By their fruits…
The terrific Pat Archbold has the latest in a series of interviews with old-school Catholic and freedom fighter, Ann Barnhardt. In it she makes two ‘transformational’ (as the Left likes to say) points about the Mass. One regarding Vatican motivations, so alive once again in this seemingly sinister Francis Era; and the other about grace.
Before there can be any discussion of the Novus Ordo the concepts of “validity” and “licitness” must be understood. If a Mass is INVALID, Our Lord does NOT come down on the altar, the Eucharist is NOT confected and the Holy Sacrifice is NOT offered. If a Mass is ILLICIT, the Eucharist is confected and Our Lord does come, but He is, depending on the severity of the infraction and motivation of the malefactor, in a range from displeased to very, very angry. But with whom is He angry? According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Our Lord is angry not only with the priest, but also with the PEOPLE who tolerate and embrace the liturgical faults and crimes of the clergy. In fact, St. Thomas said that people who consent to liturgical abuse do not “obtain the reality of the sacrament”.
“Sometimes the one celebrating the sacraments differently [than prescribed] does not vary those things that are essential to the sacrament [i.e., the form and matter], and in that case, the sacrament is indeed conferred; but one does not obtain the reality of the sacrament unless the sacrament’s recipient is immune from the fault of the one celebrating it differently.” (In IV Sent., d. 4, q. 3, a. 2, qa. 2, ad 4)
Now, when Thomas says they are not obtaining the “res,” or reality of the Sacrament, he doesn’t mean they are not receiving Jesus really, physically, substantially present in the Eucharist. Oh they absolutely receive our Lord, but not the benefit of receiving Him, not the grace. Rather, as St. Paul says, they eat and drink their own damnation. If one pauses and thinks about the gravity of what the Angelic Doctor said, one quickly realizes how the following statistics are not only possible, but entirely predictable given the Novus Ordo paradigm:
- As of 2001, only 17% of Catholics in the U.S. attended Mass every week, which is, of course, obligatory under pain of mortal sin.
- Of those who attend Mass “regularly”, less than 30% believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. For a non-trivial percentage of the 70% who do not believe in the Real Presence, it is because they have never been told or taught of the Real Presence in any way.
- Among white Catholic Americans, 54% voted for Barack Obama in 2008. That number dropped to a MERE 50% in 2012.
- Among Hispanic Catholic Americans, 72% voted for Obama in 2008, and 75% in 2012.
- In excess of 60% of American Catholics support sodomite “marriage”, and Catholics have consistently “led the way” in polls on this question.
- All over the world, support for and active use of contraception among Catholics is in excess of 90%.
- 55% of American Catholics support abortion in all or most cases.
I agree with Ann and many others that the Church, and the world along with it in our time, is suffering from a lack of Christian grace brought on by the suppression of the Mass. The act of supreme faith and worship is much missed. Although blindingly obvious, without eyes of faith it is impossible to see how much the Mass had elevated civilization, or how much it’s absence has debased it.
The Novus Ordo Masses are mostly valid, but the amount of grace flowing into the people, if what St. Thomas teaches is true, is little to none, not only because so many of them are receiving Holy Communion in unconfessed mortal sin, but also because the only way for an adult to receive the graces flowing from the Novus Ordo is to spend the entirety of the Mass begging God’s mercy and making reparation for the illicit liturgical actions freely chosen by the priest and consented to by the people, and further begging God’s mercy and making reparation for the massively compromised nature of the Novus Ordo itself, created as it was with full malice aforethought by Freemasonic-Communist-sodomite infiltrators of the Church, and again, consented to by the people, who have historically been the last and most strident line of defense against liturgical abuse.
What? Communists infiltrating the Church? That would never happen, right?
Can we at least agree that the only Pope who ever, ever had the hubris to force his own version of the Mass may perhaps have been motivated by something other than a loving faith?
Or are you one of those weak-Jesus Christians who blames the world for the Church?