"Ever Ancient, ever New!"

Homily for Matthew 13:44-52 Seventeenth Sunday of the Year July 24th, 2011

We have for the past few Sundays heard many parables from Jesus. Today we continue with more; the buried treasure, the pearl of great price, the net thrown into the sea, and the goods from the storehouse. All of these parables, however, have a common theme—and that is, our relationship with Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ is the Pearl of Great Price.

Jesus concludes His teaching today with a short discussion with His disciples, asking them if they had understood; and they replied they did. Then he adds one more parable- the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” Jesus’ teaching was very much like this, bringing the Old, presenting the Old, with a new perspective. This new prospect certainly invoked many emotions not only in the disciples, but in all of those who heard Jesus words.

Certainly in recent history, our Church has gone through this process of presenting old with a new perspective. In fact, this is exactly why Vatican Council II was called. The Fathers of the Council desired to present the Old with a new perspective, to show the world that the prenial teachings of the Church, which are the teachings of Christ Himself, are ever ancient every new.

Before the Council was held in the mid 60’s the Church knew who she was and what she believed. There was no such thing as an identity crisis. Because of the surety of faith the Church was experiencing, the Fathers of Vat II, wanted to boldly take the truths of our faith and all of its beauty out into confident dialogue with the modern world. In other words, instead of hiding from an ever increasing secularize world, the Church wanted to take its great patrimony of faith and its 2,000 years of human experience and use it to confront the great challenges facing the modern world.

Along with this, the Church wanted to rid itself of a type of Jansenistic harseness that too often had crept into its practices. The best way to describe this harshness is that a few in the church presented the truth of her teachings more with a club, than with the kindness and charity of Christ. I recently read one example of this harshness. It seems the very first catechesis class one person received while in first grade began with the teaching of mortal sin, and how just one unrepentant mortal sin would lead a person to hell. While this is true, it’s definitely not a teaching you want to use to begin teaching a 7-year-old child their faith, you’ll of course scare them to death.

Over the past 40 or so years, the Church has struggled much to try to understand this ideal of Vatican II—this, presenting the old with a new perspective. However, in the last forty years since the council there has arisen the mistaken notion of a pre-Vatican II church and a post-Vatican II church, as if the Church before Vatican II was somehow different because the council “changed” the Church’s teachings, change the nature of the Church herself. The truth is, is that Vatican II changed nothing; the truth is the truth and as such is unchangeable. Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever. And so to with His Church; the Church is the same Church, with the same teachings as before.

Probably nowhere is this confusion of a “new church" brought out more clearly as in the Liturgy, that is in the way we celebrate Holy Mass. After the council, some of the changes in the Liturgy were drastic and were too often changed over night, with out any explanation to the people. Many people were distraught and many left the church never to return. I’ll still meet many people who had gone through those times saying, one Sunday everything was in Latin and the next not a word. The shock was very hard on many people.

Others saw the changes as refreshing, especially with a let up in the Jansenistic harshness as I just described. However, now, many times instead of the truth of the Church’s teachings being taught with a club, they weren’t taught at all. We had only Catholicism light. People were led to believe that the Church’s teachings themself had changed; that the Holy Mass had changed.

In fact, the changes in the Liturgy we seen as proof that the church was evolving and so her teachings where changing as well and so now a person in good conscience could go along with the rest of the world in all things secular and profane. An example of this was in regard to the Church’s teaching on contraception, which many assumed would just automatically change
in light of the rest of the “changes” in the Church. And of course this did not happen, but many, including bishops, priests and theologians decided they would not listen to the Church anyway.

Now forty years after the council, we see the Church coming to look at Vatican II with renewed vigor. The Late John Paul II said many times that Vatican II has still not yet been fully and in some cases, correctly implemented. Pope Benedict has renewed this statement of John Paul. He says that the problem with the documents of Vatican II is that hardly anybody has ever read them. And so, he has called for a return to the Documents of Vatican II, to look at them ever closer, to prayfully study them in order to bring about just what the Holy Spirit was trying to accomplish.

As a result of this beginning to return to the actual documents and a turning away from the so-called “Spirit of Vatican II, we are now beginning to see some changes; especially in the Sacred Liturgy-in the way we “celebrate Holy Mass.” And so, just like the changes in the Sacred Liturgy after the council, recent changes in the Mass can stir up strong emotions. Many are pleased to see a return to the tradition and patrimony of our past. Some have much fear of “Going back.” The fact of the matter is however, is that no one wants to go back. The church is ever new, ever living in the here and now, she is progressive in the real sense of the word. She is ever fresh, and her teaching, because they are the truth of God himself, are ever relevant (The changes that are happing now are more like this, example of an airplane adjusting its course).

When we look at the documents closely, we find that so many of the changes after Vatican II, especially in the liturgy, were not called for by Vatican II. For instance, even though it called for the vernacular to be used in the liturgy, nowhere did the council call for a complete annihilation of all Latin, especially in our songs; or nowhere did it call for the sanctuaries of our beautiful churches to be stripped of things like high altars, stain glass, statues and communion rails. In fact just the opposite was the case, the documents tell us that Latin is to be maintained as part of who we are and were we came from, especially with regards to Gregorian chant; it is to be given “pride of place” in the Sacred Lituryg. The documents also called for the bishops to protect the irreplaceable beautiful art contained in our churches, like the beautiful high altars and commion rails.

When strong emotions occur over the attempt to restore the sacred, to bring back the beauty and transcendent nature of our sacred liturgy, could it be that those who feel these emotions are not so much afraid of a little Latin or incense, but are afraid of the harshness coming back that was sometimes seen in the church before Vatican II. By the way, no one wants the harshness back. No one is attracted to mean priests and mean nuns, although (smile) not all of the racks by the ruler did me much harm.

In light of all that I have said, we must look to our Holy Father, who has the grace from God guaranteed to help us navigate these changes. In fact, I would recommend one of his books call “Spirit of the Liturgy” in order to help understand these changes. This year we will see more changes in the Liturgy as we have discussing, such has a new and more accurate translation of the official language of the Mass, Latin into English. Remember, the Official language of the Mass is still Latin, English is only a translation. In the years to come, we may see additional Masses offered in some places in Latin, but we will not, will not, see current masses in English all changed to Latin; and we will not see the changes implement in the same way as after Vatican II, that is drastic and overnight.

Before the new Missal takes effect this Advent there will be much education in the changes and the reasons for them. Here at St. Patrick’s we will talk about them during homilies; we will offer classes on them; we will “walk” through the Sacred Liturgy, not only to explain the changes but to help you, to help us all, grow in our understanding, appreciation and love of the Sacred Liturgy? Why? So we can participate in it with “full, active, and conscious pariticipation” Why? So we can adore God in spirit and truth, giving Him due glory and entering into union with Him, a union for which we have created; and so we can be fruitful instruments of His grace to lead others into this same eternal union of love; which is the desire of the heart of every man woman and child who ever was, ever is and who ever may be.

In our Holy Mass today, we ask this grace of Jesus- the grace to have Him alone as our only treasure. Let us discover anew the awesome mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our true Treasure, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist; the Holy Eucharist is the Pearl of great price. May we abandon ourselves completely to Him and allow His grace to fill our hearts.

Our Lady of the Holy Eucharist helps us to be aware of the Mystery of the Holy Mass, help us not just to sing and pray at Mass but to sing and pray the Mass; in others words, help us to adore the Blessed Trinity through uniting the offering of our lives to the Sacrifice of Your Son on this Altar to the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. God Bless You!