Archbishop Sample’s Sermon Praising TLM, Criticizing Novus Ordo

Everyone else has done a post on this, I guess I may as well, too.

Actually, given the superlatives I’ve seen lauded on this sermon, I was a trifle disappointed.  It was very good, especially from a prelate in this age of the Church, and something that is very much appreciated, but I guess my expectations had been built up to the point that I thought I was going to get a Wolfe-ian or Rodriguezesque full throated takedown of the Novus Ordo, but that’s not quite what this was.  Still, it was very good.  We’ve known Archbishop Sample has been a strong supporter of the TLM for years, but he makes clear here that he sees the liturgical revolution – or the revolution against the authentic Liturgy – as a serious mistake and something from which the Church must pull back and, in essence, recover.  He also vociferously argues that the TLM is not the domain of an aging, nostalgic remnant but is strongly, one might even say overwhelmingly, the province of the young.  Which, good to note, the revolutionaries love their pat responses and easy misrepresentations, so the truth has to be repeated over and over to counter those.

Nevertheless, I still get a bit nervous when I hear talk of “mutual enrichment” – to me, the only enriching is the slow replacement of the Novus Ordo by the Mass of the Ages (which term I was very glad to see Archbishop Sample use).  +Sample did not indicate much at all how he felt the Novus Ordo might enrich the TLM, but I still feel the concept itself is flawed.  The liturgical reform to me was a mistake, a mistake in conception and, at best, horribly botched in execution (though I would also argue that the preponderance of the evidence makes clear that the revolutionaries got just about exactly what they wanted in the Novus Ordo, and that what they wanted was to protestantize the Mass as a first, giant step towards humanizing the Church – that is to say, turning the Church into a humanist construct, a religion more of man, than of God).  Yes there was some pushback and modification at the 11th hour, but later developments removed even much of that, at least in the form of some truly deplorable products such as Bugnini’s “children’s Mass.”

I also see basically no ways in which the Novus Ordo might enrich the TLM – I know this might be a harsh or extreme view, but having read a fair amount about how the propers have been butchered and even corrupted and the 3 year cycle of readings almost totally divorced from the ancient (and one might say, inspired) flow of the liturgical year, I don’t think it an unsupportable assertion.  That’s not to say that the Novus Ordo is always a disaster or a danger to one’s faith – there are Greenville’s and Hanceville’s and other locales where the Novus Ordo is offered in ways vastly superior to the standard offering in 99% of parishes, but those are all cases where the Novus Ordo was “enriched” by the traditional Mass, rather confirming the fact that “mutual enrichment” is a dead letter, a red herring, and quite likely a grave danger to be avoided.  The enrichment must run in one direction only.

It’s still a nice sermon in a lovely setting with a properly vested prelate, which is still far too rare a sight.  I am very glad Archbishop Sample offered this Mass and I pray he will continue drawing nearer and nearer to the traditional practice of the Faith and its authentic presentation in the Liturgy: