June 17, 2021
by Rick Hardy, Pastoral Associate
Tradition!
My father taught me that the Church never changes, and that the Mass is exactly the same all over the world, and that is how we know that the Catholic Church is the one true church.
He also taught me, by example, the importance of making our faith a central part of our life, about how it informs our choices and actions, and how it expresses who we are as individuals and as men (those who are men, that is; he taught my sisters the importance of being Catholic women, too.) My mom taught us prayers and a sense of devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the importance of daily prayer. They were a good team!
But about those points in the first paragraph: none of them are completely true. The Church does change over time. The Mass was not exactly the same all over the world, and it is less so today. And neither of these proves that the Church is the One True Church. The Gospel is the best assurance of this, and form of the Liturgy less so.
I learned to serve Mass in Latin, in the Tridentine form of the Mass (from the Council of Trent, 1545-1563.) The Mass barely changed at all between that time and the mid-1960’s. But before that, there were regional variations. One of the earliest descriptions of what we would call the Mass comes from Justin, Martyr (died in 165), who describes a flow of rites and prayers that we would recognize, but which are very little like the Mass of today.
The Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I), the only Eucharistic Prayer used in the Tridentine Mass, did not exist at the time of Justin, Martyr. It was developed in the 6th century. Today’s Eucharistic Prayer III is the oldest of these prayers, having been composed by St. Hippolytus, who died in about 235, but this prayer was never used during the 400-year span of the Tridentine Mass.
Allowing the Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular (English, our case) is just one of the reforms of Vatican II. The actual flow of the Mass is different from the Tridentine. More importantly, the role of the laity — the Baptized — is far more crucial in the new form. Previously, the priest did everything and said every word in the Mass. If the choir sang the Gloria, the priest nevertheless recited it quietly and then sat down while the music continued. There was no participation on the part of the people that would be described as “active.” Participation was interior, and many people used the time during the Mass for their own personal prayer or even spiritual reading.
The Mass of today (Mass of Paul VI, or “Novus Ordo”) doesn’t really allow for this. We are called to “full, conscious, active” participation. The priest does not say or sing our parts. He does not answer his own greetings or invocations. We complete the various prayers with our “amen” or other responses, and lay people proclaim the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalm texts.
Tradition does not call us to live in the past. Tradition is dynamic, and includes innovation and change. Tradition calls us into the future, while demanding that we remember where we came from.
So, Dad, thanks, forever, for the gift of our Catholic faith — for inviting me (and your other six children) to walk with you in the path of our faith, to grow, with your example, into a Catholic man who believes in what the Church is, and in what it is meant to be.
On the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, and one week before Father’s Day 25 years ago, you presented the Body of Christ to your fellow worshipers at 11:00 Mass at St. Boniface Church in Bay City and less than 12 hours later, you presented yourself before our Creator as you met Christ face to face. We love you and we miss you. Richard M. Hardy, and all our departed dads, pray for us!
