Fr. Bill’s Corner - May 4, 2008
I have enjoyed presenting the Mass 101 series on Wednesday evenings during the past few weeks. I thank all of you who came and participated in those discussions. I would also like to thank Anna Arnesen Mosey for presenting the Tuesday morning sessions. I think that we both had great turnouts and we look forward to presenting another 101 series soon.
In considering the Mass there are a variety of liturgical images that are relevant. The Mass is the proclamation of Holy Scripture. The Mass is a sacrifice in which Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb offers himself to the Father through the person of the priest. The Mass is also a holy meal in which the Father gives back his Son to the faithful under the appearance of bread and wine as food for the journey to everlasting life.
As God’s holy people, the Church, we gather at Mass to encounter the presence of Jesus in God’s holy word through the actions of the Holy Spirit. We listen to accounts from the past that become present in our hearing. We call this part of the Mass the “Liturgy of the Word.” This experience of Jesus in listening to the reading of Sacred Scripture naturally leads to our celebration of the next way we encounter Jesus, which is in the “Liturgy of the Eucharist.” Representatives of the congregation then bring forth gifts of bread and wine, together with a monetary offering, as symbols of the congregation’s gift of self and of the whole world to the Father that is reminiscent of Jesus’ gift of self on the cross. The Church’s minister accepts the gifts for the good of the people and “for the good of all [God’s] Church.” The priest then offers the bread and wine to the Father and calls on the people to pray that these gifts may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father. After a brief prayer to God the Father, the priest begins the Preface (preface means “to do in front of”). “The Lord be with you,” says the priest. The faithful respond, “And also with you.” “Lift up your hearts.” “We have lifted them up to the Lord.” Through this dialogue of the priest with the people, the celebrant calls upon the participants to raise themselves to the heavenly realm and give “thanks to the Lord our God.” The Preface concludes with a joyful exclamation: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might….”
The Mass then proceeds to the Eucharistic Prayer during which the priest, together with the people, ask God the Father to bless the gifts of bread and wine and to make them holy. What then happens in the Mass is called “the epiclesis.” The celebrant calls upon the Holy Spirit to “come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Picking up the host, the priest then remembers in words what happened at the Last Supper (“Jesus took the bread and gave you thanks and praise. He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said,”), and says “This is my Body….” He then shows the Body of Christ to the people. Taking the cup of wine, the priest again remembers what happened (“When supper was ended, he took the cup. Again he gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples and said:”) and repeats Jesus’ words over the cup (“Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my blood...”). The priest then shows the Blood of Christ in the chalice to the people.
These are just a few of the topics we considered in Mass 101. If you would like to expand your appreciation of the Mass, I highly recommend a book by Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, OSB: What Happens at Mass (Liturgy Training Publications, 2005).
