Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness - Introduction

Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness is a timely work of Peter Kwasniewski's that deserves attention in recent times, especially with the vicious attack on tradition by our ecclesiastical hierarchy. Martin Mosebach begins the book with an introduction commenting on the issues at play in the current discussion of the liturgical "reform" (or rather malform) that has been brought about by the effects of Vatican II and how they have deteriorated the Western Catholic mode of thought and appreciation for beauty. I am a Byzantine Catholic. Why am I so interested in the deterioration of Western Rite Catholicism? I am interested in the deterioration of Western Rite Catholicism primarily because as a Catholic, if the West can suicide its own tradition as it has done in the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st century, what stops the Western hierarchy from doing this to the East? Indeed, even my own bishop has decided to take cues from the Western bishops when it comes to how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic specifically. We do not want to be governed according to Western precepts if the West has decided to suicide its own tradition!

This collapse in appreciation for the beauty of the Church's liturgy has become among the downsides of the reforms of Paul VI. Vatican II brought about numerous reforms (or malforms) to the Church which were already in the making but hadn't touched the core essence of the liturgy quite yet. It was in this context that the liberals would first strike at the principal concept uniting Christians together. The core of our prayer life in the liturgy was assaulted. No longer was there a sacrificial offering. Churches became bland and devoid of life. The liturgy became a mode of communion between individuals rather than a sacrificial communal meal tying Christians together. Thus, Martin Mosebach comments in the introduction, "The Church, unrestrainedly pushing ahead with her revolution, continued to lose both attractiveness and retentive capacity." (xiv) I would dispute that the Church was the one that went ahead with this revolution though. I would state it was the members of the Church that tried to cut the Church into pieces and instead became persecutors of the Church instead!

One of the common themes of the Novus Ordo is that the priest frequently faces the people. This reduces the liturgy to a virtual interaction between priest, whereas a liturgy is meant to bring the congregation's proper focus on Christ. "Klaus Gamber...had given the scholarly proof that in no period of the Church's history had the liturgical sacrifice been made facing the people instead of facing East, together with the people, to the returning Lord." (xviii) This Eastward direction was intended to emphasize that Christ is coming in the East. He will return from the East. The Holy Prophet Malachi refers to Christ as the Sun of Righteousness. The Sun rises in the East. There is an inherently Eastward emphasis in Messianic theology in the Jewish literature which as a consequence, extends into the Christian literature. To create a "liturgy" in which priest and people face each other is to turn the liturgy from a sacrificial offering to God to a communication among believers. Such an act deteriorates the liturgy.

One of the things that is cut out in the Novus Ordo typically tends to be the order of consecration. The Traditional Latin Mass, much like the Byzantine Liturgy, is divided into the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful. The Mass of the Catechumens is where the Gospel is read, shortly afterward, the catechumens are dismissed for the catechumens, remaining uncleansed by their lack of baptism, are unfit to observe the sacrifice of the Mass which occurs during the Mass of the faithful. Nicholas Cabasilas, commenting on the order of consecration during the Byzantine Liturgy, makes this argument in defense of the Byzantine order of consecration. In his day, there were Latins attempting to minimalize the consecration of the Eucharist, claiming that after the words, "take and eat", the Eucharist was fully consecrated already (A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, 29). There was a certain strain of Latins already abusing the faith of both East and West, minimalizing these prayers. "Who does not know that is the death of Christ alone which has brought remission of sins to the world? But we also know that even after his death faith, penitence, confession, and the prayer of the priest are necessary, and a man cannot receive remission of sins unless he has been through these processes. ... To follow the innovations of these men would inevitably mean the total destruction of Christianity." (29)

Cabasilas's harsh words to these Latins may offend some Latin Catholics, but it is important to note he only references a strain of thought developing in certain Latins. A strain of thought that Kwasniewski will take issues with. Martin Mosebach, in his foreward to Kwasniewski's book makes note of the consecrations in various different rites (Noble Beauty, xxi-xxii). Cabasilas, though commenting on the Byzantine Liturgy, has already shown the commonality between the Byzantine and Latin Liturgies (A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, 30), something that I have seen many apologists for the Novus Ordo try to claim for the Novus Ordo. Their argument is only in the position that the Novus Ordo is in the vernacular. The vernacular will be brought up later though Mosebach has a grim statement to make about the universal return to Latin. It may be that the vernacular is here to stay. I can see arguments for both the vernacular and a universal language so I won't comment further until I get to that section in this series, but the proponents of the Novus Ordo who try to compare the Byzantine Liturgy to the Novus Ordo never address the ad orientem position of the clergy nor do they address the lack of consecrations in the Novus Ordo. Indeed, that the consecrations are only deemed "optional" in the Novus Ordo ends up separating those Catholic defenders of it from the main body of the whole of Tradition already. They ignore the warnings given by Cabasilas and they have distorted the Divine Liturgy by insisting that consecrations are not necessary. Both are an attack on the essence of the Catholic faith. With these statements, Martin Mosebach calls us back to our Catholic tradition in the Divine Liturgy and in the Mass of our ancestors.