Corpus Christi and the Immutability of the Catholic Mass: Part I
- Fr. Ave Maria
- Jun 24
- 12 min read
There are many things that change in this world. Change is a part of the ephemeral character of the created world, because this earth was not created by God to last forever. Change can involve change for the better or for the worse. Things can improve, become stronger and closer to their ultimate end. But things can also decay and become corrupt. On the other hand, there are things that do not change. We call these things immutable. The most perfect example of immutability is with God Himself. In the book of the prophet Malachias [called Malachi in modern Bibles], it is written:
Ego Dominus et non mutor (I am the Lord and I change not). -Mal 3:6
There are two competing theologies of the sacred liturgy that co-exist in the Catholic Church today. There are those who fall into the first camp, believing that the liturgy must always change and be reformed, in order to become more authentic and speak more relevantly to the contemporary world. The Mass should not be celebrated as it was celebrated 100 years ago, those in this line of reasoning contend, because Catholics today are different than Catholics of the last century, and what they need in today's worship services is different than the needs of our forefathers. Liturgy is not the only thing that the proponents of this theology say must change and evolve with time and the contemporary culture. What applies to liturgical worship also applies to dogma and to the moral teachings of the Catholic Faith. Just because something was wrong (or even considered to be mortally sinful just 80 years ago, and even for the entire history of the Church up until then), does not mean that we should consider it sinful today. After all, with the advances in modern psychology, and the allegedly deeper understanding of human nature and of the human condition that came with these new psychological insights, we can be much more understanding (much more "merciful") today than was the Catholic Church in the past.
This understanding of change in dogma, morality, and the sacred liturgy is contrasted with the second way of looking at our Catholic Faith. This is the way that is still professed in traditional Catholicism, because the traditional movement is one of conservation of the past, and not rupture therefrom. The traditional understanding of the liturgy of the Mass and the Sacraments (and of Catholic dogma and morality as well) is that, if something was true and considered to be holy by the Church in the past and for a stable period of time, then it cannot be all of a sudden deemed inappropriate (or even harmful) to the faithful today. This position was maintained by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 letter issued Motu Proprio (by his own authority as Vicar of Christ) called Summorum Pontificum. In the explanatory letter written to Bishops to accompany that document, the Sovereign Pontiff wrote the following:
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.
These two competing theologies of the sacred liturgy reflect two diametrically opposed views on the Catholic Faith is general. The first view (which is that of modernism, and was condemned by the Church, especially under the Pontificate of Pope St. Pius X) maintains that the liturgy must always change and evolve; whereas the latter maintains that the liturgy must remain faithful to itself and bring about a change in the faithful, not in itself — because Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever; because "He is the Lord and [the Lord] changes not" (Mal. 3:6).
Since we are currently in what used to be the Octave of Corpus Christi and have just contemplated the Eucharistic Mystery in our parishes this past Thursday (or Sunday, where the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is transferred), it would be good to take a look at the above question and examine openly and honestly the liturgical reforms of the past 50-60 years in the Catholic Church. This cannot, of course, all be done in a single post (or even in a few sequential posts), but I would like to begin by laying down some of the foundations in this first article on the subject, on my blog. What follows is a not in any way a denial of the sacramental validity of the contemporary rites in use in the western Catholic Church today. These reflections are simply meant to encourage an attitude of openness and honesty on the part of those who maintain that the radical changes to the Mass after Vatican II were the best thing to have ever happened to the Catholic Church, and that they brought about a true and real springtime of Faith.
The Promise that the Holy Eucharist Would Remain Till the End of Time
On the Thursday after she celebrates the mystery of God as the Holy Trinity, Holy Mother Church turns her gaze to what is undoubtedly the most quintessentially Catholic of all devotions: Corpus Christi, the mystery of the Most Blessed Sacrament. While many dioceses around the world transfer the solemn feast of Corpus Christi to the following Sunday, there are still some places where the feast is preserved on its proper day: the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. And of course the calendar of the Traditional Mass preserves the feast day on its proper day of Thursday. It is by no means a coincidence that Corpus Christi always fell on a Thursday (Feria Quinta, according to the traditional Catholic nomenclature: the 5th day of the week — the week beginning, of course, on Sunday, the Day of the Resurrection), because it was on a Thursday that the institution of the Blessed Sacrament and the Catholic Mass occurred.
Before His Ascension into Heaven, Our Lord promised His disciples that He would not abandon them or leave them orphans. Just before ascending to His rightful place at the right hand of His Eternal Father in glory, Our Lord said the following words to His Apostles:
All power is given to Me in Heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the world (Mt. 28:18-20).
In these closing words of the Gospel of St. Matthew, Our Lord invokes the power that He has to give the Apostles the mission of baptizing and converting all peoples to the Catholic Faith. He then gives them a promise, also associated with His divine power. The promise is one of Presence: a Perpetual Presence that would remain with the Church that He Himself founded, and that would be preserved until the very end of time. This promise would be fulfilled, of course, by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Church at Pentecost, for the Holy Ghost is indeed the presence of both the Father and the Son's Spirit in the world. But Our Lord's promise would also be fulfilled in the mystery that the Church celebrates every year just after Pentecost and Trinity Sunday: Corpus Christi.
The sacramental (and real, not just symbolic) Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist is the fulfilment of that great promise. And we can be consoled by the fact that, whatever happens in the course of human history and time, the Eucharistic Presence of Our Lord will never depart from His Church. In fact, it is that same Presence of the Blessed Sacrament that would become for the Christian faithful one of the clearest signs as to where the True Church founded by Christ really is. Just as Catholic theology makes the bold claim, Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia ("Where there is Peter, there is the Church"), it could just as truthfully be declared: Ubi Eucharistia, ibi Ecclesia ("Where there is the Eucharist, there is the Church” — the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ upon Peter, the Rock). The presence of the Holy Eucharist is the most perfect sign of the Church that Christ founded.
The Church's Sollicitude for the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass
The Catholic Church has always treated the Blessed Sacrament with the utmost reverence and respect that Our Lord deserves. Traditionally, every prayer, every gesture, and every single action that takes place at the Altar during Holy Mass has been carefully scrutinized and ordered with a wisdom that can only be characterized as divine. Nothing is left to chance, or to the personal whims and fancies of the celebrating priest when it comes to the rituals of the Holy Mass. And while there have always been a small number of options from which the priest can choose (for example, in regard to Votive Masses), these have always been carefully regulated and
wisely set forth in advance by Holy Mother Church. Every gesture of the hands, every sign of the Cross, every raising up of the priest's eyes to the Crucifix above the Altar, has been carefully standardized and regulated by the Church in the rubrics of the sacred liturgy, which are always written in the Altar Missal in red print, whereas the words that the priest says are in black (This is where the well-known liturgical expression comes from: "Say the black and do the red"). And if a priest were to deliberately depart from the prescribed rubrics and "do his own thing," the Church has always taught that this would constitute a serious sin (mortal or venial, depending on the nature of the change made by the priest). The reason for this is clear: the sacred liturgy of the Mass is not the property of any one particular priest or even bishop; the sacred liturgy belongs to Christ and is confided to the solicitous care of Holy Mother Church.
Why does the Catholic Church have such a seemingly obsessive attitude when it comes to regulating the rubrics of the Mass and of the Sacraments in general? Firstly, because the lay faithful have the right to assist at a Mass that is celebrated in accordance with the proper liturgical norms laid down by the Catholic Church. A priest who simply "does his own thing" is violating this fundamental right of Christ's faithful ones. But even more profoundly, the reason why the Catholic Church insists that her priests offer Mass and the Sacraments in strict accordance with the rubrics and liturgical norms established by the Church is because of an ancient liturgical idiom that has often been highlighted in the traditional Catholic movement of recent decades. Lex orandi, lex credendi: the law of praying [reflects and determines] the law of believing. This means that the sacred liturgy is a conveyer of theology and of the true Catholic Faith. The way in which we pray — and the words we use when we pray — express what we believe as Catholics. Change the gestures or the words of the prayers, and you risk changing the faith of believers.
A single gesture such as genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament present on the Altar after the Consecration says, "It is truly the presence of Our Lord" more powerfully than all the preaching on the Real Presence ever could. The simple fact of kneeling and receiving Holy Communion on the tongue conveys the sacredness and holiness of Christ's Real Presence more eloquently than a theological work or Eucharistic Conference ever could. This is why the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ guards jealously and regulates precisely everything that is said and done at Holy Mass: and not just by the priest but also by the deacon, subdeacon, acolytes, and the entire congregation as well.
Sadly, in modern times, this attitude of profound reverence for the sacredness inherent to the liturgy of the Catholic Mass has been compromised and undermined. Beginning in the mid-1950s and reaching its climax in the liturgical revolution of the 1960s and '70s, the spirit of novelty and liturgical subjectivity achieved a veritable coup d'état within the Catholic Church. A small, seemingly anodine gesture by Pope John XXIII in 1962 is often seen as the catalyst that launched the spirit of liturgical novelty in the Church's most sacred act of divine worship: the Catholic Mass. In that year, the Pope added to the Roman Canon of the Mass the name of St. Joseph, immediately after that of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Now this action is not at all a heretical action in any way. Of course it is good to have more honour given to the Most Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But the problem was the symbolic significance of such an action.
For 1362 years, the Roman Canon remained unchanged. No pope had dared to alter what the sacred Tradition of the Church had handed down to the faithful for almost one-and-a-half Millenia. Besides, it is not as if the Church was ignorant of the absolutely unique role that the spouse of the Blessed Virgin and foster-father of the Holy Family had in God's eternal plan of salvation, and suddenly discovered this truth almost 1400 years later! The problem was of a symbolic nature. No pope had dared to change the Roman Canon until 1962 because such a change would imply that the sacred liturgy of Holy Mass was the property of the Vicar of Christ and that he could modify it at will. Thus the venerable Roman Canon (or "First Eucharistic Prayer," as it is often called today) knew of no change from the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great (600 AD) until the addition of St. Joseph's name by John XXIII in 1962. The precedent had henceforth been set. The Roman Canon was, from that moment on, no longer considered to be untouchable by a Pope; and the massive changes that would soon follow (not just changes to the Eucharistic Prayer but to the entire Catholic Mass) would affirm that the liturgy of the Holy Mass was no longer considered to be sacrosanct. This goes against what even Popes had always known to be true up until that point. For example, it is said that, when Blessed Pope Pius IX was presented the case of inserting the name of St. Joseph into the Roman Canon in the latter half of the 19ᵗʰ century, he piously [sic!] responded, "I cannot do that: I'm only the Pope, you know." Pope Pius IX knew that the Pope's power, even over the sacred liturgy, was not absolute, and that he was called, as the Vicar of Christ, to be the first and more ardent guardian of the Catholic liturgical tradition.
Volumes of ink (both real and virtual, on paper and recently through electronic media) have been written to either defend or criticize the massive changes to the Catholic Mass that occurred between 1962 and the advent of the new liturgy in 1969. But whatever position one takes on the complete overhauling of the Catholic rites of divine worship, one objectively verifiable truth is undeniable: what was considered to be holy and untouchable for almost 1500 year by the Catholic Church suddenly ceased to be thought of as such, beginning in the mid-20th century. The unchangeable could now be changed; the immutable could henceforth be mutated... and all this, at the simple will of the Roman Pontiff.
This attitude reached its climax with Pope Francis I (2013-2025 AD). A liturgical form of worship that was considered by the Catholic Church to be the sole, veritable expression of the Roman Rite for over 1500 years was declared by Pope Francis to not even be a legitimate, alternative expression of the Roman Rite alongside the modern Novus Ordo. Henceforth, only the Novus Ordo (New Order of Mass as promulgated by Pope Paul VI) was to be considered a valid expression of the Roman Rite. Thus, what was the only true way in which Roman Rite Catholics worshipped for one-and-a-half millenia was suddenly declared by a Pope to not even be a legitimate way of worshipping God at all, if you are a Roman Catholic. Hence, the Pope sought to completely suppress the traditional form of the Roman Mass, the only form of the Mass known to Roman Rite Catholics from the time of Pope Gregory the Great (600 AD) until the inauguration of the New Order of Mass in Advent of 1969. When the immutable becomes changeable, this is what results.
Conclusion
This ends the first part of what I hope will become a series of reflections on Corpus Christi and the Catholic Mass. The goal of these reflections is not to incite anger or bitterness on the part of the faithful for the rich treasures that have been lost in our rich, Catholic liturgical tradition in the Church in the West over the last half-century, but to give you, Christ's faithful, a deeper sense of how profound the Catholic Faith really is.
Until 1955, when it was abolished from the liturgical calendar, the Catholic Church celebrated the great Octave of Corpus Christi for eight consecutive days. The last day of the Octave ended on the day before the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Thus, in her divine wisdom, Holy Mother Church was showing the Catholic faithful in a very clear way that the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is the perfect manifestation of love of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus! The feast of Corpus Christi leading straight to the feast of the Sacred Heart was, in fact, a confirmation of the absolutely perfect union between these two quintessentially Catholic devotions. The Most Blessed Sacrament is the Sacrament of Divine Love. And the fact that both these devotions (Eucharistic Adoration and devotion to the Sacred Heart) both call forth reparation on the part of the faithful is another wonderful sign from Heaven that reparation and love always go hand in hand. In a future blog post, I will explore why it is that this is so.
