Critical Mass

(Reminder: check out the USCCB Committee for Divine Worship web page for Missal Formation on a regular basis)

I wrote a book (hopefully the first volume of a set) about the new English translation of the Mass to be used starting in Advent of 2010. The book is called Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People. I'm self-printing and self-publishing it through Lulu.com, but it's not available yet.

Copyright Permissions
I have received copyright permissons from the International Committee on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) for the English text of the Mass! I am still waiting for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) to provide appoval for use of the Latin text in the book. I have shipped a second copy myself (Registered Mail™, Return Receipt) on June 24th. I included a letter to Cardinal Llovera. Maybe I'll hear back from them in July!

Diocesan Approval
I have sent a copy to my diocesan office to apply for an imprimatur; they received it on May 15th and they'll get back to me. (It would be great if the bishop knows about it by the time I meet with him on a totally unrelated matter on June 2nd.)

Critical Reviews
I sent another copy across the ocean to a priest in England who offered to read and review it on his blog. He's had it for a few days and likes what he has read so far; he'll be offering some feedback (and perhaps some ways to make it more marketable to the English-speakers across the pond). I've also sent a PDF version to a few other people/places — Amy Welborn (wife of the late Michael Dubruiel to whom my book is dedicated), Mike Aquilina (author of The Mass of the Early Christians), and CatholicCulture.org. I've also sent a copy to the unsinkable Adoremus Bulletin. There are also several other people (one of whom is a liturgical director of a parish in Texas, one of whom is a religious Sister, another who is a priest in California) who are reading it.

I have critical reviews (blurbs) for the back cover from Jeff Mirus of Catholic Culture and from fellow author Mike Aquilina of The Way of the Fathers.

Foreword
My brother, Fr. Charlie (ordained 17 years!), has completed his foreword. I am very pleased with it, and I thank him profoundly for it. You can read the whole thing here:

It is with great pleasure and fraternal pride that I welcome you to this immensely useful and inspiring work. Great pleasure – because I am sure that those who read it will be edified in their approach to participating at Mass. Fraternal pride – because the author is my younger brother and godson!

In 1992, at my Mass of Thanksgiving the day following my ordination to the priesthood, altar server Jeffrey helped lead the way as the crucifer. Now it is my turn to lead the way into a great work of faith on his part.

Praying the Mass is a helpful and accessible volume for anyone who would like to enter more deeply into the experience of the Eucharistic liturgy. And it is especially useful because of the pending implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal.

Jeffrey skillfully weaves together theology, history and spirituality to explain why we pray, how we pray and what we pray at Mass. While this book is written primarily to guide lay people, I expect that priests and deacons will also find much to nourish their own prayerful participation at Mass as well.

In his 2009 homily on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Pope Benedict warned of the risk of “a formal and empty Eucharistic worship, in celebrations lacking this participation from the heart that is expressed in veneration and respect for the liturgy.” This book contributes to the movement to stir “participation from the heart” and is most timely indeed.

Rev. Charles Pinyan
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, 2009

Revisions
I've made some revisions (content-wise and layout-wise) over the past couple of weeks. I am adding a good chunk on the Psalter, but apart from that (and some typos and corrections), the writing is done. I have recently added quotes from Pope Pius XI on the participation of the faithful in the Mass (exercising their baptismal priesthood). I have also introduced a visual mark for quick recognition of what has changed in the translation: the » mark appears in the left margin to denote the new text.

Lend a hand
If you would like to help review the book (grammar, style, content, etc.) and you've got some time in June to read 150 pages about the new English translation of the Mass, email me, and I can send you the lateset PDF!

Lend a prayer
And, of course, I need prayer. Please pray for the success of this endeavor of mine, not so much for my benefit, but for the benefit of English-speaking Catholics everywhere! Please keep offering prayers for this project!

I'm also beginning research for the second volume, The Prayers of the Priest. I am almost done compiling the Scriptural references. I hope to get started in earnest on this book by the end of June.

[Also posted on The Cross Reference]

The season of Lent is nearly upon us. I strongly recommend that you take the time to read the Holy Father's Lenten message.

Lent is meant to prepare us (and those catechumens and candidates who are seeking to enter into full communion with the Church) "to celebrate the Paschal mystery" (Paschale Solemnitatis 6), that turning point in salvation history when the Lord of all creation willingly gave his life for us on the cross, and was resurrected in glory after "resting on the Sabbath". It is "a time of purification and enlightenment" (PS 7), not only for the catechumens but for all the faithful as well.

Because "the time of Lent preserves its penitential character" (Paenitemini II, 1), "the virtue and practice of penance form a necessary part of the preparation for Easter" (PS 14). Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical on the liturgy Mediator Dei, wrote that during Lent, "our Holy Mother the Church over and over again strives to make each of us seriously consider our misery, so that we may be urged to a practical emendation of our lives, detest our sins heartily and expiate them by prayer and penance. For constant prayer and penance done for past sins obtain for us divine help, without which every work of ours is useless and unavailing." (MD 157)

The Second Vatican Council, in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, had this to say of the renewal of this most important liturgical season:

109. The season of Lent has a twofold character: primarily by recalling or preparing for baptism and by penance, it disposes the faithful, who more diligently hear the word of God and devote themselves to prayer, to celebrate the paschal mystery. This twofold character is to be brought into greater prominence both in the liturgy and by liturgical catechesis. Hence:

a) More use is to be made of the baptismal features proper to the Lenten liturgy; some of them, which used to flourish in bygone days, are to be restored as may seem good.

b) The same is to apply to the penitential elements. As regards instruction it is important to impress on the minds of the faithful not only the social consequences of sin but also that essence of the virtue of penance which leads to the detestation of sin as an offence against God; the role of the Church in penitential practices is not to be passed over, and the people must be exhorted to pray for sinners.

110. During Lent penance should not be only internal and individual, but also external and social. The practice of penance should be fostered in ways that are possible in our own times and in different regions, and according to the circumstances of the faithful... .

Nevertheless, let the Paschal fast be kept sacred. Let it be celebrated everywhere on Good Friday and, where possible, prolonged throughout Holy Saturday, so that the joys of the Sunday of the Resurrection may be attained with uplifted and clear mind.

The Second Reading from the First Sunday of Lent (Year B) is 1 Peter 3:18-22, in which the Prince of the Apostles relates the waters of baptism to the waters of the flood. Baptism, one of the foundational themes of Lent, is a major part of the Easter Vigil celebration. The Easter Vigil includes a lengthy prayer over the water to be used for baptism. Part of this prayer speaks of the waters of the flood:

1962 Missal	2002 Missal
Deus, qui nocentis mundi crimina per aquas abluens, regenerationis speciem in ipsa diluvii effusione signasti: ut, unius eiusdemque elementi mysterio, et finis vitiis, et origo virtutibus.	Deus, qui regenerationis speciem in ipsa diluvii effusione signasti, ut unius eiusdemque elementi mysterio et finis vitiis et origo virtutum.

The texts of the prayer in the 1962 Missal (Extraordinary Form) and the 2002 Missal (Ordinary Form) are almost identical. The translation of this part of the prayer is:

O God, Who
[ by water washed away the crimes of the guilty world, and ]
by the pouring out of the deluge gave
a figure of regeneration,
that of one and the same element might be, by a mystery,
an end to vices and a beginning of [ or: to ] virtues!

(Translation note: virtutibus means "to virtues", whereas virtutum means "of virtues".)

This prayer of the Easter Vigil glorifies God by remembering His many deeds wrought through water. The prayer (in both forms) calls to mind:

1. the waters "in the beginning" over which His Spirit moved,
2. the waters of the Flood through which Noah and his family were saved,
3. the waters of the Red Sea which destroyed Pharoah's army and through which the Israelites were delivered,
4. the waters of the Jordan in which our Lord was baptized,
5. the water and blood which poured forth from the side of our crucified Lord,
6. and the water in which our Lord commands us to be baptized.

The Extraordinary Form also recalls:

1. the four rivers flowing out of Eden,
2. the water from the rock in Exodus,
3. the water-made-wine at Cana,
4. and the waters upon which the Lord walked.

It is no wonder, then, that the Lord God chose water as the means by which we enter the covenant of Christ. God's plan to incorporate the material in His work of spiritual redemption is proper to our nature, being both flesh and spirit. The God Who is the "maker ... of all things, visible and invisible" (Nicene Creed) has reconciled and united both the visible (the physical) and the invisible (the spiritual) in the Church and her sacraments, just as His only-begotten Son reconciled and united Jew and Gentile in himself.

As we prepare to take up the cross of Lent so as to worthily celebrate the mystery of salvation at Easter, let us call to mind our baptism, and recommit ourselves to the life we were configured to when we "put on Christ" (Gal 3:27) in that wondrous "washing of water with the word" (Eph 5:26), the "washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).

This is awesome! God bless Bishop Serratelli and the rest of the USCCB Committee for Divine Worship!

There is now a PDF of the revised Order of the Mass with Scriptural annotations! This is the sort of thing I find tremendously valuable for liturgical catechesis.

Do you have any questions about the Mass — its parts, its origins, its basis in Scripture, its symbolism, etc. — that you would like to ask? Ask away!

The second section of the Mass, after the Introductory Rites, is called the "Liturgy of the Word" in the Ordinary Form (OF) and the "Mass of the Catechumens" in the Extraordinary Form (EF). This part of the Mass consists of readings from Scripture, along with a psalm and a homily (or sermon), followed by the Creed (on certain days) and the Prayer of the Faithful.

It is customary in the Ordinary Form, according to the ancient tradition of the Church, for catechumens (those who are preparing for baptism) to be dismissed after the homily and before the Creed.

As the Liturgy of the Word begins, the exchange between God and man has come this far: we have approached God at His altar, received His mercy, and responded by glorified Him in thanksgiving. This exchange continues as we hear the Word of God spoken in the liturgy.

Readings from Scripture

The Missal used for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass typically has two readings from Scripture: the Lesson or Epistle (depending on whether it is from the Old or New Testament) and the Gospel. Between these there is a Psalm (called a Gradual). The cycle of readings repeated each year, and the readings on weekdays are usually those of the preceding Sunday (except on certain feasts, during Lent, and at certain other times of the year).

The Second Vatican Council called for the "treasures of the bible ... to be opened up more lavishly" so that "a more representative portion of the holy scriptures will be read to the people in the course of a prescribed number of years." (SC 51) In the reforms which produced the Ordinary Form of the Mass, this directive has been applied in three ways:

1. On Sundays and certain feast days, there are three readings from Scripture: the first usually from the Old Testament (except during the Easter season when it is taken from the Acts of the Apostles), the second usually from the New Testament letters (except during the Easter season when it is taken from St. John's book of Revelation), and the third from Gospels. There is also a Psalm — called the Responsorial Psalm because it is a response to the first reading — between the first and second readings; this may be sung as a Gradual or in a responsorial style (between the cantor/choir and the congregation).
2. The Sunday cycle of readings has been extended from one year to three years. In Year A we hear Matthew's Gospel, in Year B we hear Mark's (supplemented by John's), and in Year C we hear Luke's. The first reading is usually strongly related to the Gospel reading. The second readings are arranged, generally, to go through the letters chapter by chapter.
   
3. On weekdays, a two-year cycle of readings has been introduced. This cycle is completely independent from the Sunday cycle. There are still only two readings (with a Psalm in between them), with the first reading taken from either the Old or the New Testament.
   

The First and Second Readings

In the beginning of the Mass, we have spoken to God and come to Him in prayer. Now God speaks to us, He comes to us in His Word. Sacred Scripture is proclaimed to glorify God as well as to sanctify and instruct those who hear it.

We say "Thanks be to God" ("Deo gratias") at the conclusion of the First and Second Readings. (Liturgy of the Word, OM 10, 12) Because God has spoken through prophets and apostles, and the Holy Spirit has inspired the very words they wrote, it is necessary that we respond to hearing His word with gratitude. In the Scriptures, God speaks to us in magnificent prophecies; He also reveals their fulfillment through the coming of His Son. In the words of St. Paul, "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15)

While we thank God for the gift of His word, we must also remember that there are people in this world who haven't heard His word. That is why the mission of the Church is to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15), a gospel of "repentance and forgiveness of sins" (Luke 24:47).

The Psalm

The book of Psalms was the hymnal of the kingdom of Israel. It contains hymn-prayers of various types: penitence, worship, thanksgiving, and more. We respond to the First Reading with one of these Psalms, the words of ancient Israel; these words take on new meaning because they are fulfilled by Christ. Using these ancient prayers of Israel in the Mass reminds us that the mission of God began with His calling of Israel as a nation set apart for Himself.

Alleluia

To prepare for the proclamation of the Gospel, we sing "Alleluia", from the Hebrew phrase "Hallelu-Yah", which means "Praise the Lord!" (Liturgy of the Word, OM 13) We announce the coming of the Gospel with joy and praise for God.

During Lent, when the word "Alleluia" is not spoken, the Gospel is preceded with different words: in the Ordinary Form there there is either a verse from Scripture or an acclamation such as "Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory", while in the Extraordinary Form the Alleluia is replaced by a slow and mournful Tract (usually verses from a Psalm).

The Gospel

The gospels hold a special place among the Scriptures, because they recount the life of our Lord. When they are read in the Mass, we hear not only the word of God, but we hear that word from the Word-made-flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The priest or deacon asks for a blessing that they may worthily proclaim the Gospel. The priest blesses the deacon saying, "May the Lord be in your heart and on your lips..."; the priest himself prays similar words: "Cleanse my heart and my lips, Almighty God..." (Liturgy of the Word, OM 14; cf. Isaiah 6:6-7) As the Gospel begins, we sign our foreheads, our lips, and our hearts with the Sign of the Cross: this action is accompanied by a silent prayer that the Lord might keep the Gospel in our minds, on our lips, and in our hearts. This should be our prayer as we go out to fulfill the mission of the Church.

We also respond "Glory to you, O Lord" ("Gloria tibi, Domine"), and when the Gospel reading has ended, we say "Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ" ("Laus tibi, Christe"), more expressions of gratitude. (Liturgy of the Word, OM 15-16) The priest or deacon kisses the pages of the Gospel and prays silently "Through the words of the Gospel may our sins be wiped away", again acknowledging the power of the Gospel. (Liturgy of the Word, OM 16)

How can we preach the word of God to the world if we do not know it? It is through these readings of Scripture that we receive the second gift of the Mass, God's word. This word, the Gospel, testifies to the Word, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Homily or Sermon

In the readings, God has given to us His Word, including the message of the Gospel which we are to preach to the ends of the earth. But we need to understand it and know how to apply it our lives and to the world in which we live. In the homily or sermon, the priest or deacon explains the Scriptures to us, instructs us in the faith, and exhorts us to live according to the Gospel. Having received God's word, we now know what to do with it.

The Creed

In the Ordinary Form, after the Gospel, any catechumens who are present are dismissed from the Mass. This was an ancient custom of the Church: the profession of the Creed (which follows the homily) was something which a catechumen was not yet able to profess, and something which he would first profess at his baptism. The Creed is the "doorway" between the first and second halves of the Mass.

In the Creed, which takes its name from the Latin word credo which means "I believe" (the first words of the Creed), we solemnly profess our faith in God and His Church. We can only profess this faith because we ourselves have received it through the instruction of our parents, pastors, and friends. We have been baptized into the faith of the Church because someone before us committed themselves to following the Lord's Great Commission.

The Prayer of the Faithful

After the Creed, in the Ordinary Form of the Mass, comes the Prayer of the Faithful. This consists of a series of intercessory prayers. This is the first liturgical act after the Creed, which means that it is the first liturgical act that a catechumen will perform after having been baptized: it is their first opportunity "as members of the faithful to exercise their [baptismal] priesthood" (PS 91) by interceding for others, speaking to God on their behalf.

Summary

The Liturgy of the Word is primarily a time of listening to God speak to us, and responding with thanksgiving, giving Him praise and glory, confessing our faith in Him, and praying to Him for His Church and the whole world. The exchange has continued: we have received from God His word, the Gospel we are to bring into the world.

In the next installment, we will look at the Liturgy of the Eucharist (or the "Mass of the Faithful" as it is known in the EF) where the exchange is brought to a deeper level in the sacrifice of the Eucharist.

May the Lord bless us +, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

---

Sources:

• OM - Ordo Missae I (English Translation) [USCCB]
• PS - Paschale Solemnitatis (Concerning the preparation and celebration of the Easter feasts) [CDWDS]
  

This is an open forum for discussion about the liturgy, stemming from the St. David the King high school Bible Study Q&A session.

Questions on other topics should take place at The Cross Reference.

I'll be posting (in a comment) the names of the books in my library of liturgical texts.

(This entry is post-dated to January 1, 2009 to keep it up top.)

In the Mass, the Church offers proper worship to Holy Trinity through Her prayers, and supremely through the offering of the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Son to the Father through the Holy Spirit. But we receive something through the Mass as well, and our offering is not simply the Eucharist. At Mass, there is an exchange between heaven and earth, between God and man, and this exchange gives to us the graces necessary to carry out the Church's mission on earth. Through weekly (or even daily) experiences of Pentecost in our own lives, we can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

In this series, we will look at the Mass in detail — in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms — to understand who is coming near to whom, what is being exchanged, and how it is we are equipped for this most important mission: the salvation of souls.

[Note: the "Ordinary Form" (OF) of the Mass is the missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and most recently revised by Pope John Paul II in 2002. The "Extraordinary Form" (EF) of the Mass is the missal promulgated by Blessed Pope John XXIII in 1962, which was a revision of the missal of Pope Pius V from 1570, the so-called "Tridentine" Mass.]

In this first installment, we will look at the Introductory Rites (from the Entrance Procession through to the Collect).

The Sign of the Cross

The Mass begins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as we trace the Sign of Cross over our own bodies. Christ was once placed upon the cross; today we willingly place a sign of that cross upon ourselves. The Lord said to his Apostles, "he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:38), and then to the crowds who followed him, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30)

This is the first exchange that takes place in the Mass, and it brings us back some 2000 years. We accept the gentle yoke of Christ and take up our own crosses, all the while proclaiming Christ crucified, as Paul reminded the Church in Corinth. (1 Corinthians 1:23)

Introibo ad altare Dei

Before the Sign of the Cross, however, the priest and other ministers process to the sanctuary. The EF of the Mass uses Psalm 43 (numbered 42 in the Latin Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims), Judica me, to express the spiritual disposition of the priest as he stands at the foot of the altar. The fourth verse of this psalm is used as its antiphon ("anchoring" the psalm at its beginning and end); in Latin, the verse begins : Et introibo ad altare Dei, "And I will go in to the altar of God".

This procession (one of three) is an important part of the liturgy. It reminds us that the Church on earth is a pilgrim on its way to heaven. (GIRM 318) The Mass begins with us approaching the living God: we speak to God, we come to God in prayer.

Penitential Rite and Kyrie

In the EF of the Mass, the Penitential Rite consists of the Confiteor ("I confess to Almighty God...") and a short dialogue. After this comes the Kyrie, which is a triple invocation in Greek: Kyrie eleison means "Lord have mercy" and Christe eleison is "Christ have mercy".

In the OF, this Rite has three forms: 1) the Confiteor, 2) a dialogue based on the one found in the EF, or 3) a set of three invocations combined with the Kyrie. If forms 1 or 2 are used, the Kyrie then follows.

This rite is a necessary prerequisite for offering our prayer and sacrifice of praise to God. (CCC 2631) Of this need for a penitent heart, King David wrote, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17) As the priest in the OF introduces the Rite, he reminds us that we must "acknowledge our sins, that we may prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries". (Introductory Rites, OM 4)

The Gospel we are to preach contains a message of repentance; St. Mark says that Jesus began his preaching with this message: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15) God welcomes us back us the father welcomed back his prodigal son. (Luke 15) Here we receive the first gift of the Mass: the mercy of God. We receive forgiveness for our venial sins, although we still need a sacramental confession to be absolved of mortal sins. This exchange is made possible because of we have accepted the cross of Christ and bear it upon our bodies, as we attest to at the beginning of Mass.

In the words of St. Peter, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness." (1 Peter 2:24) St. Paul says the same: "Our Lord Jesus Christ ... gave himself for our sins" (Galatians 1:3-4); and again: "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures." (1 Corinthians 15:3)

Scripture clearly links the crucifixion of Christ to our being forgiven of our sins. By identifying ourselves with Christ through baptism, we are given access to a new life where we can be freed from the slavery of sin (see Romans 6).

Gloria

In response to God's gratuitous forgiveness, we glorify Him with the song of the angels and the ancient hymn of the Church, the Gloria. In return for mercy, we give glory. (Psalm 115:1)

Collect

At the conclusion of the Introductory Rites (and crowning the entrance procession) is the Collect. This prayer (one in the OF, potentially more in the EF) "collects" the intentions of the Mass as well as the private prayers of the faithful; it directs and focuses them on the reason for the celebration of the Mass that day, such as honoring a saint or remembering a particular mystery of the life of Christ.

Summary

In the Introductory Rites, we remind ourselves of Christ's crucifixion, which gives us access to God's mercy and the forgiveness of our sins, the first grace received in the Mass. This mercy is not just a grace for us, but it is part of the gospel we are charged with preaching by the Lord. We are pilgrims on our way to the God who meets us in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Father who welcomes back His wayward children: we are told to share this indescribable gift and hope with all the world.

In the next installment, we will look at the Liturgy of the Word (the "Mass of the Catechumens" as it is known in the EF) to continue examining the exchange between God and man, and to see how God responds to our approaching Him.

May the Lord bless us +, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

---

Sources:

• GIRM - General Instruction of the Roman Missal [USCCB]
• CCC - Catechism of the Catholic Church [The Cross Reference]
  
• OM - Ordo Missae I (English Translation) [USCCB]

The Mass, which is modeled (generally speaking) after Christ's life from Palm Sunday through Ascension Thursday, is an exchange between God and man, between heaven and earth. While the dismissal of Mass corresponds to the Great Commission (and the Lord's subsequent Ascension into Heaven), the whole Mass is, for each of us, an experience of Pentecost.

This encounter with Pentecost is where the Church draws the strength to carry out the mission given to Her by the Lord to preach to all the nations of the world. The primary end of the Mass is to glorify God by rendering proper worship unto the Blessed Trinity by prayers of adoration, petition, contrition, and thanksgiving, culminating in the ultimate prayer and the ultimate sacrifice, the Eucharist: the offering of the Son, through the Holy Spirit, to the Father. But the secondary end of the Mass is the sanctification of God's people, and through them, the world. It is through the sustenance and refreshment which God gives us in the Mass that each of us is able to be a disciple of and witness to the Lord in the world.

Pentecost and the Birth of the Church

More than one event has been called the "birth of the Church". One such incident is the piercing of the side of Christ as he hung lifeless on the cross (John 19:33-34), which corresponds to the forming of Eve from the side of Adam (her spouse) while he slept; but Pentecost also represents the "birth of the Church" because it is here that the Church begins to carry out the mission entrusted to Her by the Lord.

St. Luke, companion of St. Paul, wrote the Acts of the Apostles as a veritable sequel to his gospel, a chronicle the early years of the Church. He records for us the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, a Jewish feast day held 50 days after the sabbath following the Passover. (Leviticus 23:15-16) At the time, the Apostles were praying in Jerusalem along with Mary the mother of Jesus and other kin of the Lord and the other women who had followed him. (Acts 1:12-14) After the first novena — nine days of prayer starting on the day after the Ascension to that Sunday of the Pentecost — the Holy Spirit manifested himself to them in the form of tongues of fire. After this, they began to prophesy and St. Peter preached his first sermon, calling for the faithful Jews who had come to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to repent and be baptized into Christ. (Acts 2)

The Church, born from the side of Christ, now took her first breath, a divine breath, the breath of God, the Holy Spirit. It was on Pentecost that the mission began to be lived, and as soon as this mission had been commenced, the new disciples of Christ "devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers". (Acts 2:42)

An Exchange Between God and Man

The Mass, by God's grace, gives us what we need to fulfill His will for us on earth. Receiving the Real Presence of our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament when we receive Holy Communion is not the only thing we "get" out of Mass, and we put far more into it than we might imagine. Over the next several installments (under the title "The Mass as Exchange") we will examine each part of the Mass to see what "exchange" is made between God and man, always using Pentecost as our point of reference. Every grace and blessing which the newborn Church received to carry out Her mission is made present for us at every Mass. This perspective, whereby the Mass is our personal Pentecost, will help us to understand the Mass as mission and prepare us for living that mission daily.

May the Lord bless us +, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

The mission of the Church is nothing other than the mission of Jesus Christ. The Church's mission is as much a part of her life during the Mass as it is outside the Mass. In order to understand how the mission of Jesus (which becomes our mission) is related to the Mass, let us interpret the parts of the Mass as if they were the events at the end of the earthly life of Jesus as recorded primarily in the Gospel according to Matthew.

1a. Jesus enters Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11)

On what we now commemorate as Palm Sunday, Jesus entered into Jerusalem humbly but triumphantly: while he rode upon an ass, a beast of burden, the crowd that gathered to great him spread their garments before him and waved palm branches while singing from Psalm 118:25-26, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!"

1b. The Entrance Procession

As the Mass begins, the priest approaches the altar, a symbol of the altar before God in the heavenly temple, the celestial Jerusalem. The priest, by the sacrament of Holy Orders he has received, is in persona Christi — in the person of Christ — as he prays the Mass and ultimately consecrates and offers to God the Father the sacrifice of the Eucharist. As the priest enters, the church sings as the people of Jerusalem did.

The significance of an entrance procession — rather than the priest simply being in the sanctuary at the beginning of Mass — is that the Christian life is a continuing journey: it is not complete yet; we are still walking with our Lord. It is a sign of the pilgrimage we are all making to the true sanctuary, the Holy of Holies where the heavenly hosts praise God without ceasing. (Revelation 4:8)

2a. The Cleansing of the Temple (Matthew 21:12-17)

What Jesus did next greatly disturbed many people, such as the chief priests and the scribes. Jesus drove out the people doing business in the temple, overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold the animals for the sacrifices. Why?

Jesus came to Jerusalem just before the Passover, when many animals would be sacrificed according to the Mosaic Law (mostly lambs). Animals offered in sacrifice had to be flawless, the best you could offer. That meant that a Jew who was making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from a distance would most likely have to buy his animals in Jerusalem, since any livestock he brought with him on his pilgrimage would get dirty along the way, diminishing its worthiness for sacrifice. So there would be people selling animals in the temple area. However, the temple had its own system of currency: since Jews from all over the region would come, bringing foreign currencies with them, they would convert their money into the temple currency and then buy their animals. But the money-changers operated at an unfair exchange rate.

What justification did Jesus use for this act? He quotes Isaiah 56:7 to them — "My house shall be called a house of prayer" — and then laments that they "make it a den of robbers". (Matthew 21:13) John's gospel records the disciples as remembering afterwards what was written in the Psalms: "Zeal for thy house will consume me." (Psalm 69:9)

Matthew also records that after Jesus had done this, "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them". (Matthew 21:14) When does all this happen at Mass?

2b. The Penitential Rite

The business of the temple in Jerusalem was disrupted by Jesus, and four decades later it was destroyed. But even before its destruction the temple was becoming obsolete. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, reminds them of the great responsibility they have as men and women baptized into Christ:

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? ... Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19-20)

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them..." (2 Cor 6:16)

The priest introduces the Penitential Rite with these words: "Brethren, let us acknowledge our sins, that we may prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries." (OM 4) When we acknowledge our sins before God, we ask Him to forgive them and cleanse us of them.

Our bodies should be houses of prayer, but we have made them dens for thieves. Sin does not belong in the temple. Every sin we commit is an act of profanation. The word "profane" comes from the Latin profano which means "outside the temple"; something which is "profane" is not proper to -- does not belong in -- the temple. The "profane" is the opposite of the "sacred".

It is in this Penitential Rite, when we make a general confession of our sins (which does not take the place of the sacrament of Confession), that Jesus comes to his temple -- your body -- and drives out that which dirties and profanes it. And in that same moment, he heals and cures us, he makes us whole again. He repairs these fragile temples, and makes us fitting temples for his Holy Spirit once more. It is only then that we are prepared to participate in the sacred mysteries, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and to offer ourselves as living sacrifices as well.

3a. Jesus Preaches and Teaches (Matthew 21:18-25:46)

Over the next several days, Jesus was in Jerusalem preaching and teaching. He used parables and interpreted the Scriptures — writings of the prophets, the Psalms of David, and even the Torah of Moses — for people, especially Sadduccees and Pharisees. He spoke of the future, the tribulation to come, and the return of the King of Kings at the end of the world.

3b. The Liturgy of the Word

As Scripture is read to you, and as the priest or deacon reads the Gospel and conveys to you the truths of the faith in the homily, you are encountering the continuation of Christ's ministry. The Old Testament is explained and revealed in the New, as so many Church Fathers (such as St. Augustine) loved to say.

4a. His Passion, Death, and Resurrection (Matthew 26:1-28:10)

Next came the three most important days of Christ's work on earth: the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper (and the institution of the ministerial priesthood), the agony in Gethsemane, his sorrowful Passion — being put on trial, scourged, humiliated, condemned to die, and crowned with thorns, followed by his march to Calvary —, his crucifixion and death, his burial, the day of silence in the tomb, and his glorious Resurrection.

At the Last Supper, when Christ inaugurated the new and everlasting covenant in his blood, he made it clear why he was doing what he was doing, and just what it was exactly he was doing. He said that the bread and the wine was his body and blood (and not just a symbol of it), and he said that his blood was being poured out "for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:28).

4b. The Liturgy of the Eucharist

From the evening of Holy Thursday through to the evening of Easter Sunday, the Church celebrates the Paschal Triduum, the "three days of Easter". These days commemorate the events listed above. We encounter them altogether in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It is most important to remember that in the Eucharistic Prayer, when the priest, in virtue of the holy ordination he received, calls upon the Holy Spirit and recites the words of Jesus Christ, the bread and the wine change in substance (transubstantiate) into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This change is not apparent to our senses, but then again, neither is the change we undergo in baptism.

After the consecration, the bread and wine have become the Eucharist. Immediately afterwards, in the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest offers the Eucharist to God the Father. In doing so, he is re-presenting the sacrifice of Christ, the same sacrifice Christ pre-presented to the Father at the Last Supper and presented bodily on the cross. Pay close attention to the language he uses:

Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the saving Passion of your Son, his wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.

Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church and, recognizing the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself, grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ. (Eucharistic Prayer III, OM 113)

When we receive Holy Communion — and we should only do so if we have confessed any and all mortal sins we have committed since our last confession, have fasted for an hour, and are not otherwise prohibited from receiving — we are blessed to receive our Lord as food. But this is not a "fraternal meal", it is the Most Blessed Sacrament, because it contains the Author of all the graces we can receive. This is, as the priest says, "the Lamb of God ... who takes away the sins of the world", and we are partaking in "the [marriage] supper of the Lamb". (The Communion Rite, OM 132; cf. John 1:29; Revelation 19:9)

While John's gospel does not record the institution of the Eucharist, John 17 reads as a form of "Eucharistic Prayer" (a prayer of thanksgiving and glorifying God).

5a. His Ascension into Heaven (Matthew 28:16-20)

After his resurrection, Jesus called the apostles together on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16) and gave them the greatest charge of all. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20) This mission, which had been and continues to be Christ's, he gave to his Apostles, to the Church.

Some time after he gave them this commission, he blessed them as he ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, as Luke's writings attest to. (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:7-13)

5b. The Dismissal

The priest blesses us in the name of the Most Holy Trinity at the end of Mass, and then follows the dismissal. When we hear the words "Ite, missa est", we are hearing the words of Christ to his disciples: "Go, I am sending you into the world to continue my mission." The dismissal of the Mass is our entering into (and accepting of) the Great Commission before the Lord's glorious Ascension into heaven.

Conclusion

Now we can see how the mission of Christ has become the mission of the Church, and how, just as the Eucharist is the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the dismissal of the Mass is the re-presentation of that Great Commission whereby the Church was formally invested with that charge.

How can the Church, how can we today carry on so great and serious a mission? What is our sustenance? Whence do we draw our strength? Where do we find refreshment? To answer those questions, we need look no further than the Mass itself; for in the Mass, the first and most important end of which is the glorification and proper worship of God, God gives us the grace needed to fulfill this mission.

We have seen how the Mass follows the model of Christ's life from Palm Sunday through Ascension Thursday. We will see how the Mass is a conversation, a dialog, an exchange between God and man, between heaven and earth; we will see how in every Mass, we experience Pentecost in our own lives... in the next installment.

May the Lord bless us +, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

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Sources:

• OM - Ordo Missae I (English Translation) [USCCB]

In order to understand the Church's mission, we must first understand Jesus' mission. What is his mission? And who gave it to him?

The Gospel of John makes the mission of Jesus quite clear: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:16-17) The very name of Jesus means "YHWH saves" or "YHWH is salvation", and the angel told Joseph that Jesus "will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)

Jesus tells us who gave him this mission: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." (John 6:38)

In John's gospel, the word "send" or "sent" is used 50 times in conjunction with the Father sending the Son, or the Son sending the Holy Spirit or his disciples. Jesus worked great miracles (such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead in John 11) that the Jews to whom he ministered would believe that God had truly sent him. God the Father sent His Son into the world, "that the world might be saved through him". (John 3:17) So the mission of the Lord pertains to the salvation of those who receive him. But salvation from what?

Luke's gospel gives us additional information about the Lord's mission. Soon after Jesus began his ministry, he went to the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the Scriptures: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19) Jesus was anointed by God as the Christ (the Messiah, which means "the anointed one") to preach the gospel ("good news").

Who are the poor? Who are the captives, the blind, and the oppressed? Is the release and sight and liberty which Jesus brings purely a social or physical gift? Jesus restored the sight to many who were blind and cured all kinds of illnesses, but the depth of his mission goes far deeper. When he instituted the greatest of all sacraments, the Eucharist, Jesus said that the cup he gave to them to drink was the "the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20); Matthew records the purpose of that covenant: "[it] is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26:28)

Matthew ends with the "Great Commission", where the Lord says to his disciples: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20) To receive a "commission" is to be entrusted with something.

So Jesus sent his disciples out to all nations. He assured them of his presence with them, and he gave this promise to them (and to those to whom he sent them): "he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me." (John 13:20) Jesus identified the sending of his disciples with his own being sent by the Father: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." (John 20:21) Jesus also made it clear why he was sending them: "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." (John 15:16)

Jesus sends the Church, he sends us, into the world for the same reason that the Father sent him. And the Church wasted no time! Just read the first two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles! The mission of the Church, then, is nothing other than the mission of Jesus Christ. But what does this have to do with the Mass? We'll cover that in the next installment.

May the Lord bless us +, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.