Review: Seven Sacraments: The Traditional vs. the New Rites
The law of prayer determines the law of belief and in turn the law of practice. How we pray determines what we believe and how we live. This is the premise of Daniel Graham’s Lex Orandi, Comparing the Traditional and Novus Ordo Rites of the Seven Sacraments.
Graham lays the texts of the Novus Ordo and Tridentine sacraments side by side to help people chose the primary teacher of their law of belief. He holds that as truth by its nature is essential and doesn’t change: the rites of the sacraments convey something immutable (6). Therefore, changes to those sacraments for ecumenical purposes lead to a fragmented Church (38). Graham’s presentation of the Novus Ordo sacraments illustrates themes which convey their ecumenical bent. A collective relationship in them to include Protestants comes from the idea of universal salvation.
Penance is the sacrament which perhaps best illustrates this new collective reality. Traditional Penance is an encounter with a judge who suffers for us. Novus Ordo Penance has an encounter with a judge, but the judge suffered for the common good and the penitent is one of the beneficiaries (49). Penance’s sacramental value is completely devalued to make it seem like counseling (39).
Although Penance presents this collective relationship to Protestantism most clearly, it is far from being the only illustration of the point. Baptism becomes an inclusion ceremony exclusively, not a battle with the Devil over a person’s soul (11). Faith in the Eucharist is devalued to consent to a common opinion (66). Once the idea of a collective relationship becomes apparent, the inclusion of Protestants in it is easily established. Perhaps most illustrative of this is the new baptismal rite which merely marries the Anglican rite with Lutheran and Calvinist ideals (36).
Protestant inclusion is a pervasive theme in Graham’s work. Use of the New American Bible texts at Mass is one of the more overt illustrations of it (64). That text serves the best ecumenical purposes. Confirmation’s new text likewise presents an inclusion into a broader Christian community (116).
A collective relationship with God which includes Protestants has a more fundamental basis, universal salvation. Indeed, the new rites of the sacraments present a man already worthy of God (192). Already worthy of God, he is merely welcomed at Baptism, not freed from sin (37).
The Eucharist furthers that theme. Instead of it being about Our Lord coming to change sinners’ souls, focus shifts to illustration of the fundamental ever-improving goodness of man (104). An ancillary point to that is the changed role of the priest. His focus is no longer sacrifice and salvation but improving living conditions for mankind (185).
Graham proves his thesis beyond doubt that the New Rite of the Sacraments presents a new, collective relationship between God and man. That relationship points easily towards Protestant inclusion. The underlying theme of universal salvation underpins both points.
Though the author proves his thesis well, he at times falls victim to his own attention to detail. He is so eager to make connections to expose the deficiencies in the New Rite of the Sacraments that he makes some points that seem a bit exaggerated:
As noted before, in Traditional Ordination, the promise of obedience comes after ordination. This sequence teaches that being a priest and fidelity to Christ takes precedence over obedience to the bishop. In Novus Ordo Ordination, the opposite is true with the promise of obedience before ordination, in the same manner as the Anglicans; obedience to the organization takes precedence over being a priest. (181)
While making a change that conforms to the Anglican rite is far from ideal, to say that changing that order changes the order of precedence seems to be a stretch.
Graham illustrates the shift in the New Rite from God to man. He correctly points out that love of neighbor, emphasized in the New Rite, only had meaning from the love of God, which has primacy in the Old.
But he concludes, “Put in more modern terms, loving God, which is the concern of religion, needs to take precedence over loving neighbor, which is the concern of politics” (193). To say that the love of neighbor is the proper sphere of politics devalues the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. It goes too far.
While the book is very informative and deep, at times it becomes a little too deep. That being said, it does provide very clear and useful information to anyone making a detailed study of the New Rite of the Sacraments.
TITLE IMAGE: Rogier van der Weyden, The Seven Sacraments, detail (1445-1450).
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