Hope and Transformation
        Commentary on Encyclical, Spe Salvi, part 1
        Also: Notes on the Latin Mass
Saturday, December 1 and Sunday December 2, 2007; 1st Sunday of Advent, Year A
Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish, Sterling Heights

Hope brings forth worthy fruits, and transforms the life of man on earth. This is the message of Jesus the Lord, this is the message of Advent, and, happily, this is the message of the new encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI which he promulgated Friday, Spe Salvi. And so tonight I wish to talk about hope, and begin what I hope becomes a long commentary on the Pope’s encyclical. [English Mass: go to ‘Continue here…’ below, p. 2]

At the Latin Mass, only this section:

Yes, we have many things to talk about tonight. Not least of all is the fact that a transformation has happened in this parish, with tonight’s first Sunday Mass in Latin; and so what is old, indeed ancient, is now also new. And the Church is ever ancient and forever young. So tonight I propose a series of points, and you’ll have to forgive me if they don’t all flow into one single message. Some points have to do with the Latin Mass, and others have to do with the message of hope, of great importance for Advent of 2008.

Let us begin, then, in order, and point out some things regarding the Latin Mass, namely: The Use of Latin, the priest facing East, communion, and the Tridentine Mass.

Why Latin? Latin isn’t just the language of Latium, the geographical region surrounding ancient Rome, but it is the Catholic language. Pope John XXIII wrote about Latin (Veterum Sapientiae, cf.), and in one spot quoted Pius XI who stated: “For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure to the end of time ... of its very nature requires a language which is universal, immutable, and non-vernacular.” And this language, the Pope said, is Latin. As our current Pope, Benedict, said that God in his Providence sent Christianity through the Greeks, and permanently associated Greek philosophical concepts (substance, person, matter, form, and much more) to the true teachings of the One Church, so too Pope John XXIII said that by, God’s Providence, He associated Latin to the language of the Church and her Liturgy, for the heart of the Church is in Rome where Peter, by which I mean the Pope, dwells.

You will notice that the priest in today’s Mass is not facing the congregation. We say he is facing the “Liturgical East.” Following the ancient custom of the Jews to pray towards the East, for two millennia the Catholic Church has celebrated in this direction: and not just the people, the priest, too. Once someone said to me, “Father, why did you celebrate Mass with your back to the people.” So I responded, like a good Irishman, to the question with a question: “Where did you sit at Mass today, how many pews from the front?” “Three,” she answered. “Why did you attend Mass with your back to the people in rows four through fifty?” The priest has his back to no one any more than you do. But the faithful with the priest pray together to God. And as Jesus is the “light that comes into the world,” the “Sun of Justice,” our Churches are always meant to face the light. In the Scriptures, Ezekiel indeed says that “the glory of the God of Israel” arise in the East (cf. Ezek 43:2,4), and other scriptural passages are similar. The position similarly reminds us that the Mass is not about the priest, but about God. It is His face, not the man who unworthily fills the office of the priesthood, but indeed the face of God which we all long to contemplate.

Communion will be at the rail today, and only on the tongue – happily, a wise custom already practiced in this parish – and the kneelers are disposed in such a way to serve as a communion rail. So fill the rail from end to end, and the priest will come to each one for communion. This is a preparation for the Tridentine Mass which will start in about two months, preceded by some classes offered freely to all who wish to attend as a form of preparation. For great is the Tridentine Mass, and especially powerful to raise souls to great heights of sanctity.

That said about the Latin Mass, let us now focus on some thoughts, even if very briefly, to nourish your spiritual lives during your prayer and meditation this week. And for this, I turn to the Pope’s encyclical.

Continue here at both Masses

The Pope published Spe Salvi just this Friday, the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, brother of St. Peter, who died with hope in God crucified on an X shaped cross. It is nearest to his feast day when the first Sunday of Advent is established, and so since he is the first disciple and the first apostle, we have come to associate beginnings to him. And the new liturgical year 2007-2008 in fact begins today (cycle A).

Spe Salvi’s English translation on the internet has many grave defects, but if you wade through it you will certainly reap enough fruit to grow more effectively in holiness, so I encourage you all to go to the Vatican Web site and read it. [At Latin Mass: Choose the two quotes below and briefly comment them. Let me briefly comment two quotes from the first three paragraphs of the Encyclical.]

This only for the English Mass:

The passages I quote here are my own translation from the official Latin.

The Pope starts out by quoting St. Paul, ““‘SPE SALVI facti sumus’— says Saint Paul to the Romans, and also to us (Rom 8:24). ‘Redemption,’ salvation in the Christian faith, is not a mere concept.”

We have a strange diversity today in the Church. Some, who are activists, condemn dogma and doctrine, and say, in error, that their faith has nothing to do with propositions. This is wrong; we live our faith by assenting to propositions, those which the Church puts before us. Martyrs have died for propositions of faith! Others, who are idealists, reduce their faith only to ideas. So they do plenty of spiritual reading, but little spiritual converting. This too is wrong, for what good is it to have memorized in ten languages, “When I was in prison you visited me,” but fail to visit those who need your attention, your friendship and your help?

This is not to condemn those who arduously read and study their faith. They are a precious few, in fact, and it is a pity that more are not like that. Indeed, some great saints specialize in this contemplation of the truth which comes through study and meditation. Think of Aquinas, Agustine, Irenaeus, John Damascene, Gregory of Nyssa, John of the Cross, and so many other Church Fathers and Doctors. Others pursue their holiness in works of mercy; and others still in detachment and penance. And so not all these three roads (intellectual cultivation of the faith, mercy, and penance) need be pursued by all equally.

But the point here is that we can’t just stop at the idea. Hope is not an idea. Indeed, the Pope, with forceful terminology, asserts, “The Gospel is not only a communication of things which are worthy to be known, but a communication which brings forth deeds and transforms life.”

The Pope gives the example of a Saint who was a slavewoman in Africa in the end of the 1800’s, St. Josephine Bakhita. He narrates the violent abuses, to the point of blood, that makes us, the readers, flinch; and then he narrates how she eventually, in Italy, encountered her true Master, Jesus the Lord. Baptized as an adult, and later a nun, she then went all about proclaiming the truth about this Master. And the Pope says that in finding Jesus, she discovered that “She was known and loved and she was awaited.”

Finish the homily in this way at both Masses:

This is the virtue of hope, hope which is strength, hope which is the same thing as our faith – and therefore Peter could say, “Give reasons for your hope” (1 Pet 3:15) meaning “Give reasons for your faith.” If God knows you, and God loves you, and God awaits you: then all freedom is yours, the freedom of the sons of God, and you can go forth into this world, devoured by an ever increasing black cloud called despair, and do good. When the world loves sin, you go ahead and love grace, and don’t be afraid to be different. When the world hates God and family and marriage and truth and society and morality, then you go ahead in the midst of these things and do great things for God. Furthermore, if you find within your family there are trials too hard for you to overcome, and if you discover that within your own soul you have habits of sin which seem impossible to defeat, remember the Incarnation, that God became man for you, and He is Himself your hope!

Furthermore, don’t keep your hope secret. So many souls, like magnificent flowers, wilt and decay for lack of God in their souls. Pass on the faith as the greatest favor you can do to your neighbor, who otherwise would have no hope. St. Paul speaks of men without Jesus as “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). You have God, you have hope; help your neighbor have God, by which I mean receive and grow in sanctifying grace, and you will give your neighbor a hope they could have never dared aspire to. And in this way, love one another.