Tradition from the Catholic Viewpoint – III
by Barbara A. Schoeneberger, M.A.
This final expansion of Dr. D. Q. McInerny’s article "Tradition" which appeaerd in our September 1999 Una Voce newsletter focuses on our Eucharistic Celebration as Sacrament, Sacrifice, and Sacred Banquet.
Dr. McInerny: "The contents of any given tradition can be passed on with varying degrees of success, and good success in this effort depends on the attitude of those in whom the tradition has been chiefly entrusted. The transmitters of a tradition must be marked by an overriding sense of loyalty to it. They must see it as their solemn obligation to pass on the tradition precisely as they have received it. This of course entails their being unqualifiedly dedicated to the preservation of the tradition in its full integrity. Their own integrity is directly linked to their ability to maintain the integrity of the tradition. The conscious abandonment of the tradition on their part would constitute a betrayal of the society it represents.
Our chief transmitter of tradition is the Pope and the bishops in communion with him (the Magisterium). The priests who have been empowered by their bishops are also transmitters of tradition, as are baptized Catholics, all of whom are obligated to know and understand their faith and to evangelize.
The doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the central traditional teaching of the Church. Pope John Paul II in Dominicae Caenae (2/24/80) gives us the ageless truth: speaking of the events of the Last Supper, "The Church was founded, as the new community of the People of God, in the apostolic community of those Twelve who, at the last Supper, became partakers of the body and blood of the Lord under the species of bread and wine. Christ had said to them: ‘Take and eat…Take and drink.’ And carrying out this command of His, they entered for the first time into sacramental communion with the Son of God, a communion that is a pledge of eternal life. From that moment until the end of time, the Church is being built up through that same communion with the Son of God, a communion which is a pledge of the eternal Passover.
"…we must always and everywhere preserve this meaning and this dimension of the sacramental encounter and intimacy with Christ. It is precisely these elements which constitute the very substance of eucharistic worship. The meaning of the truth expounded above in no way diminishes – in fact, it facilitates – the eucharistic character of spiritual drawing together and union between the people who share in the sacrifice, which then in Communion becomes for them the banquet (emphasis added)…The Church is brought into being when, in that fraternal union and communion, we celebrate the sacrifice of the cross of Christ, when we proclaim ‘the Lord’s death until he comes,’ and later, when, being deeply compenetrated with the mystery of our salvation, we approach as a community the table of the Lord, in order to be nourished there, in a sacramental manner, by the fruits of the Holy Sacrifice of propitiation. Therefore in eucharistic Communion we receive Christ, Christ Himself; and our union with Him, which is a gift and a grace for each individual, brings it about that in Him we are also associated in the unity of His body which is the Church." (#4)
We see in our Traditional Mass the unequivocal exposition of the truth our Holy Father is faithfully passing on. First comes the sacrifice, then the sacred banquet. Grace is individually received according to our individual disposition. Our unity is a spiritual unity nourished by the individual graces received in Holy Communion. From this flows our Christian charity, our desire to do penance and ask forgiveness for doing wrong to others, our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others. This is traditional Catholic teaching.
Dr. McInerny: "The value of any tradition depends directly on the value of its contents, and its centrality to the society to which it pertains. The greater the value of the contents of a tradition, the greater the obligation to preserve them from corruption. The contents of some traditions are so valuable, and the traditions themselves so inextricably a part of the societies to which they pertain, that if those contents were to be seriously compromised, the survival of the societies themselves would be jeopardized. This is preeminently the case with regard to sacred tradition and its relation to the Catholic Church."
In our central tradition of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the value is the infinite value of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, dual in nature (God-man) and one in Person. Today, in spite of the integrity of the Holy Father’s writing, we have serious compromising of the Church teaching on the Eucharist at the level of some bishops and priests. Their conscious abandonment of tradition betrays the Mystical Body of Christ. In Novus Ordo celebrations some priests and bishops gratuitously and illegally change words, add words, change rubrics, add actions, and in so doing, change meaning. So serious is this corruption of the Mass in America that only 30% of Catholics attend Mass. Of that 30%, over 60% do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ. This means that they are receiving the Body of Christ unworthily. That is, without faith in a fundamental Church doctrine. Of that 30%, all too many miss Mass on Sundays regularly, an unhappy situation which prompted the Holy Father to issue the apostolic letter Dies Domini last year. We have cause to be gravely concerned that the survival of the Catholic Church in America is therefore seriously jeopardized. One no less than Father John Hardon, S.J. said as much when he stated outright that many dioceses in the United States will cease to exist.
Una Voce – Springfield Area is dedicated to the preservation of Catholic Tradition, especially the Traditional Mass and the universal Church sacred language, Latin. As Catholics, we have been entrusted with our sacred tradition by virtue of being baptized into the Mystical Body of Christ. If we are to live up to our calling, to live according to the traditional teachings of the Church, we must know them intimately and share them with others. Thus we fulfill the exhortation of the fathers of Vatican II regarding evangelization, we pass on the tradition as we have received it from Christ and the Apostles through the Magisterium, and we maintain our integrity without which we cannot enter heaven. XXX