Fri, 15 Apr 2016 | Cover | Page 10

Traditional Latin Mass 101

Calling to Mind:

Unde et Memores

by Father Ladis J. Cizik

In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

The last words of Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, just after the Consecration at the First Mass in the Upper Room, were to this effect: "Do this in remembrance of Me." The actual words of Christ from the venerable Misale Romanum are presented as: "Haec quotiescumque feceritis, in Mei memoriam facietis." These words translate as: "As often as you do these things, ye shall do them in remembrance of Me." The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the complete, immemorial, and unending answer to this Divine directive dating back to the time of Christ and His Apostles.

The very next prayer in the Canon of the Mass is the "Unde et memores" ("wherefore also calling to mind" or "Hence and remembering"). This prayer is an immediate liturgical response following Our Blessed Lord’s command that we (the Priest and the faithful united in prayer through the Priest) should "remember" Him in the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As a servant of the Master (" nos servi tui"), the Priest and the God’s "holy people" ( plebs tua sancta) obediently and faithfully "call to mind" significant events and teachings from the Life of Christ during the Traditional Latin Mass.

In his classic tome entitled The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Rev. Dr. Nicholas Gihr writes that the plural, "we Thy servants," ( nos servi tui) refers to Priests who "are indeed, by their ordination, dignity, and power, exalted above the laity; but they are none the less obliged to serve in love and humility…" In addition, the term "plebs tua sancta" is described in the following manner by Father Gihr: "The words, ‘Thy holy people,’ denote the high dignity of the faithful regenerated by the sacrament of Baptism; they are a people of God ( plebs tua), and as such a ‘holy people’ ( plebs sancta)."

What the Priest and the faithful united to him call to mind, is in the same sense and in the same meaning as that which was handed on to us from the Apostles.

This assures the purity, holiness and inerrancy of matters pertaining to our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith.

We commemorate and hand on to future generations that precious gift of the One True Faith that has been entrusted to us. When the Traditional Latin Mass is offered, the Church confesses the Faith received from the Apostles - hence the ancient saying: lex orandi, lex credendi … The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as She prays. That is why, prior to the 1960’s, the Roman Catholic Church had avoided even the most minor changes to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for century after century. Lex orandi, lex credendi: any change in the way we worship could lead to unforeseen and unintended changes in beliefs.

Catholic truths and the memory of what Jesus said and did are preserved and called to mind in the Traditional Latin Mass. God’s faithful "servants" and "holy people" do not surrender to the heresy of Modernism by innovating and changing the teachings of Christ and His Church: to accommodate modern times; to reflect the latest theological/ pastoral speculations; or to conform to public opinion polls clamoring for change. Accordingly, we remember that the first "public opinion poll" recorded in the Gospels led to the people crying out "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" (Mk 15:13-14; Lk 23:21; Jn 19:6, 15).

In this light, the Unde et memores begins by recalling Jesus’ Blessed Passion ( beatae Passionis). This calls to mind that the Mass is first and foremost the unbloody ‘re’-presentation of Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary: as we remember, we are also actually present at the foot of the Cross. During this prayer the Priest makes the Sign of the Cross five times over the Blessed Sacrament to call to mind the Sacrifice of the Cross on Calvary and the five wounds suffered by our Crucified Savior. These and all other Signs of the Cross made after the miracle of Transubstantiation are in NO WAY meant to be a "blessing" made over the Eucharistic Lord. The material elements of bread and wine, which were in need of a blessing previously, are no longer present after the Consecration.

As such, Gihr comments: "Jesus Christ, the source of all blessings, cannot be blessed by the Priest."

Next, the Unde et memores recalls His Resurrection from hell ( ab inferis Resurrectionis). This reminds us that through Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection, the souls of the just, that Jesus sojourned with on Good Friday and Holy Saturday in the "Limbo of the Fathers," were set free by Our Lord from that temporary afterlife to the eternal Glory of Heaven on that first Easter Sunday. Likewise, the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass can be the occasion of other holy souls escaping from the netherworld of Purgatory to an eternity of refreshment, light and peace with the Angels and the Saints.

Keep in mind that when the "Apostles’ Creed" declares that "He descended into hell," the hell so mentioned is traditionally understood to include: at its topmost level, the Limbo of the Fathers where Jesus went; Purgatory, another temporary abode; and the depths of hell where the damned will spend all eternity with no hope of release.

This same prayer also calls to mind Jesus’ glorious Ascension into Heaven ( in Caelos gloriosae Ascensionis). To help us to get to Heaven, the Priest, in Persona Christi, offers gifts and presents ( donis ac datis) to the Divine Majesty at each Mass, just as Jesus did at the Last Supper and at Calvary: a pure Victim ( Hostiam puram); a holy Victim ( Hostiam sanctam); and a spotless Victim ( Hostiam immaculatam). The Church does NOT offer Almighty God the insult of mere bread and wine, the work of human hands. Through the ordained Priest we offer the Perfect Sacrifice of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the pure, holy and spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

The Unde et memores then recalls the miracle of Transubstantiation which took place at the Consecration of the Mass.

Here, the Christ/Priest has turned mere bread into the "Holy Bread of Eternal Life" ( Panem sanctum vitae aeternae) and mere wine into the "Chalice of Everlasting Salvation" ( Calicem salutis perpetuae). It is indeed, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This memory calls to mind the profound teaching of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity recorded in chapter six of the Holy Gospel according to Saint John:

"Amen, Amen I say unto you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you shall not have no life in you. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed; and My Blood is drink indeed…This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead.

He that eateth this Bread, shall live forever" (Jn 6: 54- 56, 59).

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass remembers and brings to fulfillment these words of Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, whereby we are thus able to receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Holy Communion under the appearances of Bread and Wine. As the one and only Pure, Holy and Immaculate Divine Victim for our sins, Jesus has deigned to become our Spiritual Food: the Holy Bread of Eternal Life and the Chalice of Eternal Salvation.

The twin fonts of Catholic Truth, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, converge in the offering of the Traditional Latin Mass, which dates back to the time of the Apostles. What was true and holy at the time of Christ and His Apostles and through the centuries must, for the sake of the Church, still be considered to be true and holy today and into the future. In our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, we call to mind and remember what has been handed on to us through generations of faithful Catholics. We do that best, and in fulfillment of Our Lord’s command to "do this in remembrance of Me," every time the Traditional Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered. Although an angry mob of assembled voices, as at Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate, would demand that we ‘forget’ and call out for the death of the immemorial Traditional Latin Mass, we will NEVER forget; we will call to mind and remember, now and forever.

In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

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Back in the day, all Roman Catholics were Traditional Catholics