Mass Confusion

The Communion of Saints gathered together to celebrate Mass.

It has been a couple weeks since I last posted on my blog and I apologize for that.  Life has a way of throwing you curve balls and things come up which force you to prioritize. 

Today I would like to reflect on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

As the title indicates I believe that there is a lot of confusion about the Mass today so I want to share with you how I understand the Mass by telling you what I believe are the essential and non-essential elements of the Mass.

First off, the essential elements.  Every celebration of the Mass follows the same basic structure.  It begins with the entrance of the celebrant which is followed by the Penitential Rite where we express sorrow for the venial sins we have committed and receive forgiveness for these sins.  This is followed by the Liturgy of the Word where we listen to readings from the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament.  Then the priest or deacon shares a reflection on the readings or prayers to help the congregation to grow in their spiritual life.  This is followed by the Liturgy of the Eucharist where the priest, acting in the person of Christ, consecrates bread and wine and they become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  The Eucharist is then distributed to the congregation.  After everyone has received the Eucharist the priest gives all present a final blessing and sends them out into the world to bring the faith to everyone they meet. 

This basic outline for the Mass is important because it allows Catholics around the world to be in community with each other.  If you attend Mass in another country and you do not understand the language you can still follow the Mass because every Mass, around the world, follows the same structure. 

The two key parts of the Mass are the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  Many people, even Catholics, do not know that when you attend Mass you actually receive Christ twice.  The first time is when we listen to the readings.  Jesus is the Word of God.  So when the person proclaiming the reading says "this is the Word of the Lord" it is a pronouncement that we have just received Christ.  The second time we receive Christ is in the Eucharist when he gives himself, body, blood, soul and divinity, to us under the appearances of bread and wine.

Some things which I think are non-essential elements of the Mass are posture, music, and having a lot of people in attendance.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, I am sure there are other non-essential aspects of the Mass. I mention these things because in recent years they have been very hotly debated and they seem to have become the main focus of many people.  These elements may contribute and help people to have a greater experience of the Mass, but if they become the focus then we lose sight of why we are at Mass in the first place.  

We go to Mass to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.  Whether we sit, stand, kneel or lie down does not matter.  Whatever our posture is it should reflect our reverence and gratitude to God for the great gift He gives us; Himself.  

Music is not needed at every Mass, so when there is music it should lift our minds and our hearts to God.  The focus needs to be on Christ, not the choir. Mass is not a concert where we should expect to hear talented musicians perform their greatest pieces.  Even a mediocre singer can sing their heart out in praise to God. 

Whatever we do we need to keep the focus at Mass on Christ.  In recent years, however, it has seemed to me that we are sacrificing essential things like reverence for the Eucharist for the sake of building community or getting more people to attend Mass.  If you look at the picture above you see that there are hosts of angels and saints who attend every Mass so even if only 10 people show up it is still worth celebrating because Heaven comes to Earth each time the Mass is celebrated.  I encourage you to spend some time looking at and reflecting on the picture above.  If people really understood the Mass then there would never be an empty church, it would be a joy to attend Mass.  It would be something we long for and look forward to.

The Mass is truly amazing because it brings together the whole Church and the whole Communion of Saints to gather around Jesus Christ who is truly present on the altar.  We do not need to do anything in order to build community.  At each Mass we are in community with all Catholics throughout the world and with all the angels and saints in Heaven.  

I would like to see a shift in focus, away from the community and towards the individual.  If every individual who attends Mass opens their mind and heart to Jesus Christ and enters into relationship with Him then the community will naturally flow out of each person's relationship with Christ.  These are just my opinions so take them for what they are worth and God Bless!