Here is the sermon given by Father Barone at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Bayonne, on September 14, 2008, as mentioned in the previous post.

May God bless each of you for assisting at Mass in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We would like to thank the servers for their efforts and dedication, the sacristans and those responsible for the beautiful chant. We all owe a special debt of gratitude to Msgr. Ronald Marczewski, Pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel for allowing us the opportunity to celebrate the Mass according to the ancient rite of the Church, a Mass so dear to the heart of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, on this first anniversary of the implementation of his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, which called for more widespread and generous celebration of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

Mass is Mass. And it is truly extraordinary in whatever form offered, in whatever language spoken, because Christ feeds us with His most sacred Body and His most precious Blood. Then why offer this Traditional Latin Mass? Why pray in the usus antiquior? The Church has moved on, why “go back?” It is true to say that the Church has moved. Since Her birth at Pentecost, the Church has continued to grow in the sight of God, and under the watchful eye of the Pope, successor to St. Peter and Vicar of Christ on earth. For this reason, it is fair to say that continued restoration of the Tradition of our Holy Church is not a step back at all.

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as he himself says, views the liturgy with a hermeneutic of continuity. That means to even suggest that the Church experienced a rupture in the Roman Rite after the Second Vatican Council is false. There is only one Roman Rite. We simply have two different expressions. Then why the apparent division? Why the seeming loss of faith for so many? Why the empty seminaries? Why the vacant monasteries? Why the sister-less Catholic schools, and priest-less parishes? When our Holy Father issued his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum last year, freeing any remaining restriction placed on priests and faithful who desire the “Tridentine” Mass, this truly Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, he was simply restoring to us what is rightfully our own heritage; our sacred Tradition. In so doing, the Pontiff is encouraging an honest re-examination of how the will of the Council Fathers, in light of the 16 documents they issued, was implemented by the men in charge. Keep in mind that the Church is by no means saying that reform was not needed prior to the Council. As in any age of the Church, abuses had crept in, and the spirit of the world had begun to move. However, addressing the legitimate concerns of the Church did not call for a dramatic re-ordering of how we pray, which reflects how we believe.

And so we have before us today, the Mass of the ages, as it developed organically, not contrived or crafted of an agenda, and finally codified by the Fathers of another great Council of the Church at Trent. Believe it or not, the use of the vernacular language for the liturgy was discussed at Trent… in the 16th Century. But the wisdom of the Fathers determined that the Roman Rite should maintain the Latin language precisely to distinguish what was Catholic from what was protestant. Obviously the language does not “make the Mass.” Many would like to see this Mass, in the Extraordinary Form offered in the language of the people. And why not? It was done so, ever so briefly, from 1966 until 1970; when the new Mass was promulgated. The first Mass offered by Christ was in Hebrew and Aramaic. For centuries, the Church prayed primarily in Greek. Believe it or not, at one time Latin was not a stumbling block, but served as a vehicle to help spread the faith across the Roman Empire. It was meant, and still is meant to be inclusive not exclusive. It is not so much the language that matters, but the ritual used. Today, we are bound to use Latin for the celebration of this form of the Liturgy, but even if this Mass today was being offered in English or Polish, it would not detract from the precision, the beauty, and the reverence inherent in the Rite itself. The sacrality of the prayers offered, and the beauty and deliberateness of the gestures employed speak more clearly to the mysteries they represent. So does the Latin speak to the mystery of the Mass. It is our Church’s language, ideally common to us all, universally. Once vulgar, it has become a language reserved only for God and His divine worship.

We are not meant to understand all of the mysteries of our faith this side of heaven. Therefore, to suggest that the vernacular must be used so that we can better understand “what’s going on” is a weak argument. We will never truly comprehend “what’s going on” at Mass, no matter how much we know the language. As believing Catholics, we veil what is holy, what is sacred to us. We veil the tabernacle, in which is reserved the abiding presence of Christ in His Body and Blood. At Mass, the priest veils the chalice and patten which will serve as the vessels in closest contact with the Most Blessed Sacrament. Even the silence of our prayers at Mass serves as a veil to a world which is uncomfortable with silence. The world does not fully understand the life we live as Catholics. To those who lack belief, it doesn’t make sense. So it is with the liturgy. Think of the Latin used at the mass as a, sort of, veil. For those who have a better knowledge of the language, the veil is more sheer; and thicker for those who understand it less. But even the most learned linguist is on equal footing with the most illiterate believer, when it comes to understanding the true mystery, veiled, but unfolding before our eyes. Think of the great saints and even doctors of the Church who never heard the Mass in their own spoken language? Was their ascent to heaven at all impeded? They understood the language of prayer more with the heart than with the mind.

My dear friends take courage. Unity is one of the four essential marks of the Church. Personally I am very hopeful that the restoration of the Traditional Mass will come to be seen not as a source of division, but as a font and expression of true and authentic oneness. Unified under the great standard of the Holy Cross, whose victorious discovery we recall today. Waving this triumphant sign before us in everything we do, we remain steadfast to tradition and fidelity to the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ, Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.