The Aspirin In The Applesauce

 

My family and I found ourselves subjects in an interesting liturgical experiment last night on the Feast of Corpus Christi. 

We attended a Latin Mass last Sunday at a mission chapel while on vacation. The chapel is associated with a larger, multi-cultural parish that offers Masses in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. When we were at the mission chapel on Sunday for High Mass (Trinity Sunday), an announcement was made that the bishop of the diocese gave permission for the Latin Mass to be celebrated in the "mother church" (I don't know what you would call it) that the mission chapel is associated with for the feast of Corpus Christi, and encouraged those in the Latin Mass community to show their support by attending. Since we are here on the Cape until tomorrow, we decided to attend as well.

The church was pretty full, and I'd say it was comprised of one-third Latin Mass people, one-third Spanish parishioners, and one third (Novus Ordo) English. I don't know how many people read the bulletin or were expecting the Mass to be in the Extraordinary Form, but the pastor of the church made an announcement prior to the start of Mass to let them know that "the Mass that your grandparents probably attended, and which has been celebrated largely unchanged for the past five hundred or more years" was what they were going to be witness to this evening. He explained that it was a little more 'precise' in mannerisms, and that no action within the Mass was extraneous or wasted; it all had meaning. Also, that Communion would be given on the tongue and kneeling. 

In any case, there were no protests and no one walked out. I suppose one could be accused of a kind of liturgical "bait and switch", but the congregation were more like docile, curious school children with a new substitute teacher for the day. It was a High Mass, and there weren't enough missals to go around (and, I would think, most would not know how to follow it either if it was it was their first TLM). 

Here's what was neat, though--it just kind of worked. People stood at the correct times when others stood, and knelt when they knelt. It was if the congregation was being catechized by osmosis. The homily was given in both Spanish and English. Despite the different cultures, there seemed to be unity. It was certainly foreign to some people, and I don't know how many were 'turned off,' but it didn't seem to be that way, even if it wasn't what they were expecting. For some, I imagine, it may have been like taking an Into To Liturgy 101 course during freshman year of college--you either have your mind opened up to another world you never knew existed, or you kind of just write your papers and take your tests to get through the class.

It was interesting in the sense that most people I know who attend the Latin Mass search it out, willingly attend and are drawn to the reverence and sense of the sacred. So, it's true it is a kind of "self-selecting" group in that sense. The New Rite, though, seems to have introduced a kind of 'liturgical preferancing' that in a strange twist, makes Traditionalists the ones who are accused of being preferential (for preferring the Latin Mass). 

This was a different population--the majority population of Mass goers of whom the New Mass is all they have ever known. They may even prefer it, or prefer the Mass in their own language, so I wonder if this liturgical "field trip" was unwelcome. But it didn't seem that way, at least from my place in the pews. I give the pastor credit for being willing to do a "Mass of exposure" to those who may not have otherwise knew it existed. We couldn't stay for the Eucharistic procession (it was/ late and the kids were getting rammy), but I would have loved to talk to people over refreshments after Mass to see what they thought. 

It's not likely the Latin Mass will supplant the Novus Ordo as the standard anytime soon given how invested it seems Rome is in the New Rite. And let's be frank: not everyone wants or prefers it. But were it the only option on the menu, I wonder if it would be one of those things where it would be good for the Church, the way a parent gives medicine to their children, or withholds a diet of sugary food for their family, for their long term benefit. How that works in ecclesial policy practice, I do not know. But I give the pastor of this church credit for introducing his culturally diverse congregation, at the very least, to the option for the Mass of the Ages by way of what for some might be their first exposure to it.