The Mass

Tonight’s subject is the Mass. One of the key texts about the mass is 1Co 11:23-29. To explain the scripture I would like to read the Catechism definition and then a homily by St. John’s Chrisostom. My goal here is not necessarily to explain the Mass in a technical way but to offer a biblical reflection for understanding the Mass.To that effect I have divided this presentation into several sections: the Bible as Typology, the Bible as Liturgy, the Bible as Prophecy, the Last Supper and the Communion of Saints. This will give us an opportunity to stop and ask questions at the end of each section instead of waiting until the end.To begin, though, I would like to start with 1 Corinthians 11:23-24, the Catechism definition and the sermon on 1Corinthians by St. John Chrisostom.

1. Introduction Corinthians

1Co 11:23-29 reads:

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, 13 and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment 14 on himself.

Definition

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1407-1410, page 355, gives this summary about the Mass:

The Eucharist is the heart and the summit of the Church’s life, for in it Christ associates his Church and all her members with his sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once for all on the cross to his Father; by this sacrifice he pours out the graces of salvation on his Body which is the Church. […] The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, that is, of the work of salvation accomplished by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, a work made present by the liturgical action. It is Christ himself, the eternal high priest of the New Covenant who, acting through the ministry of the priests, offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. And it is the same Christ, really present under the species of bread and wine, who is the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice.

In other words the Mass is Christ’s atoning sacrifice on Calvary made present again. The Mass is a sacrifice and it gives us the grace of salvation.

My goal here is not necessarily to explain what the above means in a technical way but to offer a biblical reflection for understanding the Mass.

St. John Chrisostom

The following is St. John Chrysostom’s homily 24 on First Corinthians. St. John Chrysostom’s (347 - 407 AD) was a contemporary of St. Augustine and St. Jerome in the 4^th century.

He has given us this Body both to hold and to eat; this is a thing worthy of intense love. When we kiss someone intensely, we oftentimes even bite them with our teeth. The same also with Job, when speaking of the love his servants had towards him, he said they often, out of their great affection towards him, said, “Oh! that we were filled with his flesh!” (Job 31:31.)

Even so Christ has given to us His flesh to fill us and draw us onto greater love. Let us draw close to Him then with fervor and with inflamed love, that we may not have to endure punishment. Because when we show ourselves unworthy of His bounty, we will be punished so much more in proportion to the greatness of the gifts He has given us.

The Magi reverenced His Body even as he was lying in a manger. They were men profane and barbarians, who left their country and their home, to set out on a long journey. When they came, with fear and great trembling they worshipped Him. Let us, then, at least imitate those Barbarians, we who are citizens of heaven. Because when they saw Him in a manger, there was nothing anywhere close in sight, as what you can see now. They drew close with great awe; but on the other hand you see Him not in the manger but on the altar, not a woman holding Him in her arms, but the priest standing by, and the Spirit who with exceeding bounty is hovering over the gifts set before us. You do not see merely this Body itself as they did, but you see and know also His power, and His whole salvation.

You are not ignorant of any of the holy things brought to pass by Him, as you have been initiated into all these mysteries. Let us therefore rise up and be filled with fear. Let us show forth a reverence far beyond that of the Magi, those Barbarians. We don’t want, by approaching Him carelessly, heap damnation on our own heads.

I say these things, not to keep us from approaching Jesus, but to keep us from approaching Him without consideration. Because as the approaching without consideration is dangerous, so not receiving communion in those mystical suppers is famine and death. For this Table is the flesh of our soul, the bond of our mind, the foundation of our confidence, our hope, our salvation, our light, our life. When, with this sacrifice we depart into the next world, we shall tread the sacred threshold with confidence, surrounded on every side as with a kind of golden armor.

And why do I speak of the world to come? Because here, this mystery makes earth become heaven to us. Open only for once the gates of heaven and look in; no, this is not heaven, but the heaven of heavens; Open only for once the gates of heaven and look in; and then you will behold what I have been speaking of.

Let me show you here on the earth that which is more precious than anything else. For in royal palaces, what is most glorious of all is not the walls, nor the golden roofs, but the person of the king sitting on the throne; likewise in heaven what is most glorious of all is the Body of the King.

This, you are now allowed to see here on earth. For it is not angels, nor archangels, nor heavens or the heavens of heavens, that I am showing you, but the very Lord and Master of all these things. Can’t you perceive that which is more precious than all things you can see here on earth; and not only see, but also touch; and not only touch, but likewise eat?

Make your soul clean then; prepare your mind for the reception of these mysteries. For if you were entrusted to carry the child of the king with his purple robes and diadem, you would throw away all the things of the earth. But now this is no child of man however royal he might be; but this is the only-begotten Son of God Himself, Whom you receive.

Tell me, doesn’t this make you thrill with awe?

2. Bible as Typology

Last week Mary did an excellent job to explain how we, Catholics, read the Bible. She touched on several points and I would like to come back to one of them. I don’t remember how she said it exactly but in one of the points she made, she referred to the fact that we must read the Bible in the context of the faith and with the mind of the Church. The Missal we use at Mass says on page 22:

The Lectionary (the book of readings) and the Book of Gospels open the rich treasure of God’s word from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. In the liturgy, the Church faithfully adheres to the way Christ himself read and explained the Scriptures.

How does Christ reads the Scriptures? We see this in Luke 24:27, as well as Luke 24:44 or John 1:45. The Gospels say:

Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.

At Mass we read first the Old Testament and then the New. If we really pay attention we see the wisdom of the Church. The texts of the Old Testament are chosen to explain the prophecies fulfilled in the New Testament. In other words, if you want to know what the prophecies of the Old Testament really mean buy a Missal. As an example I would like to take the readings for June 11, 2006.

Old Testament (Dt 4:32-34, 39-40): Moses said to the people: “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? […] You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today […]

Gospel (Mt 28:16-20):The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Here we see the parallel between the Old and the New Testament. The Gospel scene is just right after the Resurrection. Did anything so great ever happen before? Did a people ever hear the voice of God? Isn’t Jesus God Himself? If hearing God is so great isn’t seeing Him greater? Isn’t He the voice of God? Isn’t He the Word of God? And both, in the Old and the New Testament, after showing so great power is God, it says you must keep His commandments.

As Catholics the prophecies we are interested in are not whether the book of Revelation speaks of Islam or the war in Iraq. Instead we are interested in understanding how the Old Testament relates to the New and how Jesus is the answer to the hope of Israel’s prophets. This is what we call typology: the study of types or prefigurements in the Jewish prophecies. For example Adam is a type of Jesus, Eve is a type of Mary, circumcision prefigures baptism, the lamb of the Passover prefigures the sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God. Here we see that in the Old and the New Testament God still asks His followers to observe His laws. How do we know who is a follower of Jesus? Someone who follows His commandments like baptism and Communion. Those who think the Catholic Church is full of useless rituals do not understand Jesus. We follow His commandments.

3. Bible as Liturgy

Here is another example from June 18, 2006.

Old Testament (Exodus 24:3-8): When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the LORD has told us.” Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD, Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.” Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.”

Gospel (Mk 14:12-16, 22-26): While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.

One mistake we often do in reading the Bible is to read it in a historical way. This is not wrong but it is limited. We certainly need to know some of the historical background when the texts were written to understand some of the sayings that may sound obscure to a modern person. This also helps us solidify our faith because it is based on historical facts. For example we must hold as the doctrine of the Church and as a historical fact that we are all descended from one historical human couple. Adam and Eve were our real, historical parents from whom the whole human race is descended. But, if we are not careful, this historical approach to Genesis, for example, can have its downside: it can hide the meaning of what God is trying to say. God’s point is not historical or scientific.

So what is the point of the Bible. One way to read the scriptures is under our nose; it’s so obvious that we don’t even see it. What are the first five books of the Bible called in Hebrew: The Torah, the Law.

If we reflect upon it, it should be obvious that the Torah’s purpose is not to give us a history textbook of the Jewish nation. The purpose is to establish the laws governing the worship of God and the Temple sacrifices. In the five books of the Torah we have two whole book about the priesthood and the Temple sacrifices, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which means the Second Law. Big sections of Exodus and Numbers also include laws and precepts and expand on those already given. Those laws and precepts are about sacrifices, priesthood and the Temple liturgy. Besides the Torah there is also the whole 150 psalms that were written to be sung at the Temple as hymns for liturgical use. The Psalter is a Hymnal.

The scriptures above show Moses giving the Law to the people of God and writing it down and then reading it to the people. He did not give the book to each person telling them to read it for themselves. Of course we can read the Bible for ourselves but the main purpose of the scriptures is to be read during the sacrifice of the covenant. The sacrifice of the covenant for us Christians is the Mass.

Then, after reading the book of the covenant and offering the sacrifice of the blood of young bulls Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you. In the Catholic Church we follow exactly the same pattern: we first read the liturgy of the word and then we follow by the liturgy of the sacrifice and blood of Jesus, the true Lamb.

The covenant sacrifice is the central theme of the Scriptures in the Old and in the New Testaments. In other words Scriptures is about worship and liturgy.

This is so true that it is even under our noses and we don’t see it. What is the title given to the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures? They are called the Old and the New Testament. Those terms were not chosen by chance. The word Testament means covenant, sacrament, alliance, pledge, vow or promise. These words express the covenantal, sacramental and liturgical nature of the worship of God.

We also see this from the beginning to the end of the Bible. The point of the six days of creation is not how long it took God to create the universe. The point of the six days of creation is the Sabbath. The commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is about remembering the covenant of God with His first creation. With Christ we are remembering the covenant of God with His New Creation therefore we worship not on the last day of the week but on the first day, the day of the Resurrection. If we jump to the Gospels, most of the events that are told in Jesus’ life happen on the Sabbath or on the Jewish high feasts.

Even in the book of Revelation we find this. John has his vision on Sunday, the first day of the week. He sees Jesus dressed like a priest who tells him to write to the seven churches. Jesus also tells him to have those letters read in the churches (chapters 1, 2 and 3). When do churches gather to hear the Word of God if not at the Sunday liturgy? After that John is taken up to heaven where he witnesses angels and saints assembled to worship God. He is witness to the Divine Liturgy. Nobody can read the Scriptures. Then, Jesus as the sacrificed Lamb is the only one to open the meaning of the books (chapters 4 and 5). Let’s pause and reflect a moment on this.

What John is saying in images is this: only Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the Cross can open the whole meaning of the Scriptures. This is the same idea that Luke expresses when speaking of the pilgrims of Emmaus. Only Jesus and His atoning sacrifice of the Mass can open the whole meaning of the Scriptures. Only when Jesus broke the bread and gave them communion did they understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:30-31): And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

One amazing thing about the book of Revelation is this. John is never shown as coming down from heaven nor is the Liturgy shown as being over. This means that the whole book of Revelation happens during the Divine Liturgy. The Church, the Liturgy, the Mass is the background of the action in the Apocalypse. If we miss this point we miss half of the meaning of the book.

In summary we can say that God’s purpose, throughout the Bible, is to teach us how to worship Him. How we worship God is what we call the Liturgy.

4. Bible as Prophecy

As we have seen above the Scriptures are about worship. We see in Exodus how God wants to be worshiped. He calls Moses to come to the mountain of the Lord to show him how the Temple and its liturgy are supposed to be patterns of the things of Heaven.

Exodus Chapters 24:12 all the way to 29:46:The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and, while you are there, I will give you the stone tablets on which I have written the commandments intended for their instruction.” […] This is what the LORD then said to Moses: “Tell the Israelites to take up a collection for me. From every man you shall accept the contribution that his heart prompts him to give me. […] This Dwelling and all its furnishings you shall make exactly according to the pattern that I will now show you. […] “There, at the altar, I will meet the Israelites; hence, it will be made sacred by my glory. […] I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites and will be their God.

Hebrews 9:11-24 Paul says: But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, […] he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. […] For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf.

We have seen the Torah is about the Law, the laws and regulations of sacrifice, temple worship and priesthood. In other words it’s about liturgical laws. We have seen that the book of the Psalms is for liturgical use, it’s a hymnal and prayer book. We have seen both the old and new books derive their name from their testament, covenant in other words their sacramental meaning. We have seen that the action in the book of Revelation happens in a liturgical setting. The only part of the Bible we have left out is the Prophets. This is very important. Jesus explains that He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. We have looked at the Law, how about the Prophets?

A quick summary of the Old Testament would go like this. Adam and Eve sinned and fell from grace. They broke their relationship with God. God’s goal is to restore that relationship. To do that He chose the Hebrews to be an example for us. He gave them the Law to lay down the worship practices. He gave Moses the template for building the Temple as a copy of Heaven. David wanted to build the Temple but God said no. Instead it was his son Solomon who built the Temple. After Salomon the Jewish people turned away from the true worship of God. God destroyed the Temple and sent the Israelites into exile. Finally God promised the Jews the restoration of true worship.

When looking at the prophets of the Old Testament we realize they spoke the word of God to Israel before, during and after the Exile to Babylon. The Exile lasted for 70 years and it left such an impact on the Jewish mind that the writings of the Prophets are the major section of the whole Bible besides the Torah. Basically the prophets warned Israel of God’s impending punishment for them. But because God is a loving God they also speak of God’s promises to Israel and how they would be restored and the Temple rebuilt. In other words rightful worship will be realized once again.

Why was Israel punished into exile? They were punished for idolatry and injustice. In Malachi God says to the priest of the Temple (Mal 1:6-10):

A son honors his father, and a servant fears his master; if then I am a father, where is the honor due to me? And if I am a master, where is the reverence due to me? - So says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise his name. But you ask, “How have we despised your name?” By offering polluted food on my altar! Then you ask, “How have we polluted it?” By saying the table of the LORD may be slighted! When you offer a blind animal for sacrifice, is this not evil? When you offer the lame or the sick, is it not evil? Present it to your governor; see if he will accept it, or welcome you, says the LORD of hosts.

What Malachi describes here is really, in Modern English, what we call liturgical abuse. Liturgical abuse by the priests is one of the reasons why God punished Israel. Liturgical abuse is serious matter. But this applies also to us, the congregation. Do we respect and reverence God the way He should be reverenced? What would happen, if we acted in front of the President of the United States or the Queen of England the same way we act in front of Christ?

Another example is the book of Jeremiah. In it we read (Jer 2:4-5):

Listen to the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob! All you clans of the house of Israel, thus says the LORD: What fault did your fathers find in me that they withdrew from me, went after empty idols, and became empty themselves?The Lord punished Israel for idolatry. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Salomon. Israel was exiled. But later in the book God makes promises to Israel (Jer 29:10-11):Thus says the LORD: Only after seventy years have elapsed for Babylon will I visit you and fulfill for you my promise to bring you back to this place. For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope.

A couple of chapters later Jeremiah says the following (Jer 31:31-35).

The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD. But this is the covenant, which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.

This is similar to what Isaiah says in chapter 54:13:

All your sons shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children.

We could do a whole presentation on this alone because in his letter to the Hebrews chapter 8 Paul repeats the above scriptures and explains them in depth.

These are promises made about a new Temple, where people will worship with hearts of flesh not stone, where God Himself will teach His people. This will be a new covenant given the house of Israel. Where do we see God teaching his people? Where do we see a New Covenant being given to Israel? What is this New Covenant?

In John 6:45-48 Jesus is speaking:

It is written in the prophets:’ They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.

It is Jesus God who fulfils this prophecy. We must pay attention to John chapter 6. It is Jesus who reminds His followers that He is God. They are being taught directly by God as Isaiah says. He is God the Son teaching about God the Father. He gives eternal life to those who believe.

• Believe what? He is the bread of life.
• What time of the Jewish liturgical year is this happening? Passover.
• What else happened at the Passover the following year? Christ’s institution of the Eucharist.
• What did Christ call the cup when He gave it to his disciples? The New Covenant.
• What does the Bible Prophecies about the New Temple, the New Jerusalem, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Hearts of Flesh, the Living Stones, God’s teaching directly rather than through prophets and what does the New Covenant refer to?
• It refers to the Church gathering believers in Christ not to the stone building of Salomon’s temple or the 3rd Temple to be built over the Haram al-Sharif mosque.
• It refers to the living Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the New Covenant instituted at the Last Supper.
• It refers to the Eucharist, the living God and His immediate immanent presence.
• It refers to the Church and the Mass.

5. The Sacrifice of the Mass

In the Old Testament the Temple was a template of what God had shown Moses in Heaven. In the Apocalypse, on a Sunday, John has a vision of the true Temple in Heaven. In the letter to the Hebrews Paul says (Heb 12:22-24):

You have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood.

Paul cannot be clearer. We approach the Temple in Heaven with countless Angels, the Assembly of Christians who have passed away, God the Judge, the spirits of the Saints and the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. This is what the Mass truly is Heaven in the real presence of Jesus and His saints participating to His sacrifice on the Cross. There is a traditional African-American spiritual that says:

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

As Catholics, at Mass, we are able to say I was there when they crucified my Lord, and it causes me to tremble. When we think of the fulfilled prophecies, the Church as Heaven, the Mass as being present at Calvary and Jesus being there at the altar this should really cause us to tremble in awe. Sometimes we wonder how is it at all possible and if it is really true. I don’t know how it is possible but I know it is true because Jesus said so. Our salvation comes only from the shed blood of Christ at Calvary. That’s the central part of our beliefs. But how do we know? Where does it say that in the Bible? Jesus spoke from the Cross but He never said:

This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins (Mat 26:28).

Jesus said this at the Last Supper not on the Cross. In his book God is Near page 29, Cardinal Ratzinger explains:

The words of the Last Supper without the death would be, so to speak, an issue of unsecured currency; an again, the death without these words would be a mere execution without any discerning point to it. Yet the two together constitute this new event, in which the senselessness of death is given new meaning; in which what is irrational is transformed and made rational […]

If then we want to know how Jesus himself intended his death to be understood, how he accepted it, what it means, then we must reflect on these words; and contrariwise, we must regard them as being constantly guaranteed by the pledge of the blood that was his witness [...]

In other words without the Last Supper, the Cross has no meaning. Without the Last Supper Christ’s death on the Cross would be another criminal execution like so many. On the other hand if we look at the Last Supper without the Cross it’s only a Jewish Passover celebration or a farewell diner like all the others. Not only that but the words are absurd, they do not mean anything.

Without the Cross, the only way these words would mean anything is if they were taken symbolically. Here take this cup, close your eyes and imagine this is my blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins. Yes, we can arrive at a symbolical meaning; Jesus could have said imagine this is my blood. In that case He did not need to die. He could have saved us without the Cross and then given us a symbol to reflect on. A symbol does not need a real action to follow.

It is precisely because the Cross is true that Christ’s words are true and the Eucharist is true. It is precisely because the Cross is real that the Eucharist is real. Without the Cross, the Eucharist does not mean anything. Without the Eucharist, the Cross does not mean anything. The one cannot be separated from the other. Both, the Eucharist and the Cross, are one and the same event. The Eucharist presents again that one single event that goes from the Last Supper to the Death and Resurrection of Christ. That’s why after the priest presents the Eucharist we proclaim our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

I think this is the most awesome thing. So awesome it makes me tremble. Heaven is where God is. This is the New Jerusalem, the City of the Living God. Jesus is in the Eucharist. Jesus is here. Jesus, God, lives at 647 Locust St, in Collegeville.

Links:
St. John Chrisostom:	http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220124.htm
Epistle to the Hebrews:	http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/hebrews/hebrews8.htm