The Nature of Sacrifice

 As news has spread of the Holy Father's restrictions of the Latin Mass, increasing numbers of Catholics not familiar with the Extraordinary Form may find themselves wondering, "What is this all about?" These are Catholics who may attend Mass every Sunday at their local parish, may be lectors or Eucharistic Ministers, active on their parish councils, who may have deep prayer lives and are active in service, but who nonetheless are not sure what all the rumblings are about. For the first time in their lives, they may have even gone to their local TLM to see experience it, or even just to see what all the fuss is about.

When I begin a post I usually pick a title for it before I start writing. I landed on The Nature of Sacrifice because it seemed to best encompass the locus of what I want to talk about here. I pulled off a book from our bookshelf, The Latin Mass Explained by Msgr. George J. Moorman, which was one of the first books I read about a year after we began attending Mass in the Extraordinary Form exclusively. True to form, the book begins with the first chapter titled "The Nature of Sacrifice," which lays the groundwork for all the subsequent chapters. Until you understand the centrality of sacrifice, you're missing the forest for the trees when it comes to the usus antiquior.  

I have heard it said from time to time among those who attend the Novus Ordo Missae, that they are there "to receive Jesus" and that it's "all about the Eucharist." And indeed it is. I have also heard others say they go to such and such church to hear Fr. X's "wonderful homilies." Some note that they have a warm community in which they feel welcome and at home. All good things! "All are welcome" as one may have sung in an OCP hymnal.

And yet, the usus antiquior would see such emphases on a communal meal, preaching, or community as ancillary, if not foreign to the locus of the Mass in and of themselves. As Msgr. Moorman notes, "Sacrifice is the highest form of religious worship."  The first five chapters (and part I) of the book details the nature of sacrifice, the sacrifice of the cross, and the sacrifice of the Mass itself before it moves into any further details.

I have often wondered how much the "smells and bells" attracts people to the Extraordinary Form. Certainly some do make the argument that "Beauty will save the world." But beauty flows from the truth of a thing, when it is true to its nature. One could find a beautiful Anglican service replete with incense and chanting, and yet it would betray the truth of this locus, since an Anglican priest has neither right nor faculties to offer such a sacrifice according to God's decrees as understood by the Church Christ founded.

I have also wondered if the "self-selection" of being among more or less "serious" Catholics is a draw, in that "what's old is new." This may play a part as well.

There may be a myriad of other reasons as well. But again, I keep going back to this idea of sacrifice as central to the nature of what draws (and keeps) people to the Latin Mass. Since I write as a man, it is sacrifice which draws a man to worship, and what drew the early Christians to Christ because of the sacrifice of his very self on the Cross. If he had gathered his disciples together around the table to break bread and share his wisdom as a prophet or teacher, this may have stuck until another prophet came along. But Christ paid the ultimate price in propitiation for our sins in heroic sacrifice on the cross, not only as man but God Himself. He conquered death by death, rose from the dead, left us his flesh to eat which was immolated as the divine sacrifice to give us life and sustain us, and sent his Holy Spirit to guide us under apostolic succession. 

To put it more simply--sacrifice draws men, because men know in their hearts that they too are meant to live as a sacrifice: for their wives, their children, their family. When Christ draws men to himself by way of sacrifice, men draw their families with them. And as anyone who has attended or been awed by what takes place during the Mass of Ages can see, the draw is often filled to overflowing.

I would offer to anyone exploring the Latin Mass for the first time to just experience it--don't worry about the missal (I didn't pick one up for about six months). When you are used to an anthropocentric model of worship versus populum, you have to kind of reorient not only your outward posture congruent to the priest ad orientum, but your heart as well. We are here to worship God and to take part in the sacrifice offered. It's not about you, but for you. Thankfully, after a few months, your self-consciousness starts to shed naturally as you enter into what is taking place, and you may even be awash that what is happening doesn't hinge on your participation or feelings (thanks be to God). The priest himself expresses often that he gets to "disappear" as Christ is made present; he gets to do, in a fitting manner, what he was born to do. And you, by extension get to taste, for a brief time, a little bit of heaven on earth.