Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi
Title of Series: "Holy Mass: An Up Close and Personal Look"

Part 7: "Structure of the Mass: Liturgy of the Eucharist -- The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ"

April 6th, 2006
First Thursday

In my last meditation in March, I spoke about the two parts of the Mass -- the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Vatican Council has stressed that, although divided in two, these two parts are “so closely connected with each other that they form but one single act of worship.” SC56 “The Eucharistic table set for us is the table both of the Word of God and the Body of the Lord.” CCC 1346  The Liturgy of the Word instructs and prepares the people, making their hearts burn within them, so that they are able to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread, in the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

At its root, the Mass is a paschal sacrifice reenacting the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. Hopefully, this meditation will help you as you prepare next week for Holy Week. It is the sacrament of Christ’s real and transforming presence. It is both a sacred banquet and a sacrifice of love.

If you recall, last month I spoke about the first of the two parts -- the Liturgy of the Word. Today my focus is the second part -- “At the Eucharistic Table Part II -- the Body and Blood of the Lord.” This is a change in direction.

In effect, then, we move this morning from the ambo (pulpit) to the altar, from the Table of the Word to the altar of sacrifice and banquet. Although divisible, the Church has always insisted that “particularly in the sacred liturgy,” there is “one table of the Word of God and the Body of Christ.” DV21 Thus although two parts, it is one act of worship from one table.

For purposes of discussion, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, according to the Roman Rite, consists of three parts -- Preparation of the Gifts, the Eucharistic Prayer, and the Communion Rite. I will speak of the first two parts this morning and return to the communion rite in May. “At the Last Supper, (which we celebrate next Thursday), Christ instituted the paschal sacrifice and banquet by which the Sacrifice of the Cross is continuously made present in the Church whenever the priest, representing Christ the Lord, carries out what the Lord Himself did and handed over to his disciples to be done in his memory.” GIRM 72 To do this, the Church has arranged the Liturgy of the Eucharist to correspond to the words and actions of Christ in the following three parts. As I mentioned, I will speak today of the first two parts -- the preparation of the gifts and the Eucharistic Prayer.

1.) Preparation of the Gifts

The altar is prepared with a large white corporal from the word “corpus” (meaning “body”) upon which the consecrated body and blood of Christ will soon rest. In addition, a white linen purificator is added for purposes of purifying the vessels, especially the chalice which is also brought to the altar. Finally, the sacramentary, is brought to the altar. It is another name for the Missal, which contains the rubrics for the Mass and prayers. The lectionary is the book of readings that is used in the Liturgy of the Word.

Next, the bread and wine are brought forth and often together with the collection -- sometimes in procession -- gifts for the needs of the church and the poor. This is a tradition which goes back to the 3rd century when the people themselves brought the bread and wine to church. How important it is to remember that our money and gifts, at its deepest level, represent us. It is the self-offering of priest and people together to God. When we reflect that the Eucharist is, at its root, the commemoration of our Lord’s sacrificial self-giving, then some giving from our pockets is a credible sign of our desire to participate in His self gift to each of us.

It signals our self-surrender -- not only bread and wine and our money but the gifts God has given us to enrich our lives. I can never forget my time as a deacon one summer in Malawi, Africa where the offertory procession was so rich with joy as a dozen or so people processed up to the altar. Our very lives are offered soon to be transformed by His body and blood at communion. In other words, the Son of God became man so that we might become God. We offer our sight and hearing, our mind and will, our health and sickness. Each can be a sharing in Christ’s passion and so have redemptive value. On the patten and in the chalice, our lives are offered to God in union with Christ. The chalice and the patten, slightly raised, the priest blesses God for all of creation, for the bread, for the wine -- “fruit of the vine and work of human hands.”

One action and prayer might allude you, i.e. when the priest prior to elevating the chalice, pours a few drops of water into the chalice and 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.” Highly symbolic, with roots in the Jewish time, although minor, this action and these words symbolize many truths of our faith. The cup of blessing, in the Jewish rites, at the end of the meal, was always a mingled cup. In his book, The Mystery and Meaning of the Mass, Father Joseph Champlin gives further explanation:

• "the union of divine and human elements in Christ;
• the descent of God's Son into this world becoming one of us;
• the close bond between Christ and his church;
• the elevation of Christians, through baptism, to a sharing by grace of Jesus' divine nature;
• the pouring out of blood and water from the Savior's side of the cross;
• the intimate union of Christ and ourselves"

(Champlin, 86)

The gifts and the altar may be incensed. The gently rising clouds of incense symbolize the church’s offering and our prayers rising to God. In addition, the gesture of incensation honors the object, i.e. the chalice, or the person, i.e. priest or people incensed.

The priest washes his hands as an expression of the desire of inward purification as he says, “Lord, wash away my iniquity; cleanse me from my sin” which is one verse from Psalm 51. It is also seen as an act of reverence before entering into the presence of the Lord.

Finally, the priest prays the Prayer over the Gifts which concludes the Preparation of the Gifts -- the first part of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Listen to the prayer which I prayed (or will pray) on the fifth Thursday of Lent.

"Pray, brethren...
Merciful Lord,
accept the sacrifice we offer you
that it may help us grow in holiness
and advance the salvation of the world.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord."

(Sacramentary, 119)

2.) The Eucharistic Prayer -- Climax and Heart of the Entire Celebration (The Canon)

“Now the center and summit of the entire celebration begins: namely, the Eucharistic prayer, that is, the prayer of thanksgiving and sanctification.” GIRM 78 [The Greek word eucharistia means thanksgiving.] In an introductory dialogue [called the preface], the priests invites the people to lift their hearts to God in prayer and thanks; [“Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” “It is right to give him thanks and praise.”] he unites [the people] with himself in the prayer he addresses in their name to the Father through Jesus Christ. Praying the Eucharistic Prayer is a priestly act. It is the priest’s function, after all, to offer thanksgiving and sacrifice to God on behalf of the people. The Mass is their sacrifice but the priest is acting on their behalf in offering it to God. It is also his sacrifice. "Furthermore, the meaning of the prayer is that the entire congregation of the faithful should join itself with Christ in confessing the great deeds of God and in the offering of Sacrifice. The Eucharistic Prayer demands that all listen to it with reverence and in silence.” GIRM 78

There are 4 principal Eucharistic Prayers, 2 Reconciliation Eucharistic Prayers, and 3 for children. Each includes the following 5 elements:

a.) Thanksgiving and Acclamation
b.) Invocation of the Holy Spirit
c.) The words of institution and the consecration
d.) The remembering and offering prayer
e.) Intercessions and Doxology

a.) Thanksgiving and Acclamation

Thanksgiving is expressed specifically in the preface which is the first part of the Eucharistic Prayer. It has been a part of the Mass since the 8th century. The priest gives thanks to God for His many blessings and the work of salvation on behalf of the entire people of God in the preface. There are no fewer than 81 different prefaces and they are reflective of the day, feast, and season. Special prefaces exist for Marian feasts, those of the saints, marriages, and funerals.

The acclamation is the Holy, Holy, Holy -- the Sanctus. United with the angels, this is the peoples’ sung or recited response to the preface. The whole congregation participates with the priest. Its inspiration comes from the song of the angels in the vision of Isaiah 6:1-4: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts...All the earth is filled with his glory.”

b.) Invocation of the Holy Spirit (Epiclesis)

“Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and bood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” With hands extended, stretched over the offerings, the priest calls upon the Holy Spirit. This is called the “epiclesis” which is the Greek for “to call down.”

"Many of our sacramental rituals, such as confirmation, reconciliation, anointing of the sick, and ordination, include this laying on of hands. These actions convey directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicity, blessing and healing, forgiveness and consecration, the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. Following Sacred Scripture, we image the Holy Spirit as the power moving over the waters to create life at creation and as the power overshadowing Mary to create the child within her."

(Champlin, 97)

In this situation, the priest invokes the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood. 

c.) The Words of Institution and the Consecration

In the earlier meditations this year, we focused on the biblical basis for the words of institution -- Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1Cor 11:23-25. “Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for you.” AND “Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.” The Mass is about the rendering present of the crucified and risen Lord.

The priest is doing at every Mass what Jesus commanded to be done at the Last Supper which we celebrate in special fashion on Holy Thursday. The bread and wine become, at the consecration, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ -- His real presence about which we spoke in some detail  in an earlier meditation. Only the appearances of bread and wine remain. Important to remember, however, that it is Jesus Himself who works the miracle at every Mass. The priest is called an “alter Christus” but it is Jesus, using the tongue of the priest, who pronounces the words of consecration at each and every Mass and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine truly become His body and blood. The priest is not simply an actor in a passion play. He is actually representing Jesus at that moment and speaking His words with authority and speaking words that have a transformative effect.

This took place in the upper room or Cenacle in Jerusalem on the night before He died. On March 23, 2000 during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in the chapel of the cenacle, our late Holy Father John Paul II celebrated Mass there and spoke these words: “It is with deep emotion that we listen once more to these words spoken here in this Upper Room 2000 years ago. Since then they have been repeated, generation after generation, by those who share in the priesthood of Christ through the sacrament of Holy Orders. In this way, Christ himself constantly says these words anew, through the voice of his priest in every corner of the world.” He also said: “In a sense, Peter and the Apostles, in the person of their Successors, have come back today to the Upper Room, to profess the unchanging faith of the Church: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” “Celebrating this Eucharist in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, we are united with the Church of every time and place.”

In the moving biography of St. Thomas More, saint and lawyer, Peter Ackroyd gives us a sense of the devotion to the Eucharist in another time, the time of Thomas More in 16th century England.

"There was an inexpressible element of wonder and awfulness in a ceremony that brought the body and blood of Christ down to the earth once more; in a world of mysteries and miracles, this was the greatest mystery of all. It is what More meant when he wrote of 'the mystycall gestures and seremonyes vsed in the masse'. . . .The most sacred truths of the faith are given full material reality, leading up to that moment when Christ himself becomes present at the altar. This was marked by the moment of elevation when the priest held up the host, become by a miracle the body of Jesus. At that instant candles and torches, made up of bundles of wood, were lit to illuminate the scene; the sacring bell was rung, and the church bells pealed so that those in the neighboring streets or fields might be aware of the solemn moment. It was the sound which measured the hours of their day. Christ was present in their midst once more and, as the priest lifted up the thin wafer of bread, time and eternity were reconciled. The worshippers knelt down and held out their arms in adoration, since this was the sight for which they had come. There are reports of the people running from altar to altar to catch a glimpse of the consecrated host at different Masses, and one priest complained that at the sound of the sacring bell the people rushed away from his sermon to witness the elevation."

(Ackroyd113, 114)

d.) Remembering and Offering

“Do this in memory of me.” The Greek word is anamnesis which means “remembrance” or “calling to mind.” It is more than a recollection of what happened long ago in the Upper Room. It means making present of a past event in the present -- His life, death, glorious resurrection, and ascension. It is a sacramental remembering, not an historical remembering. By God’s power, what we remember is actually made present here and now. “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” And all so that we might experience His salvation from sin and His gift of divine and eternal life. 

“In memory of his death and resurrection, we offer you, Father, this life-giving bread, this saving cup.” Yes, we remember and we offer to God a most precious gift. It is offered by the priest in the name of the entire Church, especially those gathered at Mass -- “this holy and living sacrifice” of Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit. “The Church’s intention, however, is that the faithful not only offer this spotless Victim but also learn to offer themselves…” GIRM 79

e.) Intercessions and Doxology

The intercessions make it clear that we celebrate the Mass with the whole Church -- the entire communion of saints. The offering is made for the Church and all its members -- living and deceased -- each who is called to share in the salvation and redemption acquired by the body and blood of Christ. “Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love, together with Benedict our Pope, Theodore our bishop, and all the clergy.” “Remember our brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again.” We reach out to Mary, the angels and the saints -- those invisibly present at our holy Mass.

Finally, we finish the Eucharistic Prayer with a great doxology, a hymn of praise and glory. The priest, with the deacon, raises the cup and host so all can see in a gesture of praise, and sings or speaks -- “Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, forever and ever.” Our response is AMEN -- the hebrew word of assent and affirmation. 

3.) The Communion Rite

The third  and final part of the Liturgy of the Eucharist will be covered in May as we take up the theme “In the Eucharistic Presence of the Lord -- at Mass and Outside the Mass.”