Mass Talks 17: Doxology; Pater; Embolism and its Response

The highpoint of the Mass, the Eucharistic Prayer, comes to a glorious conclusion in the Doxology and Great Amen: “Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, world without end. Amen.” The priest here addresses God the Father–as he does throughout most of the prayers of the Mass–but while holding in his hands the most Holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ. These words, as so many in the Mass, are taken from Sacred Scripture, here from Romans 11:36. It’s a pinnacle of praise to the Holy Trinity, indicated by the raising of the Eucharist, the so-called ‘Minor Elevation,’ indicating that all creation should be joined to Christ in giving God everlasting veneration. It’s a panoramic preview of heaven itself. Concerning the Great Amen which follows, perhaps too much has been made in recent years. The ‘greatness’ of the Great Amen is not due to the imposed and prolonged musical fanfare that too often accompanies it but to its intrinsic liturgical function as the assent of the congregation to everything that has been said and done in the Eucharistic Prayer.

A new part of the Mass then commences, the Communion Rite. With an introductory word of admonition, the priest invites the people to sing with him the Lord’s Prayer. The original Latin text of the priest here is much stronger than the customary English version. The Latin reads: “Having been warned by saving precepts [that is, God’s commandments] and having been formed by the divine way of living, we dare to say, Our Father...” Notice that the these words agree with the NT [Gal. 4:5-6] which acknowledges that only the ‘adopted sons’ may call God ‘Father’ and that they would never presume to be so familiar with the Deity had it not been for the express command of our Lord that we address God in this manner.

We may surely see the fittingness of praying the Lord’s Prayer at this point in the Mass since it begs God for our “daily bread.” In a non-specific sense, ‘daily bread’ refers to all things we need to sustain ourselves, a figure of speech still with us when we speak of the “bread winner’ of the family. But does “daily bread” also refer to Christ the “Living Bread,” and thus have a direct reference to Holy Communion? There is an ancient reading of the Lord’s Prayer which renders the phrase ‘our daily bread’ as “our supersubstantial bread” a specific reference to the Holy Eucharist. In any case, the expression ‘daily bread’ as it is used in the Mass by the Church is an indication that the faithful may receive Communion every day, and not on Sundays only (provided they are in a state of grace.)

The Lord’s Prayer in the Mass has an extension of its last phrase, an elaboration that mentions “all evils.” In the former rite, this was even more pointed: “from all evils, past, present and to come.” There are two things noteworthy in this prayer: 1) the introduction of the word ‘peace’ (which will have its own amplification in the Rite of Peace) / and 2) the future-directed dimension of the Mass. About the latter, every Mass awaits the Second Coming of Jesus, longing for His glorious return at the end of the world. Here we see the Church represented in those wise virgins of our Lord’s parable, vigilantly waiting for the coming of their Bridegroom. As I have said before, this is one of the reasons for celebrating the Mass facing Eastward: the Lord is said to return, when He will come again, from the East. We face Eastward at Mass since we know not the day nor the hour of the Lord’s return.

We will say more about the Rite of Peace another time, but let me say just one word about it here. This prayer asks God that we be kept secure from ‘perturbation,’ that is, from disturbance, meaning both in the world and in our hearts. The present translation ‘anxiety’ reduces this to internal disturbance only and robs the prayer of its other and more obvious sense of war and civil disorder. We are praying God that we will live in tranquility–surely an urgent petition appropriate and needful at all times in this uncertain and unstable world.

The people’s response to that prayer had stirred up quite a controversy when it was first introduced into the Mass in 1969. This is the famous sentence: “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.” Most of you are aware that many Protestants say the Lord’s Prayer with this doxology tacked on to it. It was therefore irksome to many Catholics–even shocking–that the Catholic Church was adopting a ‘Protestant’ prayer and inserting it into the Mass. Let the truth be told: this added text comes not from the Reformation but from one of the oldest Christian documents (possibly from as early as 50 A.D.), the Didache. Here is a portion of the original form (in the Didache) of the prayer we now have at this part of the Mass: “Remember, O Lord, your Church, to deliver her from all evil...Gather her from the four winds...into the kingdom you have prepared for her, for the power and glory are yours forever. Amen.” The odd thing about these words is that Protestants, who reject what we call Sacred Tradition and accept only what is in the bible, have admitted these words of Tradition into their Lord’s Prayer, a surprising contradiction of the principal tenant of the Reformation.

Here we must stop the action of the Mass. We will speak of the Rite of Peace at another time. One can see here the rapid and progressive movement of the prayers of the Mass as they prepare the faithful for the reception of Holy Communion.