In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
In today’s Gospel Our Lord weeps over Jerusalem, the Holy City and God’s dwelling place among his chosen people during the Old Convenant.
A few days ago the occupant of the Apostolic See, Jorge Maria Bergoglio, has published a Motu Proprio in which he revokes the regulations given out in 2007 by Joseph Ratzinger concerning the celebration of the “Old Mass” in communion with the modernist impostors.
Is this a reason for us to chant a Te Deum?
When Ratzinger published his Motu proprio on 7/7/07, the FSSPX ordered the age-old hymn of thanksgiving to be chanted in all its houses. I was still in SSPX back then, but luckily I only heard of all this much later. That day, a Saturday, had been one of the busiest ever in our mission in Gabon, Africa: two funerals, two weddings over the day, and the same evening I left for my yearly vacation. So I never chanted that Te Deum… and I have said several Te Deums since in thanksgiving for not having chanted that Te Deum.
Put that in contrast with Bp Guérard des Lauriers chanting the Te Deum every day after his Mass during his old age! He had been a competent and eminent theologian in Rome. He had participated in the exact formulation of the dogmatic text on Our Lady’s bodily Assumption into Heaven, proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on November 1st, 1950. He is the one who got to work straight away when Montini/PaulVI published a new rite of Mass on April 3rd, 1969. This study is known as the Ottaviani Intervention because the former Prefect of the Holy Office, together with Card. Bacci, had written and signed a preface for it. Mgr Guérard kept working on the topic of the Mass, leading to an unfinished study, recently published by our Institute, in which he clearly demonstrates that the Montini rite of Mass is invalid in itself. This, in combination with his studies on the situation of the Authority in the Church after Vatican2 and on the question of the episcopate, has led him to conclude that it was legitimate and necessary to continue celebrating the true and unadultered Mass, promulgated by St Pius V and last modified by St Pius X in some of its rubrics. He always spoke of the Mass as the “oblatio munda – the clean oblation”, using the words of the Prophet Malachias (1:11) in the last book of the Old Testament announcing Our Lord’s Sacrifice and its unbloody reenactment in Holy Mass. These words “oblatio munda” are found in several prayers throughout the Roman Missal. Similarly, on his tombstone in Raveau, France, the words are engraved: “Misereor super turbam – Misereor super sacrificium; I have compassion on the multitude (Mk 8:2) – I have compassion on the Sacrifice (of Mass)”. As in all things, Mgr Guérard joined deeds to his words, and therefore every single day he chanted the hymn of thanksgiving after his Mass!
Compare this to all those who have been, and still are messing around with the Church, with her Authority, with her Sacraments. Be it J. Ratzinger who crowned his modernistic dialectical game with the stunning distinction between an ordinary and an extraordinary rite of the Roman Mass, assorted with the historic lie that the Tridentine Mass has never been forbidden or abrogated; be it FSSP who pay lip service to the Vatican2 popes and their “reformed” liturgy, some of them even using it for their celebration; be it SSPX whose recognition of the pope’s authority is purely theoretical, but whose tolerance of the new sacramental rites has shifted further and further to the recognition of their validity, liceity and sanctity (sic!). Let us “let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit” (Mt 15:14). Those who do not truly care about the Truth, in word and deed, stand no chance of making it through the present ambient darkness and disorientation. One cannot replace theology with psychology unpunished.
Therefore, YES, we can chant a Te Deum over the fact that Our Lord intends to enlighten more souls of good will by letting Bergoglio go about his business of putting things upside down. He would be absolutely right if the Church were in order, and if he truly were the Pope: Then of course he would be in charge of the Church, and the local bishops alone would have a say in all things concerning their diocese. But this is not the case, as we know. Therefore, what he is doing, is to throw into further disarray and perplexity the would-be conservatives and traditionalists who in one way or the other recognise him as the true Catholic Pope. And this will certainly be a wake-up call for some among them, as his preposterous actions have been over the past years. Thus God, as usual, draws some good from the evil wrought by men.
But NO, we cannot chant a Te Deum, except with a raucous and sad voice, if we look at so many who hold on to the “Old Mass”, to the “celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman rite” while they care little about the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Some may have good intentions when organising or attending such “Masses”, but they do not even know, or care about the valid ordination of the celebrant.
And our chant becomes even sadder if we consider how many Masses, although valid and non-una-cum Bergoglio, earn so little respect from the faithful attending, and seemingly bear so little fruit for their daily lives.
Here Our Lord weeping over Jerusalem comes in. He is not weeping over “them”, over the modernists, or over the faithful in the next pew… He is weeping over you and your soul if you are in the sad state of knowing far more than many who live in utter darkness – but at the same time your knowledge, and your attendance at the true Mass, your receiving the true Sacraments is superficial, lukewarm and non-committal. If you come and go at Mass as you please… if you kneel or sit as you please… if you receive Holy Communion basically only out of habit, or without any serious preparation and thanksgiving… if you believe that you are entitled to Holy Mass or the Sacraments while you care little about what you give or do in return…
The priest’s heart weeps and bleeds when he witnesses bad habits, bad behavior among those who attend Mass. But the priest has few options or means: If he scolds you, you will move further away still if you are already on the downward path of lukewarmness. So the priest goes on doing what he has to do, praying: “If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace”; hoping against all hope in some cases that the souls will not come to that bitter end: “but now they are hidden from thy eyes” (Lk 19:42); knowing that his sacred actions will bear their fruit, where and when God wills it.
Let us hold on to what Our Lord has granted us to have in these bitter and distressing days. Let us bear worthy fruit of penance, as Our Lord invites us to do in the Gospel, and Our Lady in her many visitations to her children over the centuries. Let us learn to appreciate and to cultivate God’s gifts, let us negotiate with the precious talents which the Good Lord has entrusted to us, so that one day we will not hear the severe voice of the Judge: “Depart from me, you cursed…” but the sweet voice of Our Savior: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom” (cf. Mt 25:41.34).
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski
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