Jesus said in St. Matthew’s gospel that “every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” (Was he describing himself?) One of the excesses of the post-Vatican II era was to imagine that only the new was of value. We have learned subsequently that much of the old still has a value in nurturing the faith. But a caution is in order: it does not nurture merely because it is old. This goes to the heart of the current controversy over the “extraordinary form” of the Eucharist (basically the Tridentine mass in Latin) allowed by Pope Benedict XVI. The spirituality of that rite has a proven record of deepening the faith. But the call of the past two popes for Catholics to be “missionary disciples” is better nurtured by the more communitarian spirituality of the current liturgical practice.
JULY302017
By Church Staff
