Corpus Christi

Today is the traditional feast of Corpus Christi, a beautiful feast honoring the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ found in the Holy Eucharist. For many Catholics, this feast has been transferred to this coming Sunday, a decision made by the ordinary of a diocese.

I had the opportunity to visit the local Extraordinary Form (Latin Mass) community here in Omaha, who today had a beautiful procession that made its way around an entire city block.

As I sat in the pew during the Mass prior to the procession, I was struck by a sense of beauty and reverence that many of us more familiar with the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo) rarely witness. With awe and joy, I listened to the Introit and other Mass parts chanted and sung, and I watched with eagerness for the incensing of the altar and the various cues to stand, sit, or kneel. It brought back joy-filled memories of my time as a young Catholic, of being an altar boy earnestly memorizing the Confiteor or getting the thurible ready for Exposition. I learned so much during my time among my friends and family in the Extraordinary Form. And the most important thing I learned about was the awesome mystery of the Real Presence of Our Lord found in the Blessed Sacrament.

At the same time, I was also struck by a sense of an isolatory pious air among the congregants, and particularly among some of my fellow seminarians who had come to join the procession. This overly-zealous piety was not found in the mantillas worn by the women or the cassocks and surplii by the seminarians; it was not in how missals were being followed, or how many times one crossed himself. It was found in their countenances -- a sense of entitlement and pompousness; a look of condescension and snobbery that, for the life of me, I could not shake.

I am a great lover of the Extraordinary Form. It has been a part of my spiritual formation as a Catholic since nearly the beginning. It is full of exalted beauty and Truth, yet it is not because it is better than the Ordinary Form. Rather it is because of what transpires and what is received by the Faithful - it is the very meaning of this feast celebrated by many today, in both Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. It is the gift of God to us in His Son that makes it beautiful.

Sure, we may have our preferences aesthetically, and much can be said of the aesthetic beauty of the Extraordinary Form, both in how it is perceived and in what parts of it symbolize. Yet, I dare say, that both Forms of the Latin Rite could learn from each other, and I don't think I'm the only one with this sentiment.

Let us not undermine our faithfulness to Christ in our zealous attempts to "do the best." What we do is as naught in comparison to the gifts God lavishes on those who follow his Word. In whatever we do, or at whatever Form or Rite of Mass or Liturgy we find ourselves, let us not choose our actions because we feel that they are the most successful at pleasing God.

As Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: "We are not called to be successful; we are called to be faithful." Amen.