's minister and bowing profoundly, acknowledged himself unworthy of both his sublime mission and the "tremendous mystery" he was to enact. Then, in the prayer Take Away Our Sins, he acknowledged his unworthiness to enter the Holy of Holies, recommending himself with the prayer We Beseech Thee, O Lord to the merits and intercession of the martyrs whose relics were enclosed in the altar. Both prayers have been suppressed. What was said previously about elimination of the two-fold Confiteor and Communion rite is equally relevant here.

The outward setting of the Sacrifice, a sign of its sacred character, has been profaned. See, for example, the new provisions for celebrating Mass outside a church: a simple table, containing neither a consecrated altar-stone nor relics and covered with a single cloth, is allowed to suffice for an altar.46 Here too, all we have said previously in regard to the Real Presence applies, disassociation of the "banquet" and the Sacrifice of the supper from the Real Presence itself.

The process of desacralization is made complete, thanks to the new and grotesque procedure for the Offertory Procession, the reference to ordinary (rather than unleavened) bread, and allowing servers (and even lay people, when receiving Communion under both Species) to handle sacred vessels.47 Then there is the distracting atmosphere created in the church: the ceaseless comings and goings of priest, deacon, subdeacon, cantor, commentator, the priest himself becomes a commentator, constantly encouraged to "explain" what he is about to do, of lectors (men and women), of servers or laymen welcoming people at the door and escorting them to their places, while others carry and sort offerings. And in an era of frenzy for a "return to Scripture," we now find, in contradiction of both the Old Testament and Saint Paul, the presence of a "suitable woman" who for the first time in the Church's history is authorized to proclaim the Scripture readings and "perform other ministries outside the sanctuary." 48 Finally, there is the mania for concelebration, which will ultimately destroy the priest's Eucharistic piety by overshadowing the central figure of Christ, sole priest and Victim, and by dissolving Him into the collective presence of concelebrants.49

 

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