JESUS INSTITUTES THE EUCHARIST
INTRODUCTION
For some time now I have been wondering how I might help improve Sunday Mass attendance among my fellow catholics. All surveys and polls show less and less each decade attend Sunday Mass on a regular basis despite objectively it is a grave sin to miss Mass on Sundays intentionally without sufficient cause.
Catholics must worship God on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation by participating in the Holy Mass. I know we are in that era of “cafeteria Catholics” who pick and choose what teachings of Jesus and His Church they are going to follow.
When it comes to the Mass, one may hear comments like, “it is boring,” “I don’t get anything out of it.” Some will say, I can worship God by going for a walk and appreciating nature. First, I will address the idea of The Mass being boring and getting nothing out of it. The Mass is primarily about worshipping God not about you getting some kind of thrill or high as you might with a material thing.
We were not at Calvary over 2000 years ago when God died for our sins in atonement. But at every Mass we re-present that sacrifice in an un-bloody manner. We receive again through no merit of our own all the graces that were merited by Jesus over 2000 years ago and participate in our redemption by offering ourselves to the extant we can. So we do get something after all, an increase in sanctifying grace.
Just a word for the nature lover who chooses walks over attending Mass. It is a good thing to acknowledge God the Creator but God is also the Redeemer, and Sanctifier. The best way to give thanks (eucharistia) for all that God has done for us is the Liturgy of the Mass.
I am convinced if a person knew and understood the various parts of the Liturgy of the Mass Mass would no longer be boring or something to be skipped or set aside. Nowhere on earth will one be closer to Jesus than in the Liturgy of the Mass which includes the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith.
So let’s begin:
INTRODUCTORY RITES
At Mass we are welcomed by the priest celebrant who stands in the place of Christ. We begin with the sign of the cross placing ourselves in God’s presence and bearing witness that we are as a community pledged to Christ’s standards, not the world’s. Just as Jews in Israel, had to cleanse themselves before worshipping in the temple, we now at Mass confess our sins in the Confiteor and ask for God’s Mercy in the prayers, Lord have mercy.
The tone of the liturgy now shifts from sorrowful repentance to joyful praise, the Gloria. The opening line of the Gloria is taken from the words sung by the angels over the fields of Bethlehem, announcing to the shepherds the good news. “Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good will.”
After praising the Father we have a summary of the Salvation Story with His Son, Jesus Christ the main character, “Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.”
After this hymn of praise and thanksgiving, the priest leads the people in a prayer called the Collect because it gathers all the intentions of the people participating and offers them to the Father in this prayer.
LITURGY OF THE WORD
On Sundays there is a reading from the Old Testament and then from the New Testament before the Gospel. Remember the Bible is the inspired word of God given to us through the instrument of human writers but God is the author of the Bible. CCC 105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
While the whole of the Bible is inspired, Vatican II taught that the Gospels rightly have “a special place…because they are our principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Savior, Jesus Christ.” The Gospel is not like a news report but the inspired word of God talking to us today.
The Gospel is usually followed by a homily. In Greek, homily means explanation. In the homily, the priest/preacher breaks open the word of God in various ways to assist us in applying it to our lives. After hearing the word of God, we affirm our belief in the Creed, an entire summary of salvation history. In the early Church the Creed was part of the rite of Baptism.
PREPARATION OF THE GIFTS
The priest offers bread and wine to the Father along with our offerings and asks that these gifts be made holy by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before offering the wine he places a drop of water in the chalice while saying, “May we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” The priest prays that he may be cleansed from any sins or improprieties by washing his hands. As the priest begins the “sacrifice of the Mass” he prays, “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.”
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
This part of the Mass begins with invoking God’s presence once again and affirming it is right and just to give God praise and thanks for all He does and what He is about to do in the transforming the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. The priest calls upon God to send the Holy Spirit to come upon these gifts (epiclesis) The priest’s prays “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ”
Soon after, the priest says the words of consecration, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you… Then the priest takes the chalice, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.”
To understand better the words, “Do this in memory of me,” we need the context of the Passover, the Jewish liturgical celebration of their freedom from slavery in Egypt. Annually, the Jewish community celebrate Passover. Biblical memorials were not just recalled but re-lived. A liturgical memorial brings the past and present together, making the long-ago event mystically present for the current generation.
This memorial (anamnesis) at Mass makes what happened in the Upper Room and on Calvary sacramentally present today. This same sacrifice, now in an unbloody manner that Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present. The power of Jesus’ sacrificial offering is applied to our lives for the daily sins we commit. There is also an increase in sanctifying grace.
After the consecration and raising of the body and blood of Jesus, the priest genuflects and announces the mystery of faith and invites us to proclaim with him what has just taken place, Jesus Christ who died for our sins is truly present on the altar under the appearances of bread and wine.
THE RITE OF PEACE
Many people seek the security and peace of this world, which is a peace based on success and on everything going well. Christ, however, offers us a deeper, longer lasting peace, an internal, spiritual peace that can withstand life’s many disappointments, trials, and sufferings.—one that the world does not give. This is the kind of peace of heart that also builds true unity within marriages, families, communities, parishes, and nations. We are invited by the priest to share this peace with our neighbor.
AGNUS DEI
Fraction is the breaking of the bread, now the body of Christ. The priest places a small particle of the bread in the chalice while saying, “May this mingling of the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ bring to us who receive it eternal life.” When we recite the Agnus Dei, Lamb of God who takes away the sins….we join the chorus of heaven and earth, worshiping the Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb sacrificed for our salvation.
HOLY COMMUNION
In the Book of Revelations an angel instructs John to write: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rv 19:9). What is this festive supper of the Lamb? It is the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist. When the priest says, “Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb,” he echoes the angel’s invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb in the Book of Revelations.
We are being called to participate in the marriage feast of Jesus and his Church. When you walk down the aisle to receive Holy Communion, as a member of the Church, you are coming to be united to your bridegroom, Jesus. In the spirit of unworthiness, we express our confidence that God is calling us despite our sinfulness. “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
CONCLUDING RITES
“Go the Mass is ended.” We are sent forth as Jesus sent forth his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you,” John 20:21.” We have been fed and nourished in our faith. It is our time to spread the Good News! Our mission if we choose to accept it is live the Gospel in words and actions.
CONCLUSION
Come back to Mass, you will be glad you did and the world will be a better place for your participation. There is no greater way to give thanks to God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Sanctifier. One God, three Persons! Your bridegroom awaits you at the wedding feast of the Lamb.
“The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for his benefits, for all that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification. Eucharist means first of all ‘thanksgiving’ ” Catechism of the Catholic Church 1360
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