One of the ideas that seems to be gaining currency these days, even among high ranking clerics, is the delusional expectation that hell may actually be empty. This is implicit Universalism, the belief that God’s mercy is so expansive that every human soul will be saved in the end. This is not only heresy but a direct contradiction of the words of Christ himself. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to perdition, and those who enter it are many.” (Mt. 7:13)
Such a view further leads one into the grave sin of presumption upon God’s mercy through a denial of His unerring justice. One of the dilemmas of Christianity has ever been its attempt to square the compassionate God of Mercy with the dread God of Justice. Is God just a giant cuddly stuffed Panda or the vengeful Calvinist judge casting souls into eternal hellfire with bland indifference? Of course, both images are gross exaggerations which have see-sawed back and forth throughout the Church’s long history, under the titles of laxism v. rigorism. Today we are in a period of extreme laxism — a loss of spiritual discipline and vision which grew as a counter-reaction to the excessive rigors of Calvinism and Jansenism. The pendulum swings to and fro, and seldom does it rest in the middle.
Of Novus Ordo Catholics, 89% approved of contraception and 51% approved of abortion at some stage. For TLM Catholics those respective numbers were 2% and 1%, an incredible 45:1 ratio!
The danger of the current lax spiritual climate is that the ensuing casual forms of Christianity have left the greater number of Catholics and other Christians with the false impression that what they do in the present moment doesn’t really matter because they are entitled to salvation. God’s mercy is so overwhelming it will disregard the more sordid details of one’s personal life and habits. God, as many like to boast, “accepts me just as I am.” And perhaps this mentality explains why the practice of sacramental confession has fallen off a cliff since Vatican II. Our secular culture has greatly encouraged the idea of entitlement so that a sort of spiritual welfare state which complements the physical welfare state has taken root in the minds and hearts of many Christians. The underlying theme seems to be that we have some inherent “right” to heaven, regardless of our actions or track record.
Over the years I have visited countless Catholic parishes whose liturgies and social activities could well be categorized as “Protestant Lite.” Clergy and laity alike seem to take the attitude that the Church is a big salad bar where one picks and chooses whatever one fancies while leaving the rest untouched. And how many Protestant Christians think that making a one time proclamation of faith in Jesus becomes a guaranty of eternal salvation, no matter how you may lead your life thereafter? They argue that it is faith, not works, that really matters. But as St. James correctly pointed out, faith and works is not an either / or proposition, it is a both / and proposition. (Jas. 2:17)
As regards the worship of God, Catholics and Protestants alike have largely adopted a casual, relaxed atmosphere in their sanctuaries, more reminiscent of a club lounge than a sacred space which demands silence and a deep reverence. Liturgy, music, and sermons are more often geared to stimulate “feel good” emotions, affirmation, and inclusiveness but rarely do they remonstrate, induce repentance, or challenge one’s way of life. After all, we’re all nice people come together to acknowledge the cuddly stuffed panda God who copiously hands out golden tickets to heaven like penny candy. Salvation should demand nothing hard or painful on our part because, being “nice people,” we are already entitled and fully vested.
67% of Novus Ordo Catholics saw no problem with gay marriage versus less than 2% for TLM goers.
But where is the God of Justice in all this happy-go-lucky kind of religion? How then are we to reconcile infinite mercy with infinite justice? Christ solemnly warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my heavenly Father.” (Mt. 7:21) St. Paul also admonishes us to “work out your salvation in fear and trembling.” (Phil. 2:12) I am afraid that many otherwise good and decent people today are falling into the trap of presuming on God’s mercy, totally blinded to His corresponding and inescapable justice. Overly-casual modern Christians have lost the proper sense of meekness before the Almighty, forgetting that we need to keep a proper and holy distance between ourselves and God as did Moses when he approached the burning bush. We are nothing, while He is everything.
In order to maintain proper decorum with respect to God, the infinite good, it would help to recall what the evangelist John revealed about His nature, namely that the essence of the Deity is two-fold. God is Love (1Jn. 4:16) and God is Truth (Jn. 16:13). Here on earth God’s love expresses itself as Mercy while in eternity His truth expresses itself as Justice. In other words, God is both Merciful and Just because He is both Love and Truth—indivisible and inseparable realities. Mercy and Justice work in sync with one another for a common end. God allows us mercy now so that we may experience justice in the end. Divine justice is tempered by but never thwarted by mercy. To clarify, a man who actually survived a near death experience later explained how upon realizing that he was condemned to hell, his one consolation was in realizing that there was true justice in the universe. The most perfect example of the intertwined workings of mercy and justice is Christ on the cross. Jesus, the Son of God mercifully acted on our behalf to satisfy the justice due to His Father offended by sin.
Consider that Christ’s terrible suffering on the cross was only the external manifestation of that far greater moral and spiritual suffering which only a divine, infinite person could have experienced or endured. His physical suffering is meant to lead us deeper into contemplation of the moral/spiritual suffering which was the price of our redemption. This was an infinite suffering by which only an infinite being could offer infinite atonement for the sins of mankind. This is why Catholics meditate on the crucifix. But after Luther, Christ was stripped off the cross which became an empty symbol. Likewise, the Mass was reduced to a communal meal and the altar of sacrifice became a dinner table. Just as the Reformers divided faith from works and Sacred Scripture from Tradition, they purged the Paschal Supper of its sacrificial essence and turned Christianity on its head. Luther’s and Calvin’s rejection of the Mass as a sacrifice denied their followers any meaningful participation in Christ’s supreme work of redemption.
One would think that with such an obvious disparity bishops and clergy would be ecstatic to promote the Traditional Mass, yet just the opposite seems to be true. Consider that some 600 TLM Catholics are currently being evicted from St. Mary Cathedral in Austin, Texas by Bishop James S. Vasquez, apparently following instructions from the Holy See.
Ever sine then the Mass has been at the center of the controversy, precisely because the Mass is the perfect fusion of divine Mercy with Justice, embodied in the Hypostatic Union which is Christ himself, true God and true man, presented to our human senses on the altar. For centuries Catholics reverenced and adored that reality even as skeptical Protestants downplayed and even mocked it. Their way of tearing down Catholic devotion to Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist was to dismiss it as a mere symbol and teach others that the Mass was little more than a Medieval superstition. A campaign stressing the humanness of Christ further implanted in people’s minds a perception of “brother Jesus” rather than the transcendent, omnipotent Christ who one day will judge the entire world.
Over time such subtle inferences would put God on a more human, and thereby familiar, level. Jesus came to be understood more as “my friend” than “my Lord and God,” not in any explicit sense but perhaps subconsciously. And salvation itself came to be seen as an entitlement in a culture that increasingly minimized the serious nature of sin. Catholics were also caught up in the same vortex with the “renovation” of the Sacred Liturgy some 60 years ago. That same over familiarity with God, and consequent relaxation of every aspect of Catholic tradition came to be expressed not in a holy spirit of meekness but in a proud spirit of worldly zeitgeist. It is a spirit which proudly presumes on God’s tender mercy, “hoping that hell may be empty.” Such persons would portray God as an easy pushover who only winks at our sinful indiscretions.
Hell may not be empty, though the same cannot be said for many churches which have emptied out since the “casual Catholic” syndrome first manifested in the late 1960s. Today even blasphemy is tolerated if not encouraged in the most sacred spaces as was the case recently at St. Patrick Cathedral in New York. The average Catholic no longer seems capable of living out their Catholic vocation or understanding the most basic tenets of the faith. They routinely co-habitate outside of marriage. They show little respect for the Eucharist in the tabernacle as evidenced by the tumultuous uproar of socializing that breaks out milliseconds after the priest has processed out. They help elect politicians who openly support the slaughter of innocent children in the womb. Many now rush to defend the depraved IVF industry which incubates and commodifies embryonic human beings as though they were barnyard poultry. Yet where is the moral outrage to such abuses among our Catholic population, by now so dumbed down that most cannot even define a sacrament?
Their unpardonable offense in the new “Church of Mercy and Inclusion” is their having celebrated the TLM in that cathedral, going back to 2007. Yet suddenly, under the purview of Traditionis Custodes, their very presence in a Catholic cathedral is considered “divisive” most likely because they contribute on average five times as much of their wages to the Church as their more “inclusive” Novus Ordo brothers and sisters.
There is a positive remedy to the baneful wave of secular philistinism which has overrun the Catholic world since 1965. Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi is Latin for “as you pray so also will you believe.” The Roman Latin Rite Mass as it was celebrated and prayed faithfully for over a thousand years proved time and again its ability to soften the barbarian and assuage the pride of rulers. This profound Catholic liturgy of the ages is a veritable catechesis of the faith which instructs the faithful silently and subconsciously. This is because its primary exegist is not some mortal man but the Holy Spirit himself. This traditional form of the Mass teaches through elegant rituals, solemn chants, humble postures, beautiful vestments, and symbols pregnant with spiritual meaning. It offers one a prayerful respite from the noisy, brute, and vain outside world. It is not dependent on the personality of the celebrant who, rather, turns his face to the 'Holy of Holies' along with the people so that all are oriented as one unified body towards the Triune God to whom this most sacred and sublime sacrifice is being offered.
This liturgical solemnity may shock the sensibilities of many modern Catholics who have become accustomed to an altar become a table where the priest gazes over the congregation with his back turned toward Christ in the tabernacle. Lay men and women meander in and out of the sanctuary so that the once sacred atmosphere of that holy space takes on the casual aura of a nightclub stage, made more plausible by the ad lib cracks and jokes coming from the celebrant. The numbers tell the story when one considers that around 1960 90% of Catholics attended Sunday Mass regularly. Today that number hovers around 23% or less depending on the quality of the pastor’s joke book.
A 2018 PEW study verifies the different impact that the two Mass forms have had on modern Catholics. Comparing Traditional Latin Mass goers with typical Novus Ordo attendees (i.e., the New Mass of Paul VI) the study found some significant differences. Of Novus Ordo Catholics, 89% approved of contraception and 51% approved of abortion at some stage. For TLM Catholics those respective numbers were 2% and 1%, an incredible 45:1 ratio! Then again, 67% of Novus Ordo Catholics saw no problem with gay marriage versus less than 2% for TLM goers. Weekly Mass attendance for the TLM averaged 99% compared to 22% for the Novus Ordo. TLM Catholics donated about 6% of their income to the Church and averaged 3.6 children per family compared with a meager 1.2% of income donated by Novus Ordo Catholics who averaged just 2.3 children per family.
God’s job is to look the other way and accept whatever liturgical schlock we happen to send His way. Nor do we need to take all those pesky sixth commandment moral restrictions too seriously because everyone gets a celestial golden ticket anyway, right?
One would think that with such an obvious disparity bishops and clergy would be ecstatic to promote the Traditional Mass, yet just the opposite seems to be true. Consider that some 600 TLM Catholics are currently being evicted from St. Mary Cathedral in Austin, Texas by Bishop James S. Vasquez, apparently following instructions from the Holy See. Their unpardonable offense in the new “Church of Mercy and Inclusion” is their having celebrated the TLM in that cathedral, going back to 2007. Yet suddenly, under the purview of Traditionis Custodes, their very presence in a Catholic cathedral is considered “divisive” most likely because they contribute on average five times as much of their wages to the Church as their more “inclusive” Novus Ordo brothers and sisters. Similar restrictions and shutdowns are happening in many other dioceses as well from Washington, D.C. and Covington, Kentucky to Tyler, Texas where Bishop Joseph Strickland who had openly welcomed Traditional Catholics was unceremoniously sacked. No reason given.
So once again, for "with it" Catholics, God doesn’t really seem to care how carelessly He is worshiped, in fact the more casual the better. He surely appreciates a good guffaw smack in the middle of Mass as well as the next guy, no doubt. The only thing today's hierarchy can’t seem to stomach is those way too “serious” Catholics who think that the Holy Sacrifice should actually look, sound, and smell of holiness. God’s job is to look the other way and accept whatever liturgical schlock we happen to send His way. Nor do we need to take all those pesky sixth commandment moral restrictions too seriously because everyone gets a celestial golden ticket anyway, right? After all, we are entitled Christians who had to come a long way to build this New Church in our own image. Now if it can only stand for the next 2,000 years.
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