The Suffering Servant is a prophecy of Our Lord that we heard in the first reading from Isaiah is the suffering Jesus knows he must endure for us. Christ’s suffering served a purpose that we today still benefit from. Christ became the sacrifice of the New Covenant, the New Testament.
That brings us to the third part of our homilies on the Mass - the Liturgy of the Eucharist which begins right after this homily and after the prayers of the faithful, in about an hour or two, with the preparation of the Altar while the gifts are brought forth - for us today, that means the collection will be taken.
Preparing the altar is an important step. It is the table for the sacrificial meal that is about to take place on it. One of the neat things we do is, after giving the bread, the host, to the priest, the deacon, or the priest himself will prepare the cup. He pours in some wine and then after that adds a drop of water and while doing this he says:
By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
This is an ancient practice that we can see being done way back in Proverbs 9:5, probably from the time of King Solomon:
Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.
The wine represents Christ with his divinity, and the water that is mingled with it represents all of us and our humanity. God became human to give us a chance to become divine and spend eternity with Him in Heaven. That’s something to think about for sure!
You can see already, that wine is a very important part of the Eucharistic celebration. In fact, we need both species of bread and wine to have a valid Mass. If, just prior to Mass, we realized we ran out of wine we have two choices, find the proper wine someplace, perhaps at another local Church, or cancel Mass and only do a Eucharistic service due to the necessity that both species be present at the consecration during a Mass.
Next, the priest says some prayers over both the bread and the wine and then he has a ritual washing of his hands just like the Levitical priest did prior to going into the Holy of Holies. As the server pours water over his hands the priest says “Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin”. Which is a direct quote from Psalm 51 verse 2. He does this because he is about to stand in front of something very holy.
The Liturgy now moves into the Eucharistic Prayer. This is the most important part of the Mass for it is here where transubstantiation takes place. That is the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood leaving only the appearance of bread and wine.
There is now a dialogue of Thanksgiving between the priest and the people. The word Eucharist is from a Greek word that literally means Thanksgiving so this seems a very appropriate section to include for sure.
Together we all say the Sanctus, or Holy Holy Holy after which we all kneel. We will remain kneeling for the entire Eucharistic prayer because something very sacred will be happening and our posture should represent that.
The next thing that should draw our attention is called the Epiclesis, which means invocation upon, where the priest will call down the Holy Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine so that they may become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Oftentimes we will ring the bells once to draw your attention to the action taking place upon the altar.
Remember, the Eucharist is the center of our faith so this is a big moment when ordinary bread and wine become the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Father will now recount what happened at the last supper doing exactly what Jesus told us to do in the Gospels. Notice that the words are now “MY BODY” and “MY BLOOD” as father acts “in persona Christi” or in the person of Christ:
Take this, all of you, and eat of it: for this is my body which will be given up for you.
He raises the body and the bells ring, again drawing our attention to the altar and the body of Christ.
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.
Again we ring the bells. Again our attention is drawn to what is happening on the altar.
A few words now on the Mystery of Faith. What just took place is indeed a mystery, I certainly can’t explain it with science, and the priest isn’t saying or chanting the words mystery of faith as a cue to us, he too is in wonder and awe at what just took place at his hands.
The Eucharistic prayer also includes what is called anamnesis - meaning remembrance or memorial. Those keywords that Jesus spoke, “Do this in remembrance of me.” We are representing Jesus’ sacrifice in a non-bloody manner on the altar. We will also have intercessions as part of the prayer, asking our Lord to remember His whole Church, our Pope, and local Bishop, and all the clergy. We ask for prayers for all our brothers and sisters who have died. We also ask for mercy on us all that we may all be found worthy of eternal life with Mary, Joseph, and all the Saints. Can’t ask for anything better than that!
The priest, and the deacon, will then elevate the chalice and the body of Christ and we will have the concluding doxology and Amen. This is where the priest says,
Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours Almighty Father, forever and ever
After which we say or sing the great Amen. Our Amen should be a statement that we believe in what just happened upon the altar, we believe in the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Personally, I prefer when the choir sings it because to me it adds a couple of exclamation points to our statement!
Together we now pray as Jesus himself taught us with the words of the Our Father. There could be whole homilies written about this prayer alone but I want to highlight one key phrase: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. If we want God to forgive our sins because we hurt God with them then we must also forgive those who have hurt us. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
To symbolize this we now offer each other some Sign of Peace. The bible tells us to “greet one another with a Holy Kiss” however today in time a handshake or a nod will suffice.
As we sing or say the Lamb of God something cool happens here that not many would notice. It’s called the Fraction Rite, where the priest will break the bread, just as Jesus did but he also takes a small fragment of bread and comingles that with the precious blood bringing the body and blood of Christ together to symbolize unity in the Church. While doing this he says:
May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.
The priest will now say aloud:
Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.
To which we all respond:
Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed
The first line the priest says is from John the Baptist prior to when he Baptises Jesus in the Gospel of John. The second line, a very cool line, comes from Matthew, where a Roman Centurian demonstrates great faith in Jesus when asking for his servant to be healed by Jesus without even going to his house. Two things to note here, a lot of what goes on at the Mass is taken directly from scripture and secondly, receiving the Eucharist, if done in a proper state of grace, can REMOVE venial sins.
Now is the moment that we SHOULD all be waiting for. Receiving Holy Communion. This should always be done reverently and respectfully and you should evaluate your conscience well prior. If you are aware of any mortal sins on your soul come up for a blessing instead until you can get to confession.
After communion, the deacon or priest will purify the vessels used, being very careful not to leave any fragment of the body of Christ or drop of the precious blood. While doing this they may say this prayer:
“What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.”
After receiving, spend some time in prayer. A good thing to contemplate is this quote from Saint John Paul II:
At the Annunciation, Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord’s body and blood.
I wish I had more time, there was so much more to say here so I’m giving you all homework. Try and pick up a copy of the book “A Biblical Walk Through The Mass” by Edward Sri and read it. You will see that is where I plagiarized the majority of my homily from.
Our hope for you with this series is certainly a better understanding of the Mass and therefore a better love of the Mass.
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