Understanding our Faith

What are we really doing at Mass?

At the end of last week’s article, we spoke of the four actions of Jesus at the Last Supper as the basis for what we do at Mass.  I would like to speak of that again this week, at the risk of being repetitive as I am pretty sure that we dealt with this some time ago.  However, given what we will be going on to say in the weeks to come, we need to look again at those actions as the groundwork for what we will be looking at over the coming weeks.

At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and wine, blessed and gave thanks to the Father over the bread and wine, broke the bread and gave the bread and wine to his disciples.  At the end, we have the words “Do this in memory of me”. 

Now what we do in memory of him has several dimensions to it.  One of those dimensions gives the Liturgy of the Eucharist its very shape.  The core actions of the liturgy are doing what he did.  Firstly, we take bread and wine.  This is the Presentation of the Gifts (Offertory).  People representing the whole community, bring bread and wine to the altar where the priest takes them.  We will explore more of the meaning of this later.

Then the Eucharistic Prayer (a prayer of blessing and thanksgiving) is prayed over those gifts by the priest.  That long prayer is always prayed in our name.  Notice that it is prayed with the pronoun ‘we’ all the way through.  It is a prayer of transformation.

The breaking of the bread is part of the playing out of the Eucharist.  It is not just practical.  Note that it is accompanied by the singing or saying of the ‘Lamb of God’. 

The final action of Christ – the giving – is done in the giving of communion.  Communion is given to us; it is given, we do not take it, we receive it.

So, the whole Liturgy of the Eucharist is shaped by those actions of Christ which we keep doing in the Eucharist.  More to come next week.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin