Haus Jakob

“God doesn’t care about the form, right?” “Only the Pharisees and hypocrites care about the form of prayers and sacrifices.”

Such statements or assumptions oftentimes provide the advocates of the Novus Ordo Missæ or the Mass of 1969 with the last line of defence. Although it could be arrogant and imprudent to assume what God cares or cares not, there are nonetheless some truth in the aforementioned statements. Our merciful Lord did heal the woman with an issue of blood, even though she approached God in an unorthodox manner (Luke 8:43-48). Regardless of the form of the Mass and our office in It, our dispositions decide what fruits we derive from the holy Sacrifice.

However, if God does not care about the forms in which we offer our sacrifices and prayers to Him, why do the books of Moses use a massive amount of space to detail the requests of God for sacrifice? Why did God end the lives of the two sons of Aaron—Nadab and Abiu—right before Him, for a mistake they made while offering sacrifice (Lev. 10:1-2)? Furthermore, why did the Word Incarnate taught us how we should pray (Matt. 6:5-13) and made Himself for us a bloody example of Sacrifice? However important our dispositions and intentions are while offering Mass and prayers, to say the least, God has an interest in the form in which we offer them, and making a mistake or using an erroneous form has been proven deadly.

Moreover, the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) is more than just a form in which the holy Sacrifice of Mass can be offered. As I have argued and proven elsewhere, because of the physical and intellectual expense required for offering the TLM, the Traditional Latin Mass is “the closest representation, we humans can perform to date of the perfect immolation of our Lord Jesus Christ on that cross, at Calvary, which is what a Mass actually is.” In this sense, TLM represents our utmost effort to imitate our Lord in offering the holy Sacrifice in an unbloody manner. It is the best form of Mass we can offer to God throughout human history. From the story of Cain and Abel, we know that God has no respect to the second best, and that God requires and rightfully deserves the very best we can offer to Him (Gen. 4:4-5). Therefore, choosing to celebrate or attend TLM in itself represents the proper dispositions and intentions of a Mass.

Doctrinally, TLM serves as an archive of the orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic doctrines. As an entirety, TLM teaches us that Mass is a Sacrifice of propitiatory nature and moreover is the immolation of our Lord at Calvary. I cannot recall how many times in Beijing where only Novus Ordo Masses are being celebrated, I had to explain the holy Mass to non-Catholics, starting with the aforementioned doctrine, but ending with this sentence: “Unfortunately you cannot see that Mass is a Sacrifice from the New Masses that are celebrated here.” In details, if we read and study the prayers in the ordinary, we will learn about our need for God’s mercy, the intercession of our Lady and all the other saints (e.g. from Communicántes, Nobis quoque peccatóribus and Líbera nos). We will learn about our utter unworthiness (e.g. Percéptio Córporis tui), and we will learn who are the true members of the Catholic and Apostolic Church (“all orthodox believers and professors of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith” in Te ígitur). However, nearly all the aforementioned example prayers have been erased or modified in the Mass of 1969 to obscure the doctrines carried in them.

Therefore, doing “Church-hopping” to find the TLM—the True Mass—may sound trivial, but it can be out of the deepest humility in the sight of God. There is a saying that the “Holy Mass is the sun”. If so, the New Mass is without doubt the smitten and darkened sun described in the Apocalypse (8:12). Whereas the True Mass in Itself is the sun at its brightest and shiniest as it can ever be. We may like or dislike a particular priest or what have been preached in the homilies or the overall atmosphere of a parish, but more importantly we should let God work on our souls simply through the Traditional Liturgies of His one Church. This is why the obsession with TLM is not necessarily superficial, as we need to ensure the form in which the holy Mass is offered is what God deserves and what benefits our own souls.