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The Sacrifice Of Cain & Abel
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By-- Matthew Smith
The problem between the Tridentine Mass and the Novus Ordo
(or should I say, "Bugninian") Mass involved the human race
thousands of years before the abomination took place in 1969.
The trouble started, not with Vatican II, not with the so-called
Reformation, not even with the Schism between the Latin and the
Greek Churches. No, the stage for the Novus Ordo Missae was
set by Cain and Abel.
In Genesis, Cain and Abel both offer a sacrifice to God. Cain
brought vegetation. Abel brought a lamb. Gerry Matatics, I am
told, although I've yet to read the essay or article--has put forth
a theory that God found Cain's sacrifice unworthy because it was
the worst of the vegetation, while Abel's sacrifice was loved because
it was a spotless lamb. I agree, but I'd take that a step further
and clarify the difference as this: Cain worked to give a sacrifice,
Abel didn't.
Let's start from the top:
Abel became a keeper of the flocks and Cain a tiller of the soil. (4:2)
We have a dichotomy: the priestly class versus the laity.
Abel the "keeper of the flocks" does little overt physical labor.
He watches, guides, leads, and saves sheep which have wandered off.
In short, the first priestly man. He is not a priest yet, because
he has yet to make a sacrifice. Cain on the other hand is a layman.
He is the one who must provide the quotidian. He works, he gets his
hands dirty, he groans under the yoke of labor. There is nothing
wrong with that. In fact it is perfectly respectable if not
sanctifying. However, the trouble comes when the sacrifice is made.
The Lord is pleased by Abel's sacrifice, but not by Cain's.
Why is this? Because Abel was called by God to sacrifice the Lamb.
The prophetic reference is obvious. Furthermore, Abel did not create
the lamb himself. It (the lamb) was given by God and merely tended
by Abel, who gave it back with praise and thanksgiving.
Cain, on the other hand, worked to give the Lord a sacrifice as
if to say, "Here, Lord, this is what I did for you." Abel said,
'This is what you have given to me, and I give it back to you.'
Let's just think about how the New Order of the Mass mimics Cain's
vain and unworthy sacrifice:
"fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it shall
become for us, our spiritual drink."
There is not a single reference to God nor the sacrifice on Calvary.
It does talk about humans, us, and our-- the community !
It would have been better for Cain to leave the sacrificial action
to Abel. As St. Alphonsus Ligouri tells us, a man who forces his way
into the sanctuary as a priest is condemned to Hell. Cain had no
business feigning a sacrifice. He would have been better off to
sanctify his agricultural work by offering up his suffering and toil
to the glory of God:
"If you do well, you can hold up your head;
but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door" (4:7)
This leads me to separate contemplative orders from active orders along
the same lines. Both have their places and their own virtues. The virtue
of active orders is precisely that they sancify themselves by offering up
to God their work, the sorrow which they witness, the joy and comfort
which they bring and so on. In short, their work is their prayer.
For Contemplatives, on the other hand, prayer is their work. Notice
the difference, too, that Actives work to sanctify themselves through
work and thereby (hopefully) sancify others. Contemplatives seek to
sancify others through prayer and thereby sanctify themselves. Please
also notice that the emphasis since Vatican II has been on Activity
rather than on Contemplation.
The primary difference between the Tridentine Mass and the New Rite is
that no one in the Old Rite can say, "I did this," or "I made this."
Even though St. Thomas Aquinas my have written the prayers for the
Feast of Corpus Christi, he would say that he was only a warm body
though which God wrote. He was loathe to take or even acknowledge
credit for his work because he knew that it wasn't his work. (see
article on "Short History of the Roman Mass")
The same may be said for Pope St. Pius V who codified the Mass at
Trent. He really did nothing. He took no credit for the Mass because
he knew it wasn't his to credit himself. Pope St. Gregory the Great
was nothing more than a warm body for God to use.
He didn't create the Mass. He only codified. He and St. Pius V
did just what Abel did: they took the spotless Lamb which God
entrusted to them, and they offered it back to the God who gave it.
The fanfare surrounding the New Order bespeaks not only of the
human origin but of the hubris which caused the humans to try to
one-up the Divine. How many of you already know of the statements
by Annabale Bugnini and his liturgical cohorts gloating that they
have destroyed the Old Rite; that they succeeded in overthrowing
the Old Order. I ask you to click onto other websites and read what
the innovators themselves have said about their work, about their
liturgy, about their revolution. To quote them here goes beyond
the time and space that I have here. And it would be redundant
to many of you.
Lastly, consider the Cainistic treatment which Traditionalists have
received from the Church. The Traditional Abels were brought out into
the field and murdered by the Novus Ordo Cains.
Countless chapels, and orders I've never even heard of have all been
put down because of their love for the Tradition Latin Mass.
And what do the "obedient" Novus Ordo Roman Catholics have to say
about this? 'It's not our problem.' 'We are not responsible for
the Traditionalists.' "Am I my brother's keeper?" they ask.
"What have you done! " cries out the Lord. And he then orders
Cain to wander the Earth. He may no longer plow and he becomes
afraid that he will die. Is it any wonder that there is a shortage
of priests and that the priests that they do get are deviants?
It is a punishment from God.:
"If you till the soil, it shall no longer
give you its produce."
The Novus ordo folks have a pathological need to continue to change
the liturgy and to try to change the doctrine which ever way the
wind blows:
"You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth."
They complain that "conservatives" make them unhappy in the Church.
The truth is that the liberals and modernists are unhappy because
they have been banished and have subsequently lost their way.
Until the Traditional Latin Mass is restored as the liturgical norm,
the Faithful will continue to become faithless.
And the blood shall continue to cry out to God from the soil.
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Copyright 1997, All rights reserved.
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