Peter Kwasniewski's next chapter tackles the question of reverence. Many efforts have been made to push the Novus Ordo into a reverential direction. These efforts are certainly commendable and could do a service in ensuring the survivability of the Novus Ordo, but only if such reforms are not made optional. The core problem here with the Novus Ordo then is not whether it can be reverent but that the Novus Ordo possesses the option to not be reverent. Therein lies the fallacy with the Novus Ordo as it exists today. Bp. Athanasius Schneider himself has proposed different ways to reform the Novus Ordo, all of them are very important for Catholics to consider. These reforms he proposes are the reestablishment of ad orientem priests in the liturgy, the reception of the Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue, not the hand, the reintroduction of the offeratory prayers that indicate the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, the return of the calendar of the Old Rite, and the reintroduction of Latin into the liturgy. (Christus Vincit, 246-256) But wait, doesn't this eventually turn the Novus Ordo into a vernacularized version of the Traditional Latin Mass? Why yes, and that's exactly the point!
"I do not think it is realistic to abolish the Novus Ordo. You cannot accomplish this on such a large scale. We have to restore the constant traditional form of the Mass step by step, in a substantially organic manner. We cannot make another rupture but need to do it organically. Only those things that are absolutely necessary should be imposed in all Catholic churches of the Roman rite by pontifical authority: celebration ad Deum and Communion kneeling and on the tongue." (249)
I would further argue that the addition of the offeratories should be made mandatory as the Eucharist is not just a common meal but a sacrificial offering of the Lord's body. And any one insisting that the Novus Ordo's commitment to receiving the Eucharist standing is an example of its "Eastern" quality is sadly mistaken. In the East, standing is an act of reverence. In the West, kneeling is an act of reverence. In the East, we do not receive the Eucharist on the hand, we receive the Eucharist on the tongue just like the Traditional Latin Mass and not like in the Novus Ordo in which it can only be done by request assuming you currently still have a bishop in good standing with the Catholic faith.
Peter Kwasniewski talks about tradition as guiding us in our lives. Tradition is our culture and tradition is what we inherit. The Latin tradere means "to hand over". Tradition binds us into a culture that we fight to preserve. "Tradition comes to us from above, from God who providentially designed us as social animals who inherit our language, our culture, and our religion; it comes to us from our ancestors...the ones who have gone before." (Noble Beauty, 38) In contrast to tradition are the errors of modernity. Modernity seeks to topple tradition. Modernity is rooted in pride. It is a pride that says, "I know better than my ancestors who came before me!" It is a pride that turns one into a know-it-all and they become consumed with thinking that they have found the answers or that those who came before them fudged it all up. This pride is rooted deeply in the spirit of modern day democracies and it is rooted more deeply in the form of Protestantism. To speak of the adherents of the Old Liturgy as "Protestant" in mentality is not only a slanderous accusation to make but also an egregious fallacy of what Protestantism entails. Protestantism is a rejection of the authority of tradition. Protestantism didn't reject the authority of the Pope, it rejected the authority of tradition which the Pope's authority was rooted in. Protestantism didn't reject the authority of the bishops, it rejected the authority of the Church which the bishops carried their authority in. This golden calf of modern day liberalism, the Enlightenment philosophy, is deeply seeded in American culture and flourishes deeply in American Catholicism. Sometimes I wonder if we as Catholics have forgotten that we are the Church and have embraced the American culture over ecclesiastical culture. Kwasniewski further makes his argument against the Novus Ordo,
"the reformed liturgy, moreover, like modern liberalism itself, exalts choice, spontaneity, and diversity, whereas the historic liturgies of Christianity, both Eastern and Western, present the worshiper with a fully articulated act of worship to which we gratefully yield ourselves, taking on its features as an icon panel receives layer after layer of prescribed color until the beautiful image stands forth." (39)
Here, Kwasniewski has tied the spirit of the liturgical malform in with the spirit of modernist liberalism. It is the spirit of this change that the Neo-Catholic insists is genuinely Catholic, but the emphasis on choice presents him with error. Kwasniewski cites Martin Mosebach, "the very fact that it is possible [to celebrate it reverently] is the weightiest argument against the new liturgy" (45). Mosebach further draws a comparison between this attitude toward the liturgy with an attitude regarding treating a monarch as needing to be competent since it is the monarch's birth from which he draws his legitimacy. Tradition is handed down to us. Tradition is what is in contrast to modernity. Modernism embraces the emphasis of choice. It embraces spontaneity and diversity. Within Christianity, there is room for some diversity, but the limits are drawn with the terms of how and how can not a liturgy be conducted. Christianity is a broad, universal religion, uniting all ethnicities, but it is in the historic tradition of the liturgy that we are united. There are many ancient liturgies that, as Catholics, we celebrate, but they are rooted in the same essence. This rooting is in the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist. This is why we can look at the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and see how strikingly familiar the Liturgy of St. Basil is when we celebrate it. This is why when after looking at that, we can venture into the West and see the melodies of the Gregorian chant yet know that the liturgical pattern is the same. There might be different ways of expressing reverence through kneeling or through standing but the core essence is what unites us together. The Eastward direction of the priest, the liturgy of the catechumens and the liturgy of the faithful, the chanting, the Gospel readings, the offeratories, all of this is the same in both East and West. Only tradition frees us from the errors of Protestantism. Dead authoritarianism leads us to an even duller form of Protestantism than the one we anathematized at the Council of Trent.
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