Understanding our Faith

The Mass: Opening out its meaning

Last week in the first of these new articles on the Mass, we looked at the official description of the Mass given in the Roman Missal.  This sets out a renewed vision of the Mass and repositions the role of the people in celebrating the Mass.  Let’s look at that description again as a reminder: “At Mass or the Lord’s Supper the People of God is called together, with a priest presiding and acting in the person of Christ, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord or the Eucharistic Sacrifice.” (no 27)

As noted last week, this description sees the Mass as the action of the whole gathered People of God, whereas the Missal preceding Vatican II saw the Mass as the action of the priest which the people attended.  This description establishes a principle that is meant to penetrate both our understanding of the Mass and our celebration of it.  We will elaborate further on that understanding and practice as this series on the Mass continues.

A point to be noticed immediately, is that this description applies primarily to the Sunday Mass.  It is only on Sundays that the whole of the People of God is called together, Mass on other days is optional and a good devotional practice, but the whole People of God are not called to it. 

From our earliest documents, Sunday – the first day of the week – was singled out as the Christian feast day.  This was so because it was the day of Christ’s resurrection.  The first Christians – even though they were Jewish – gathered for the breaking of the bread on the day of Christ’s resurrection rather than on the Sabbath, the Old Testament holy day.  The centrality of Sunday was one of the earliest signs of the emerging difference between Judaism and Christianity.

We gather on Sundays as the People of Jesus Christ precisely because it was the day on which the Father raised Jesus out of death, as a promise that what happened to him will also happen to us.  Later, going to Mass on Sunday was inscribed in law for Christians, but this came much later indeed.  It was first laid down, I think, by one of the early French kings, Dagobert, around the middle of the first millennium. 

There is of course that command by the Lord himself, as it is given in the New Testament: ‘Do this in memory of me’.  And so, we come back Sunday after Sunday to respond to those words.  The Eucharist is the inheritance he has left us. 

The above description of the Mass and our implementation of its meaning is crucial for us today, so that the Mass may not be something which seems external to us, but a celebration in which our following of Christ may be truly interiorised and deepened, may truly became a dynamic force in our lives. 

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin