I see, or we saw, where 2/3 of Romans in the U.S. do not believe in the Real Presence, also where on 2nd thought the pollster, heretofore taken as horse’s mouth in such matters, got it wrong. Ah. Make that 2/3 of us do believe in the Real P, says another pollster. (When was the last time such a violent discrepancy happened? Should we be worried? More than usual, I mean. Hmm.)

In any case, so it goes, or went this time, in the wild and woolly world of polstering, where the devil takes the hindmost. Nonetheless, we do have the big show coming in Indianapolis aimed at bolstering said belief and I wish I could make it but find myself absorbed and/or spoken for in my customary round of fevered comings and goings, including regular meetings of the local Over 90’s club.

Nonetheless again, I remain intrigued by the issue. Not kidding, of course, nothing to joke about, depending as I am in my decades-long adherence to this faith of the Romans enforcing my assurance of the Savior in our midst and accessible by all, thank God for that. Indeed, I am reading a book on the subject, a sort of you don’t believe us here we are announcement by the Pius X society, offshoot of the Vatican 2 feature, its go-ahead on liturgical change, primarily of the Mass, The Problem of the Liturgical Reform: A Theological and Liturgical Study, meant for aficionados of the New Mass, also known as Novus Ordo.

Not just aficionados either but people who know what Denzinger is and do or did theology and read Latin at least a little. Many of you cannot imagine such at this point of our history as civilized people but I can and I am one of them. Denzinger? It’s an ongoing compilation of doctrine, fruits of labor by Jesuits and other people since 1854 and so you have Denzinger such and such, whatever’s the latest rewrite. Denzinger is ever a work in progress.

When this writer was a pup, sitting in a West Baden, Indiana, classroom, it was Denzinger Bannwart, named after its editor, to which we students referred as our understanding something as told us by our teacher, code name Forty, a splendid man on a lifelong mission to get things straight with not an irritating or contentious bone in his body. In retrospect, he was the boy at the dike, holding his thumb in the hole before all gave way, in this case, the devil MODERNISM, though in the early ‘60s we rarely heard the term. Pius X used the the word, calling it “the synthesis of all heresies.” His defense against the same was right-wing extremism in our book.

Be that as it may, Forty stood for the faith as it remained before Vatican 2 experimenters/innovators got to it, though we young Jesuits either didn’t know what was brewing in Rome or in varying degrees liked it. In this book from the society named after Pius, I found explanation, I think, for the 2/3 not believing (as above) but most of all probed for the whys and wherefores of liturgical change — as in my view has contributed to our alarmingly lessened belief.

Communion in hand standing up comes to mind. So does the overall, ah, noisiness of the New Mass vs the traditional quiet so praised by Cardinal Sarah but makes us so busy listening and responding to the celebrant/presider that we can hardly get with the main event, which is real, not merely symbolic, reenacted redeeming sacrifice. This liturgical book argues the old way, calling up Denzinger and other sources repeatedly to show (expose) the theology behind the new mass.

About which more later, please stay tuned . . .

Letting bad guys and gals go to sin some more against the body politic.

• Illinois woman charged with attacking Chicago police officers released on no cash bail thanks to new state law– Fox News- Sept. 19, 2023

• Man, accused of stealing $68K worth of merchandise in smash-and-grab robbery, released under new Illinois SAFE-T Act– WTVO-TV- Rockford- Sep. 22, 2023

• Cook County Sheriff’s Office busts man smuggling guns to Humboldt Park only for him to walk free on $30K bond– ABC-7- Chicago- September 23, 2023

• Charged with striking officers, Mt. Vernon woman released under SafeT Act– WMIX- October 2, 2023

• Arrested Illinois officer avoids jail time through new law– The Southern- October 13, 2023
• Madison County judge orders man accused of sexual assault of teenage girl to be released– Belleville News Democrat- December 1, 2023

• Chicago man arrested 3 times since October, flips off mugshot camera twice– CWB Chicago- December 11, 2023
• ‘If I could detain you … I would’: Lake County judge forced under SAFE-T Act to release man accused of pulling loaded gun on woman– Lake & McHenry County Scanner- January 1, 2024
• Granite City man awaiting trial in rape case is charged again with sexual assault– Belleville News Democrat- March 10, 2024
• Rockford murder suspect released before trial under new Illinois bail law– WTVO-TV- Rckford- March 27, 2024

Taking seriously my Catholic belief in the Real Presence in the tabernacle, I took to imagining Jesus up there in person, as approachable as can be, a presence that calms one down as it dominates. If church officials worry about the lack of belief in this Presence of Jesus, they might encourage this imagining of Jesus as present.

So give peace of soul a chance. Not just in church but everywere you go, where sunshine will or might follow you, like in the song. He’s in charge. Relax.

What a friend we have there. Approachable? Absolutely. And caring. Gave up his life for us, right? Lesson there. If He did that, and He did, we ought take Him up on it. How dumb can someone be who ignores that? No thanks. I’m for going into church to take Him up on it.

Not for any old slap-on-back, hiya Charlie, pull-up-a-stool way. But careful to keep in mind who He is. He’s royalty, for one thing, king of the world. A grand man, and God. one of a holy Trio who made the world, keeps it going, rules it. Not a dictator, lording it over mindless, helpless subjects. No, He made people who can think. And do the right thing.

He’s also gonna judge the living and the dead. which is what makes our friendship with Him unlike any other. We have friends in high places. We should stay in touch.

Color-blindness strikes Texas.

. . . told by a Washington DC Dominican seminarian in Dominicana Magazine.

Adam speaks:

. . . Bathed in darkness and pierced by cold, I have been weeping . . . unceasingly weeping for me and my children. I am alone amid the crowd of my poor family; weeping for what I lost! The warmth of the garden, the beauty of my wife, the gentle breeze of the evening—all sacrificed for a fleeting flirt with self-sufficiency.

We know the story — forbidden fruit, con-man serpent, the first sin, paradise lost, woe to him and his forever tainted descendents.

And what has this brought me? Pain, misery, sorrow, loneliness—rotten fruits of my own choosing! Deceived by the serpent, I deceived myself and chose to be my own pitiful god. Grasping for forbidden fruit, I spoiled my only chance at happiness.

But this day . . .

. . . there is a great silence . .  and stillness . . . the earth is in terror . . .  God died in the flesh, and the underworld trembles.

This dead one seeks out . . .

. . . our first parent like a lost sheep . . . comes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He comes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son.

We too have our waiting part.

On Holy Saturday we wait at the Lord’s tomb, with Mother Mary and the holy men and women, meditating on Jesus’ suffering and death.

The altars are left bare, and the Sacrifice of the Mass is NOT celebrated anywhere in the world.

Only after the solemn Vigil during the night, in anticipation of the Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, does the Easter celebration begin, with a spirit of joy that overflows . . .

Happy Easter, we say to one and all . . .

Down and dirty, brass tacks, let devil (who’s he at this point?) take hindmost, we are at the heart of things with this not-a-mass service on this day called good when all that is evil seems to have won the world series of god-damn-it-all.

Old style:

At the beginning of today’s service the priest lies prostrate at the foot of the altar. This is a sign of man’s desolate and helpless condition before being redeemed by Christ’s death.

In the solemn petitions, every group of people, every affliction of mankind is brought to the dying Christ and united to the mediating power of His death.

The Veneration of the Cross is one of the high points of today’s service. First, Christ on His cross is solemnly and dramatically unveiled and then adored and kissed.

Thus in worship we tenderly thank Jesus for the salvation He has purchased for all men at so great a cost.

Through the cross He won the victory of the world’s redemption. Good Friday’s triumph is manifested in Christ’s resurrection.

The climax . . . is the Communion Service. After Christ is brought back to the re-covered altar, He is elevated and consumed.

. . .  The primary intention in receiving the Body of Our Lord, sacrificed this day for all men, should be to “obtain more abundantly the fruits of redemption.”

. . . the absence of His Eucharistic Presence [returned to side-altar obscurity] deepens our mourning for His violent death.

. . . our worship is directed not to the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, but exclusively to the bloody but triumphant sacrifice of Calvary.

From Traditional Latin Mass Propers In English:

Holy Thursday celebrates especially the institution of the Mass at the Last Supper. . . .  On this day, Jesus ordained the Apostles.

Twelve priests. The first class. Told them to say the mass.

“Do this in remembrance of Me.”

More than remembrance, of course. Not a memorial service, as we have for each other when we die or know someone who did, in or out of mass, as devout and heartfelt as that might be.

Or even a milked-down transubstantiation, giving us an enhanced spiritual presence, period.  No. A reenactment

This is a day to think of the great love Jesus showed in instituting the Eucharist and to return that love by receiving Him in Holy Communion.

Indeed.

Through Holy Communion we are united to Christ and to one another.

In that order, of course.

What happened then, per St. John Cardinal Newman in a meditation:

Our Lord’s sufferings were so great, because His soul was suffering. . . . before His bodily passion, as we see in the agony in the garden.

A grim scene.

The first anguish . . . was not from the scourges, the thorns, or the nails, but from His soul. His soul was in such agony that He called it death: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death.”

A Jesuit friend told me he once had suffered physical and mental pain, both very bad, at different times. Said the mental was worse, hands down. So for our Savior, per Cardinal N.

The anguish was such that it, as it were, burst open His whole body . . .  The blood, rushing from his tormented heart, forced its way on every side, formed for itself a thousand new channels, filled all the pores, and at length stood forth upon His skin in thick drops, which fell heavily on the ground.

After He’d ordained His successors. Ceremony done, supper over, the traitor dispatched, he had gone out out to pray, and we have an idea of what happened.

More from Cardinal Newman here.

It’s about the Suffering Servant who is Jesus:

Nothing so touches the heart as the tragic suffering of the innocent.

There oughta be a law, we think.

Christ was divinely innocent.

To be sure.

And the tragedy of His anguish and humiliation suggests something of what God thinks of sin.

That slap in the face of the Maker, multiplied over.

The sins of two thousand years after Christ are no more and no less real than the sins of two thousand years before Christ, because with God there is no time.

Timeless, he invented time. Gave us our options. World-class experiment.

All the iniquities from Adam to the present moment and to the end of time struck and bruised and crushed God’s Son.

Took it on Himself. Heavy, heavy load. Think about it.

The world’s covenant of forgiveness and pledge of heaven is soaked in the flowing blood of Christ.

Covenant. Promise. Agreement. The Maker committed Himself. How high the price, the Son showed us.

In each Mass that blood is again “poured out.”

Day in, day out, the world over. Lucky for us.

. . . as delivered faithfully come hell or high water, rain or shine, snow or rain or dry, hot or cold or in between at Traditional Latin Mass Propers In English — on this day here.

The Christian way is not normally the way of violence. The use of authority sometimes requires forceful words, and Jesus Himself used such force.

. . . as in his shooing money-changers from the temple.

But usually the Christian appeal is simply through presentation of truth and through persuasion.

True enough.

Beyond that, the Christian becomes the sacrificial lamb who, like Christ, brings men to God by example, prayer, and meritorious suffering.

Who, me?

Redemption began on the cross and it must continue on the cross.

Of course.

“Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Heard in every mass, yes.

What the Baptist said of Christ remains true of every member of Christ.

Behold the sacrificial lamb, they say, when they see me? C’mon.

That morning at mass, I was miles away and completely unaware — 8:30 mass and not at all crowded — when I came to and stood and saw a hand reaching out for mine from my left, in the pew in front of me. It was Our Father time.

I took the hand with my left, holding on to the pew with my right. This matters. I don’t fall down a lot, in fact not at all lately, in part because I do not ask too much of my balance. But the guy two rows up, having grasped his friend’s hand with his left, was leaning back, looking at me and extending his right — across an entire pew.

I tried to shake him off, but he persisted, and I finally had to stage-whisper, “Too far!” He pulled back, but by then I was not saying The Lord’s Prayer very well, in fact not at all, having narrowly missed a dangerous balancing act.

The prayer was over in a few more seconds, I dropped the hand to my left and put both hands on the pew in front, breathing a sigh. In a minute, the handclasp of peace. The woman whose hand I’d held, having witnessed my shaking off the man’s hand, put hers out tentatively. I grasped it gingerly, fingers to fingers, having incipient arthritic issues and being in general not the hand-shaker I used to be.

And of course I had to do the same for the guy two rows in front, including a wink and a nod as salve to whatever feelings I had hurt (none, I decided), and that was that for my going-the-extra-mile worship procedures for the day.

Oh yes, I’m afraid I didn’t meet the searching eyes of the woman giving communion as she seemed to expect, so that our souls might if ever so briefly coincide and commune, because, I must confess, my chief interest was in Jesus, with whom I was trying desperately to make contact. (I can walk and chew gum at the same time, but some dual performances escape me.)

I know I am to see Jesus in my neighbor, but if you don’t mind, I’m going to take that as my neighbor I meet on the street or at a meeting or party or in my house when I wake up in the morning and look across the bed, rather than at communion time, when I am refueling my soul for such encounters, which are where the rubber hits the road as far as neighbor-love is concerned.

In any case, I got in my “Amen” for her, I think even before she said her piece, and she placed the host on my palm.

Back I went to my pew, hands not folded but at my sides, for balance’ sake. It’s better that way. The high-wire man does not hold his hands folded in front, and neither do I returning from communion.

Meanwhile, the kissing for peace continues as strong as ever, in its handshaking incarnation and — it happened to me one morning — in a two-hands-slapped-on-shoulder from the parish deacon who had left the altar in vestments and sought me out as I sat in a back row off to the side, kneeling with one hand over my eyes trying my best to look absorbed.

Intent on his mission, he climbed into the seat in front of me and did the shoulder attack. I will have to keep eyes open so I can a least dodge this fellow or another of his ilk, determined as he was to give me religion.

He also changed “Go, the mass is ended” to “Go, the mass is never ended.” Wow. Amateur night and day at th olde parish church. When all is said and done, however, he is less to be blamed than the devil-may-care approach to decorum in the American church in these years of Paddy-bar-the-door approach to Mass and everything else liturgical.

He had apparently considered me a threat to public order and had to chastise me publicly, for a first in 21st-century North American Catholic ministerial thuggishness.

Along similar, if not assault, lines, was Father Quirky, who regularly subbed out official wording for his own while saying mass. For instance, saying “friends” for “disciples,” “God’s” for “His,” raising his voice to tell worshipers this is how to talk. Mass after mass. Eventually a solid core of worshipers, barely paying attention, say it his way.

Introduces gospel according to Matthew, not Saint Matthew, etc., making points with low-information parishioners, never explaining himself or otherwise calling attention to it. Would spoil things. He had the mike, we didn’t. Again, Paddy bar the door.