THE HISTORY OF THE TRADITIONAL OR TRIDENTINE MASS Rama P. Coomaraswamy, M.D. "The work of our redemption is accomplished on the altar" Secret, 9th Sunday after Pentecost O God, Who hast sanctioned the diversity of offerings by the perfection of one sacrifice, receive the sacrifice offered Thee by Thy devoted servants, and sanctify it as Thou didst sanctify the gifts of Abel, that what each one hath offered to the glory of Thy majesty may profit for the salvation of all Through ourLord... Secret, Seventh Sunday after Pentecost "Cursed be the man who performs to the work of God improperl y" Jeremiah. XLVIII.10 In tracing the history of the Tridentine Mass one can follow two possible courses. One can eitherfollow events from the time of the Last Supper - not a development as many claim, but rather a "fleshing out" of the divine outline, or one can look to the "pre-Christian" period and see how the Traditio nal Mass - the central rite ofour faith, incorporates within it, and brings to fruition, all the sacrificial rites of the old dispensation, and indeed, ofthe entire world. While attempting to do both within the confines of a short essay, it is the latter aspect that will be emphasized. Finally I shall attempt to show how our participation in the traditional Mass is in fact our participation in the whole life of Christ - how through participation in the Mass we are baptized with Christ, die with Christ and are resurrected with Christ. Let it be clear from the outset that I am saying nothing original in what follows, unless of course there be errors in the exposition. The topic is, as Father Marmion says, "an ineffable subject... Even the priest, who makes the Eucharistic Sacrifice the center and sun of his life, is powerless to put into words the marvels that the love of Christ Jesus has there gathered up. All that man, a mere creature, can say of this mystery come forth from the Heart of God, remains so far beneath the reality that, when we have said all that we know of it, it is as if we had said nothing. there is no subject the priest loves more and at the same time dreads more to speak of, so high and holy is this mystery." 1 Let us begin with the traditional Mass as we know it. I say , as we know it, because it is essentially unchanged from the time of its establishment to the present day. As Father Barry said, should a Christian from the first century return to life, and walk into a Church where the Tridentine Mass was being said, he would recognize it as the Mass he was familiar with. This is why we call it the "traditional Mass" - the Mass which was literally "handed down" and again "The Mass of all times." I avoid the use of the phrase "Latin Mass," because this can referto a variety of different rites including theNovus Ordo Missae. I would like you to imagine the situation in Palestine following the Pentecost. Shortly after St. Peter said the first Mass in the same room where Christ established the rite, the twelve Apostles dispersed throughout the world, carrying with them, not the Bible, but rather that most precious of all precious things, ourtraditional Mass. They went to different parts of the world - St. James to Spain, Joseph of Arimathea - even though not an Apostle - to England, St. Thomas to India, Peter and Paul to Rome and the others throughout the Middle East. And each of them brought with them the central and essential rite which we know as the Mass. Each of the Apostle s adapted the Mass to the nations in which they found themselves. Of course, it was within the perogatives of the 1 Some claim that the word priest is not used in the New Test ament. This is true. So long, namely as the bloody sacrifices of the Mosaic rites, together with the Aaronic priesthood, the temple of Jerusalem and the various Jewish ceremonies were in evidence, the Apostles discreetly refrained from the use of such words as priest, sacrifice, altar, or church, so that by this contrast they might impress the faithful with the difference between the Jewish religion and the Church of Christ. It was done that no one might think the Apostles were imitating the Mosaic priesthood, abolished by Christ, when the new priesthood had been instituted in its place. But as soon as the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the priesthood which could not sacrifice elsewhere but in Jerusalem ceased, the disciples began immediately to use such words as priest, altar, sacrifice. St. Ignatius , the disciple of St. John, was one of the first to use these words. Af terhim, the erly Fathers of the Church such as Tertullian , Cyprian, Ambrose, Eusebius and Jerome, use the words in all their epistles. 1
