Nearsightedness vs. Thinking with the Church: Expanding the Mind Catholic

“Oh, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thy commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep thy precepts.” (Ps 119: 97-100).

There is a common refrain we hear incessantly from those who have left the Church for independent Traditionalist groups, or those who have “given up” and refuse to attend the Novus Ordo Mass:

“I’ve been going to the Novus Ordo for [x number of years or decades] and I have never found truly beautiful worship, reverence, orthodox sermons, Latin, good music, etc., etc. Therefore I am right to support canonically irregular priests and/or refusing to participate in the Novus Ordo by exclusively attending the TLM.”

I inwardly smile or groan whenever I hear or read comments to this effect, usually made with considerable emotional vehemence and passion.  It reminds me of certain people I have met in my life (usually middle aged) who have dismissed my experience and understanding or that of others because they have “been there done that,” “seen a thing or two,” been around the block,” or “been alive since you were in diapers.” I have often wondered how they can be so oblivious to the absurdity of their outlook and attitude, which resembles that of a ruffled bantam rooster ready to challenge anything that moves on the farmyard.

I do not mean to diminish the value of experience, especially that of our venerable grey and white-haired elders. But this experience should be given its proper value, which is necessarily limited and incomplete. As I have discovered, those who are truly wise have come to this realization. There is a natural progression that most people seem to go through around their fifties or sixties (although there are many exceptions), where they come face to face with their vast inexperience in comparison with the limited experience of their individual lifetime. I have seen the contrast between humble octogenarians and proud uptight forty-somethings too many times not to have noticed the profound difference.

Now, apply this small-minded and near-sighted pride of the stereotypical middle-aged adult to liturgical landscape of the Church today, and voilà, you have the ubiquitous Trad refrain I gave you at the beginning of this post.

A funny expression I learned when I was living in Europe gives a comical voice to a similar cultural phenomenon: “If you speak three languages, you’re trilingual; two languages, you’re bilingual; one language, you’re American.” I think it is no coincidence that America is one of the world’s hotbeds for schismatic Traditionalists and TLM-only types, probably second only to France.

Since coming back into the Church, it has been primarily African priests that have helped me to continue “expanding my mind Catholic”, or in other words, have opened my eyes to the reality of a worldwide Church embracing many nations and cultures, a truly universal Christianity. Here are two brief stories to illustrate this.

I was attending the ordination of our new bishop of Helena several years ago, and was staying at a bed and breakfast where two other African priests who had been invited were also staying. It was funny to watch them come down the stairs of the historic 20th century house barefoot and sit down at the table to breakfast with us. I struck up a conversation with one of them and at one point I was lamenting our American vocations crisis. He smiled at me and exclaimed, “Don’t be so sad about it! Some years there are bumper crops and others there are droughts. It is all in the Lord’s hands.” I was floored by the candid simplicity of his child-like outlook. We Americans are not a little obsessed with looking at things from the perspective of statistics and productive outcomes!

Another time I was attending a liturgy conference and made the acquaintance of a priest, Fr. N., who was a professor of liturgy at an African seminary. Dr. Peter Kwasniewski was giving one of the talks, and he made several points that caused Fr. N. to roll his eyes and make faces, making me want to laugh out loud! Afterwards he explained to those of us sitting at his table the various historical and liturgical inaccuracies presented by Dr. Kwasniewski, and how his perspective was in several respects uniquely American. As he spoke, fireworks were going off in my mind as I grasped the implications of what he was saying for the American Catholic Church, especially with regards to our current liturgical situation and how it compares to the Catholic dioceses in other countries.

It is truly a lifelong task learning to “think with the Church,” expanding our finite minds to embrace a fully Catholic worldview. The state of the Church is not the same on every continent and country, in fact, it is not the same even in our own country! Trads who voice opinions like the one at the beginning of this post have only experienced a tiny fraction of the life of the universal Church, and yet they do not hesitate to make sweeping statements and decisions based off their comparatively negligible experience.

Thanks be to God, those of you who are here have already begun this important task in your lives. You have acknowledged your weakness and imperfection with humility, choosing to rely on the strength and wisdom of the Church rather than opinionated and narrow-minded men, however intelligent. The better we learn to think with the Church, the more we are able to transcend our near-sighted perspectives and see things through the eyes of God.

“Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of thy words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” (Ps 119: 129-130).

Veritas et Caritas