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Is the Novus Ordo Mass Valid?
Perhaps no other question is more routinely asked us than this The Novus Ordo Mass is a valid Mass: Jesus Christ is truly present after Transubstantiation under the hands of the priest acting in persona Christi. The Novus Ordo Mass itself is, at least in most places within America (and most of Europe) quite nearly a travesty of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that had been celebrated for 2000 years (and briefly during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI) before that needless novelty we understand as “Vatican II”. It is, too often, nearly blasphemous, and my heart sinks when I think of the shameful things to which Our Blessed Lord is often subjected prior to His coming to us in Holy Communion in such parishes. If you are within a reasonable distance to a Traditional Latin Mass, or are among the fortunate few to have found a Novus Ordo parish with a priestly pastor who clearly understands and exercises the vertical dimension of his vocation (calling his flock to sanctity and to God; not to social justice, correctitude, and other irrelevant absurdities) I earnestly suggest avoiding the Novus Ordo Mass as an impediment, and often even a detriment, to your Faith and your life in Christ. It is such a sad but necessary statement make. However, for all the banality of the Novus Ordo Mass and its conspicuous lack of anything verging on sanctity, it is … at least for the 3-4 minutes when the Sacred Species are Confected into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ … Him, present to us! We must see Him very much as we would have seen Him on the Cross: disfigured, mocked, even unrecognizable within all that surrounds Him! But it is, nevertheless, Him! And for those 3-4 minutes we come face to face with our Lord and our God: we encounter Him … in the crowd that does not know Him or even see Him, He sees us! We must understand ourselves, as it were, as being in the crowd among the Roman soldiers, the Pharisees and the Sadducees; among those who ridicule Him and mock Him, and who would even spit upon Him! That is to say, among those who do not know Him, Who He is, nor whence He is. Those who do know Him there are small in number: Mary His Holy Mother, Mary Magdalen, Saint John, Dismas, Longinus … and although we are not saints, us! Yes, us …. if only because we know Him and see Him in that mindless crowd and in that bitter humiliation that was Calvary and that has become the Novus Ordo Mass. This does not mean that we are saints and that we will go to Heaven. No! It means that we recognize the depths of our sinfulness and our unworthiness even to be counted among those who tormented Christ — for we do no less … each and every time we sin! But still He looks upon us at the moment of Transubstantiation! Just because we recognize Him does not mean that we are worthy of Him! No! But at the very least … we know that He is there, and that He knows that we know that He is there. Find the Tridentine Mass, the Most Holy Mass of 200 centuries, at all costs! But if you cannot because of the wiles of the Evil One and the complicity of evil men at the highest levels in the Church, go to Him where no one else seems to find Him, or even knows that He is there. Sit quietly in your pew and engage in none of the nonsense and noise that would call you away from Him. But when the time of Canon of the Mass comes, and even the most wicked priest cannot change the words of Institution to his own liking — then … then, kneel before our God, and tell Him that you have come for Him, and Him alone. He will know.
Comments? Write us: editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
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