Attraction, Not Promotion

I have often been blunt in my criticisms of slipshod Catholics, even prelates. I don't say the criticisms weren't merited.

But I have recently had occasion to reflect on what drew me into the Church, then, much later, to the traditional Latin Mass.

I came into the Church because it was only there that I found the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. That made all other arguments irrelevant to me.

The attraction to the Latin Mass was more gradual. I engaged with many online Trads for several years, and what I experienced was denigration of the "novas ordo" and the implication that that worship was inferior or even invalid. Even though I hated liturgical abuse and the silliness I encountered in the 1980s, I reacted defensively to such attacks. I knew that, whatever its deficiencies, any valid Mass offered the true presence of Jesus Christ and the opportunity to receive Him in Holy Communion.

One voice was different. He made no secret of his love for the Latin Mass--he referred to himself as a "knuckle-dragging traditionalist." But he never suggested that I was evil or deluded for attending the Pauline Mass. He sent me a video 📹 of the traditional Mass (since there wasn't one within hundreds of miles of me), along with some Latin devotional materials). Ever gentle, ever respectful.

When I moved to San Diego, I found I had some colleagues who assisted at the Latin Mass (the bishop grudgingly permitted a Sunday Mass in the mausoleum, but no parish activities or weekday Masses). Then one week I was invited to a Mass and talk given by the regional superior of the FSSP. I wanted to hear the talk, so I went to the Mass. That's it. Remote preparation, curiosity, and a simple invitation. No bluntness required.

Later, I had the opportunity to meet Abbot of Fontgombault Dom Antoine Forgeot when he came to Oklahoma to acquire land for the Clear Creek foundation. Most striking were his holiness and humility. I later found the same in all of the founding monks, these men who had undergone a white martyrdom for decades to preserve their traditional Liturgy and Rites. Those qualities have brought them such an abundance of vocations that within scarcely a decade they are already making a second, possibly a third, foundation.

I have often said that the occupational hazard of the apologist is to focus on winning the argument rather than the soul. For the traditionalist, I sometimes think the focus is on being right instead of being loving.

By "loving," of course, I don't mean sentimental or cuddly. I mean wanting the good for another, and humbly offering to help him achieve that good. As I look back on my own conversions, I realize that they were effected by attraction, not argument. I saw someone living his faith deeply, and I wanted what he had.

The question I am forced to ask myself is: If someone witnessed the way I live my faith, would he want what I have? And, if so, would I know how to help him get it?