John the Baptist was strange. He wore strange clothes and ate strange food. He is called the greatest prophet in history, and yet he left the most important city in the world to go preach in the desert. Why? John was called to prepare the culture for the coming of the Messiah. Why would he leave the very center of culture?
In going to the wilderness, John was not fleeing his mission or abandoning the culture. Rather, in order to better carry out his mission, he knew that he needed to get away from the corruption he saw. In order to have the credibility to speak truth to power and prepare the way of the Lord, he needed to leave worldly influences behind. John knew he could never fulfill his mission or save the culture by himself blending in with it. Rather, he did the opposite. He became strange.
The result of John’s separation from the culture was not that he became isolated, but that people came to him. Other people also wanted to repent of the corruption in which they had become participants. The crowds going out to the wilderness were probably not that big compared to the people in Jerusalem, but this is how God works. He tends to take a small, even strange, group and change the world.
In celebrating the ancient Latin Mass of the Church, we too do something strange. The culture says that in order to evangelize and attract followers you need to make the Sacred Liturgy more “accessible;” to play the music loud and fast, and have a drum set if possible; get rid of any separation between laity and ordained; remove a sense of the sacred in favor of a sense of welcoming. Is that what John the Baptist would do? When it comes to the Sacred Liturgy, I think the more it strikes us as strange and not of this world, the more we’ve got it exactly right. Stepping into a Catholic church, and especially into the Mass, should be the most other-worldly experience anyone can get. Trying to make it more like what is popular in the culture is exactly backwards.
Celebrating a rite that has remained the same for 1500 years is a bold statement in the face of a culture that demands conformity to what is new and popular. Society demands constant updating. Going to Latin Mass is a bit like St. John leaving Jerusalem behind to go to the Jordan. It’s risky. What if people don’t follow? Somehow, I really don’t think John cared. He knew he was doing what God wanted him to do.
In the face of our culture continuing to devolve, I think the Church needs to have the courage of John to know who she is and to speak the truth boldly and clearly. People will come. If the Church steps up to fulfill her prophetic mission, then people will come as surely as they left Jerusalem to go to follow John. I don’t know how many… but I know it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we are faithful to our identity and mission. That’s what gave John such courage. We can’t change the Church or the culture all at once, but we can change one family at a time. St. John’s last bold act was to defend marriage. May he intercede today for marriage and for each Catholic family to have the courage to be strange.