And then Helena said something which seem to have no relevance. ‘Where is the cross, anyway?’
‘What cross, my dear?’ [said Pope Sylvester.]
‘The only one. The real one.’
‘I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows. I don’t think anyone has ever asked before.’
‘It must be somewhere. Wood doesn’t just melt like snow. It’s not 300 years old. The temples here are full of beams and paneling twice that age. It stands to reason God would take more care of the cross then of them.’
‘Nothing “stands to reason” with God. If He had wanted us to have it, no doubt He would have given it to us. But He hasn’t chosen to. He gives us enough.’
‘But how do you know He doesn’t want to say have it — the cross, I mean. I bet He’s just waiting for one of us to go and find it — Just at this moment when it’s most needed. Just at this moment when everyone is forgetting it and chattering about that hypostatic union, there’s a solid chunk of wood waiting for them to have their silly heads knocked against. I’m going off to find it,’ said Helena.
Helena, Evelyn Waugh
Waugh died sixty years ago after hearing the traditional Mass said by a Jesuit friend, at Waugh’s request. A convert, he was not a fan, to put it mildly, of the changes in the Mass ushered in by Vatican II. Go here to read an article he wrote in 1962. Vatican II has been a great train wreck in the life of the Church, and Waugh saw it coming.
A year in which the process of transforming the liturgy has followed a planned course. Protests avail nothing… More than the aesthetic changes which rob the Church of poetry, mystery and dignity, there are suggested changes in Faith and morals which alarm me. A kind of anti-clericalism is abroad which seeks to reduce the priest‘s unique sacramental position. The Mass is written of as a “social meal” in which the “people of God” perform the consecration. Pray God I will never apostatize but I can only now go to church as an act of duty and obedience.
- Diary entry (Easter 1965), quoted in The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Michael Davie (1976), p. 793
The problem with Modernism is a crisis of currency. It prioritizes the here and now over the eternal, characterized as the past. Thus, to become “Relevant to the Modern Man” it must eschew the transcendent and rings like a bent cymbal moments after its inauguration.
“problem with Modernism is a crisis of currency…”
Untethered demanding adherence.
Clarity from a great Catholic man.
The current cadre of bishops would be shaking in the pride vestments near him.