“At Mass or the Lord’s Supper the People of God are called together, with a priest presiding and acting in the person of Christ, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord or Eucharistic Sacrifice.”
These words come from the initial description of the Mass given in the official document at the beginning of the Roman Missal. This description has been carefully worded to bring out an aspect of the Mass which was sorely neglected in the Missal that we used before the Second Vatican Council.
In that earlier Missal, the Mass was described only in terms of what the priest did. In fact, the people got only one mention in all the layout of the Mass.
What had happened over the course of several centuries, and for several historical reasons, was that the Mass had come to be seen as the priest’s business rather than that of the whole gathered community of faith.
In the description above, the priest’s core role is specified in terms of presiding and acting in the person of Christ, but the subject of the celebration is the whole community. And it is the whole community which is being drawn into communion with Christ which is the ultimate meaning and purpose of the Mass.
The gathered people are not second class citizens, they are gathered there to be drawn more deeply into the body of Christ, the Church. The priest is there to serve that greater meaning and purpose in his unique ministry.
Again it is worth drawing attention to the fact that the priest does not pray as if it is his prayer. He is always ministering to the community and so all the prayers of the liturgy are prayed in the first person plural: “WE”. The priest serves the prayer of the whole gathered community of faith.
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