FILIPINO TRADITIONAL ROMAN CATHOLIC: On the Cross, Parables and Paradoxes

Sunday, June 13, 2010

On the Cross, Parables and Paradoxes

Cross marker in San Miguel Island, Tabaco City, Philippines

I am impressed by the homily delivered by the Holy Father in his mass at the Church of the Holy Cross in Paphos, Republic of Cyprus. He spoke about the cross as form of capital punishment for the ancient Romans , on which our Lord Jesus was crucified. Today we took on this symbol as a symbol of salvation and liberation. It was carried by Christ and now carried forth by the Church as a symbol of God's saving power. I wonder why our Lord often teach us precious lesson by means of parables and paradoxes. Perhaps this is to challenge us and help us see that with God nothing is impossible. Who would ever think that the instrument of cruel punishment will become the symbol of our salvation and freedom. God works in many ways. Our feeble mind will never be able to fathom such love. God's ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. This brings us close to the core idea that we have to truly surrender our will to God's will. This is our challenge, this is our battle. We must overcome our "selves". This may seem impossible at least for us but the Grace of the Lord is sufficient for us. If only we will accept it with faith.

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A 13 years old boy............. in 1983, but now I am a golden boy, gaining weight and wiser, but younger at heart. I consider myself as a “novus ordo baby” because I was born in the late 60s after the 2nd Vatican Council introduced the novus ordo missae and grew up confronted by the confusions as a result. Like my generation I never saw what the church was like prior to Vatican II, but I am a living witness to the gradual disappearance of religious traditions we hold dear. Young as I was then I could not understand what was going on. But I suffered the sense of loss as I saw how the modernizing influence in the church disfigured the liturgy and clouded the way we believe and practice our faith. But then being a child, powerless, not knowing what it was, and why it happened, I simply drifted into the sea of confusion, too young to understand. With a glimmer of faith in my heart, planted by baptism and confirmation, strengthened by the sound teachings of my parents and grandparents, I sailed into the sea of life, day after day, seeing the changes happen, feeling the sense of abandonment, yet God was merciful to me. In 2005 I discovered the Traditional Latin Mass or commonly known in the post-conciliar period as the Tridentine Mass. I began to love the rite of mass that has nourished my ancestors, the saints and the martyrs. I am eternally grateful to His Holiness Pope John Paul II for recognizing the rightful aspirations of Catholics attached to the ancient forms of the Roman Rite through his apostolic letter ECCLESIA DEI DI AFFLICTA. I am also eternally grateful to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for liberating the Traditional Latin Mass through his apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum. I fully agree with the program of his pontificate regarding the Hermeneutics of Continuity and disdain the hermeneutics of rupture. Today I consider myself a Traditional Roman Catholic attached to the liturgical discipline of 1962 as outlined in the Motu Proprio SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM of his Holiness. I believe that there is only one Roman Rite, the Ordinary and the Extraordinary and that the Mass in whatever form should be celebrated with dignity. My voyage is on. Join me in this quest.

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FILIPINO TRADITIONAL ROMAN CATHOLIC

Sunday, June 13, 2010

On the Cross, Parables and Paradoxes

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The Word Made Flesh

Tu es Petro (You are Peter...)

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