BpAndre
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Joined: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 126
Location: Chicago, IL.
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 Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:32 pm Post subject: On the Timelessness of the Mass |
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Rather than seek to modify the ancient liturgy, let us immerse ourselves in this great gift of Christ Jesus, and add our prayers and sacrifices to those of the Saints and Martyrs of the Church, who along with the Apostles and Fathers, have gone before us. Let us enjoy the great spiritual graces bestowed upon up by Christ Jesus during the Sacrifice of the Mass, and not be distracted from our true purpose for being there or from being attentive to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, on the altar. Only through prayer and careful study of Scripture, proper instruction and learning the Divine Liturgy, can we all work together to ensure a valid, proper, reverent and licit Sacrifice of the Mass. This great Sacrament, given us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, is a mystery of faith to be approached and received only with the most pious of intentions by the household of God. The Holy Eucharist is not for the curious, nor the causal observer who wishes to merely satisfy their intellectual inquiry, but for the believing members of the Church, who believe and profess the real presence of Christ in the Precious Body and Blood.
“Beware of curious and vain examination of this most profound Sacrament, if you do not wish to be plunged into the depths of doubt. He who scrutinizes its majesty too closely will be overwhelmed by its glory.
God can do more than man can understand. A pious and humble search for truth He will allow, a search that is every ready to learn and that seeks to walk in the reasonable doctrines of the fathers. Blest is the simplicity that leaves the difficult way of dispute and goes forward on the level, firm path of God’s commandments. Many have lost devotion because they wished to search into things beyond them.
Faith is required of you, and a sincere life, not a lofty intellect nor a delving into the mysteries of God. If you neither know nor understand things beneath you, how can you comprehend what is above you? Submit yourself to God and humble reason to faith, and the light of understanding will be given you so far as it is good and necessary for you. Some are gravely tempted concerning faith and the Sacrament but this disturbance is not laid to them but to the enemy.
Be not disturbed, dispute not in your mind, answer not the doubts sent by the devil, but believe the words of God, believe His saints and prophets, and the enemy will flee from you. It is often very profitable for the servant of God to suffer such things. For Satan does not tempt unbelievers and sinners whom he already holds securely, but in many ways he does tempt and trouble the faithful servant.
Go forward, then with sincere and unflinching faith, and with humble reverence approach this Sacrament. Whatever you cannot understand commit to the security of the all-powerful God, who does not deceive you. The man, however, who trusts in himself is deceived. God walks with sincere men, reveals Himself to humble men, enlightens the understanding of pure minds, and hides His grace from the curious and proud.
Human reason is weak and can be deceived. True faith, however, cannot be deceived. All reason and natural science ought to come after faith, not go before it, nor oppose it. For in this most holy and supremely excellent Sacrament, faith and love take precedence and work in a hidden manner. God, eternal, incomprehensible, and infinitely powerful, does great and inscrutable things in heaven and on earth, and there is no searching into His marvelous works. If all the works of God were such that human reason could easily grasp them, they would not be called wonderful or beyond the power of words to tell.”42
Religious Orders are instructed to strictly and reverently pass on to novices and the professed, as well as new deacons and priests, the rubrics and proper way to pray the Divine Liturgy in the appropriate approved Rite. A proper, pious and reverent praying of the Mass is to be offered to God, in addition to the Sacrifice of the Mass itself, and no one should take for granted so great a spiritual privilege.
Many of the prayers of the Mass come to us from earlier liturgical forms and of course from Holy Scripture. It is our precious gift from Christ in that we receive Him in the Eucharist, that we hear Him instructing us in the Gospel, in that we see His eternal nature and continuity from the Old Testament, and we see the praise and worship of Him in Holy places, all in the culmination of the Mass, when Heaven and Earth meet supernaturally, and we join the Heavenly Host at His altar praising His Holy Name. Our incense joins the heavenly incense, our altar joins the heavenly altar, our voices join the never ceasing voices singing, “Holy, holy, holy, is He who was, and is, and is to come”.
The Church Understood Itself As “Catholic” From The Beginning
We know that the term “catholic” is not a denominational description, but the nature of the Church of Christ, meaning that the Church is “universal”, and that in it is the fullness of God’s grace given the faithful at this time. The Church sees itself as such and always have, although some persons, wishing to e Christian yet distance themselves from liturgical worship and the sacraments, seek to identify the term in terms of a denomination, but this is error, as Church history indicates:
“See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.” St. Ignatius, Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2.110 A.D., CCEL.
That the church founded by Christ through His Apostles is the Universal Church, which identifies itself and its faith as “Catholic”, is most profoundly illustrated in the willingness of the faithful laity and clergy of the Church who refused to reject Christ and the Catholic Church, and gave their lives for their faith;
“..this most admirable Polycarp was one, having in our own times been an apostolic and prophetic teacher, and bishop of the Catholic Church which is in Smyrna. For every word that went out of his mouth either has been or shall yet be accomplished.” The Martyrdom of Polycarp, 16:2 155 A.D., CCEL.
The Church Understands Itself As “Catholic” Today, And For All Time
The Church continues to understand that the essential components must be present to be Catholic, and that the Church must continue to maintain its Catholicity. The early American Church expressed this understanding this way:
“Seven times the whole church was represented in council to uphold the purity of faith, spread over the world, taught alike in East and West. There was only One Church ruling the world. It was the time of Undivided Christendom. At that time nobody in search of the true Catholic Church could be perplexed or doubtful. The Church was like a city on the top of a mountain, visible everywhere. You could not mistake her, you had no choice, there was no rival… This state of things continued till the great schism between East and West…
What was Catholic once must be forever. The Catholicity of the East was recognized by the West before the latter separated. But the East did not change since, consequently, its Catholicity is unassailable, as it represents the faith of Undivided Christendom, to which every Christian is bound to return, if he does not already belong to it… This is our Christian Catholic standpoint, our platform. (Our) Church is the true Church (instituted by Christ) in the West…
There is only One Church which teaches all things whatsoever Christ has commanded (and) to this church He commands to convert mankind. ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations’, and His command is of the most pressing nature, as He himself shows in the parable of the great supper. The master not only invites his friends and acquaintances, but sends his servant ‘into the highways and hedges’ and tells him ‘compel them to come in’ (Luke 14,23). Apparently He means to continue its endeavors to bring safely home the poor wandered lost in the wilderness of unbelief, doubt, heresy and schism. The true shepherd ‘goeth into the mountains, and seeketh the sheep which is gone astray.’ He does not stand with folded arms, unconcerned about its fate, coolly waiting for its return, and ready not to shut the gate in its face. The true shepherd in search of the lost sheep does not ask whether he would perhaps ‘would the sensibilities’ of the stray sheep. He knows that the sheep is not on the right way, and consequently he thinks it his duty to call back the poor wanderer, however unwilling the latter may be.
Jesus Christ, our true Shepherd (…), went on preaching in spite of all resistance, persecution and scorn till they nailed Him to the cross… He will protect His church and ward off the dangers threatening her within and without… The gates of hell shall not prevail against (her).
While this is our belief, we desire to force no man’s assent. Let every human being follow the light of his own conscience. For it is our absolute conviction it is only by so doing he can please the Great Giver of reason. We want freedom to worship God, but we demand equal freedom for our fellow men to worship or abstain from worship, to believe or to disbelieve. In other words, not mere tolerance but perfect liberty for one and all – the believer, the unbeliever, the Catholic, the agnostic, Jew, Turk and Hindu, Parsee and Buddhist, persuaded that if not in this life, then in a life to come, at some time, the TRUTH shall be so presented to the intellect that every rational soul ‘shall receive the truth, and the truth shall set him free’ (John 8,21).”43
[cited from the official catechism of the Catholic Apostolic National Church]
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Bishop Andre' Jhohn-William Queen, SCR
Vicar General
Catholic Apostolic National Church
Phone: 773.942.4660 |
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