Thank You to Unam Sanctam for saying this!
Traditionalism has grown more popular in recent years.
And with it has come a ridiculous level of pharisaism to go with it.
A lot of people make liturgy their pet issue as if Jesus Christ died to create a liturgy and not our personal holiness.
I'm sick of arguments about communion in the hand. Nobody is going to hell because of it.
Mass is of enormous importance. But it's one hour out of my week. There was a time when people didn't go to Mass every week; sometimes they only received the Eucharist once a year.
Did they have a weaker faith?
This hyper-focus on the Mass takes away from things that are far more important. The most important, of course, are charity and holiness. And second to that, orthodoxy.
Lex orandi, lex credendi is all well and good, but even more important than what you pray or believe is what you do.
People can most certainly have a lively faith without the Mass.
The Mass is supposed to add to the faith, not be the faith.
And I know that I will be accused of being some type of liberal or modernist, somebody who wants to chuck tradition for some contemporary theology.
That's not me at all. What I'm saying is that the Mass should be put in the correct perspective.
By all means, love the Latin Mass, advance the idea of a Catholic identity, be fearless with your Catholic roots.
Just don't make it the be-all end-all of the faith.
Nobody is going to hell because there's no Latin Mass.
But idolatry of the Latin Mass can definitely lead to hell.
