Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage V: the Closing of the Pilgrimage

See earlier posts of the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage

The 2021 pilgrimage of the people of Summorum Pontificum ended on Sunday, October 31, the eve of All Saints, with Solemn High Mass at the church of the Most Holy Trinity of the pilgrims (Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini) – the home of the FSSP in Rome. This church, with its grand late Rennaissance/early Baroque interior, was nevertheless barely adequate to contain the congregation.

While the people were assembling for the grand Mass, a low Mass was being celebrated at a side altar. The priest was attended by one server – and those in the pews or standing in the immediate vicinity of this liturgy. It reminded me of a story I had read in a parochial school reader years ago, of a boy who had lived through the siege of Vienna in 1683. The day after the siege was lifted, a grand mass of thanksgiving was celebrated at the Cathedral of St. Stephens. But, this boy did not see that magnificent ceremony, for he was serving as the sole acolyte at the requiem Mass for his parish priest who had died the day of the victory.

The unique dignity and beauty of the traditional Mass never fails to amaze me – regardless of the number of clegry and ministers, the size of the congregation, the quality of the music, the splendor of the vestments, the architecture of the church etc. And it was heartening to see the side altars being used for their intended purpose.

The rousing homily formed a fitting conclusion to the pilgrimage. It was a celebration of the traditional liturgy and the role it must play it in the “apocalyptic” situation we live in today. It is a Mass that indeed represents the grandeur of the Christian ages, when Christ’s kingship was most widely acknowledged by men. Yet it also best expresses the deepest needs of the soul in the midst of the complete denial of that kingship by the present “apostate” age. It is our “imperative obligation to ensure the transmission of what we have received to the generation to come.”

…It is important to remember that this Mass was formed at the same time the West was constituting itself as Christian….The Roman Mass was fully constituted when the ideal of Christendom received its maturity. It is the Mass of Christendom.

Of course it is not enough to celebrate Mass as if we wish to lay a stone enabling the reconstruction of Christendom. Other struggles are necessary. But the anti-modern character of our liturgy, in contrast to a liturgy thst imitates profane fashions and language, helps us powerfully to put the priestly and royal mark of Christ on the whole of our personal, family and public life.

“Jesus,” said the good thief,  “remember Me when you come into your Kingdom.”  In other words, while Peter had denied Him and all the apostles except for Saint John had gone into hiding, it is this dying man who makes the most formidable confession of Christ’s kingship, thus becoming the first Christian saint. “This very night you will be with me in paradise.”  Let this confession be ours. “The Lamb ,who was slain, is worthy ,” says the Apocalypse in the passage that serves as an introduction to this Mass, “to receive power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honor; to Him be glory and power forever and ever.”

( Excerpts from the homily of Fr. Claude Barthe – I have slightly amended the English translation.)

Continue to Part VI: All Souls Day