Every Sunday (or Saturday afternoons after 4 p.m.) Catholics all over the world gather for the holy sacrifice of the Mass. The Eucharist (the bread and wine that is transformed into the Body & Blood of Christ), which is brought into existence through the prayers of the faithful gathered and the actions of the priest acting in the person of Christ (in personae Christi) during the Mass is the source & summit of Christian life. It’s what gives us our purpose, and it’s our final goal which we hope to be in full communion with for eternity after death. The Mass as you’d experience it today in any Catholic Church anywhere in the entire world is an elaborate compilation of prayers, scriptural reflection, and tradition passed down through the generations. (If you question the validity and importance of generational tradition, see the comments from the June 19 post.)
So where does this system of worship Catholics invest their faith in come from? Did the Catholic Church just make it up at some point in history to give themselves more of a purpose? Is it even based in Sacred Scripture? There are plenty of questions that arise when studying the Mass. Starting with this post, we’ll unpack the mystery that is the Mass, its elements, its history, and, of course, its scriptural basis.
One question I get asked the most is, “Why don’t Catholics just worship the same way the earliest Christians worshipped?” It seems like when many critics and skeptics attend a Mass, they tend to think it’s impossible that what happens in a Catholic Church today could have even the slightest resemblance to what the earliest Christians did in the first few decades after the death of Jesus. I think, then, we should start this Mass series with a pointed look at how the earliest Christians did, in fact, worship. For that, I’ll turn to my trusty Catechism of the Catholic Church (a book EVERY Catholic should own), where under paragraph 1345, we find an excerpt from a letter written by St. Justin Martyr to the (pagan) emperor Antoninus Pius of Rome sometime around the year 155 AD (just a hair over a century after the death & resurrection of Jesus, but right smack in the middle of the emergence of St. Paul’s letters to the churches of various regions and the written accounts of the Gospels of the life of Jesus). In this letter, St. Justin explained to the emperor (who seemed eager to understand) what exactly Christians DID as part of their weekly gatherings. Here is the excerpt from that letter that can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (remember, this is a Christian writing just 100 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus explaining what they did in the earliest days of organized following of Jesus—or what we’d call “Christianity” today):
On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place.
The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as much as time permits.
When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things.
Then we all rise together and offer prayers* for ourselves . . . and for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation.
When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss.
Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren.
He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks (in Greek: eucharistian) that we have been judged worthy of these gifts.
When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying: ‘Amen.'
When he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the "eucharisted" bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.
The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as much as time permits.
When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things.
Then we all rise together and offer prayers* for ourselves . . . and for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation.
When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss.
Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren.
He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks (in Greek: eucharistian) that we have been judged worthy of these gifts.
When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying: ‘Amen.'
When he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the "eucharisted" bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.
Wow.
Just……wow……
And did I mention, “wow”?
Remember, that was written around the year 155 A.D.
Not 1155….
…155.
Anybody else get kinda misty-eyed while reading that? I mean, that’s just flat-out mind-bogglingly incredible. This is a basic outline of what is still being done somewhere in the world at EVERY hour of EVERY day. So for AT LEAST the last 1,856 years (which is a heck of a long time), Catholics have celebrated the same basic form of worshipping God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, what St. Justin was describing was the Mass at its simplest form in the earliest days when Christians (remember, back then everyone was all the same denomination, that being the one that today is known by the name “Catholicism”) were still being persecuted by non-Christians, so they had to meet in secret in small venues. As Christianity began to gain more widespread acceptance, they were able to worship in larger spaces, and over time, the celebration of the Mass “grew” with the spaces it occupied, so we started seeing more symbolic vestments come into use, along with bells and music, and so many other elements that appealed to the senses of the faithful, until we arrived at what we experience when we attend the Catholic Mass today.
Amazing stuff, that Mass… Next time you go, remember the description of St. Justin, and try to remember that the word catholic means “universal,” and that the sacrifice of the Mass helps us remember that our faith truly is a universal one that is constant and consistent throughout time and all over the world.
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