Getting with the times would be such a lighter cross. I have liberal friends and family members who love Pope Francis, as well as pro-choice President Joe Biden, who is definitely the most devout Catholic the world will ever see! I would be so lost without the friendly reminders that if you disagree with the Pope, then you ain’t Catholic. That shouldn’t worry me at all, though, because Francis still says that “The good Lord will save everyone.” I could be much happier if I’d just agree with him.
Traditionalists must remember that the essence of Catholic Tradition is deeper than liturgical nostalgia; it is the faith itself.
If I were to obey Traditionis Custodes and go to the Novus Ordo, I wouldn’t have to seek out sacraments from canonically irregular priests. I would save money on Latin-English missals, since the priest says the Mass to me in English. There’s no need to be rigid and reverent when we’re just having a communal meal with friends. It’s not like this is the Sacrifice of Calvary or anything, right?
As tempting as it can be for me to just shut up, I know that there’s a reason why I resist.
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If the great St. Athanasius had just let his fellow bishops push the Arian heresy, they would’ve never sent him into exile, but God would have done so. Tradition told him that Jesus Christ is divine, even if some in the hierarchy said otherwise. This is why he wrote “Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.”
Therefore, we suffer for sacred tradition because our souls would suffer eternally without it.
With this in mind, traditionalists must remember that the essence of Catholic Tradition is deeper than liturgical nostalgia; it is the faith itself. If the changes in the Conciliar Church do not threaten the Catholic faith, we are wasting our time by resisting them. St. Paul tells us “Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle,” (2 Thessalonians 2:14, Douay-Rheims). The Second Council of Nicea gives us the most stern warning that “if anyone rejects any ecclesiastical tradition, whether written or unwritten, let him be anathema.”
Therefore, we suffer for sacred tradition because our souls would suffer eternally without it. It is by tradition that we have received the Catholic Faith, and it is by tradition that we will hand it down to our children. The pope is not above the faith he is charged with transmitting, especially if he fails to transmit it. In the words of the saintly Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, “No authority, not even the highest in the hierarchy, can force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic Faith, so clearly expressed and professed by the Church’s Magisterium for nineteen centuries.”
