Sent Forth from The Mass

I want to apologize to you my dear reader for how long it has been since I’ve posted a new article. I have been getting used to now having three children living in my house, working my normal job and finally, I’ve been preparing for a class that I’ll be facilitating starting in February, for the Lenten season, and while preparing for it the other day I started thinking about the first time I ever attended a Catholic Mass…

I think something that truly struck me as “odd” was the very end with the “sending forth” and blessing from the priest. I was struck by the fact that when the priest said “Go forth, the Mass has ended…”, the congregation then responded with “Thanks be to God!”. My first thought was: “Wow! Everyone is so happy that it’s over!” And then, it certainly didn’t help that as soon as the priest had walked down the aisle he had to quickly move out of the way to avoid getting run over by the “mad rush” of people heading to the exit!

So what’s wrong with this picture? Let me just say that there is a lot wrong with this and we Christians need to STOP being so quick to rush out of the sanctuary in order to get back to our over-crowded schedules and otherwise busy lives…

“The holiest moment of the church service is the moment when God’s people – strengthened by preaching and sacrament – go out of the church door into the world to be the Church. We don’t go to church; we are the Church.”

Earnest Southcott

Do we really understand what is happening during The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass? Now, there are a lot of things that happen and I could certainly write much on the various aspects of The Mass. However, I think it’s really important that I focus on the very last part… The ending. So here we go!

To quote Bishop Robert Barron regarding the French theologian, Henri de Lubac, the most sacred words of the Mass are “Go!”. Why is this the case? Well, in order to answer that question we have to at least touch briefly on what happens during the Mass. To borrow a phrase from Bishop Robert Barron, “the Mass is a great call and response”. During the Mass, we are called to communion with each other and with the Lord. Without going into so much detail, the climax of the Mass is during The Liturgy of The Eucharist when we become one with The Lord through Holy Communion.

In the ancient world, it was customary to end an event with a formal dismissal. With that being said, once this glorious, mysterious and sacred meal is concluded, we are then subjected to a powerful moment of deja vu. We stand together and are “re-greeted” by the priest or bishop with “The Lord be with you”. We make the sign of the cross which is the same way that Mass was started. Starting in the fourth century, the Latin words Ite Missa est were used for concluding the Mass. This phrase literally means “Go, you are dismissed”. What’s significant about this? It’s from this dismissal that the whole Liturgy receives its name, “the Mass,” from the word Missa meaning “dismissal/sending”. So what’s the point in bringing this up?

In the Mass we are given a great gift, Jesus Christ Himself, body, blood, soul and divinity. However, the celebration in which we receive Him is ultimately a “sending forth” out into the world. The ultimate point of The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass is not to stay in the church sanctuary… It’s not to act like a Christian within those walls and then just leave “our Christian side” there because we are ashamed or too nervous to act on our faith around our family, friends or strangers… We see in the story of Noah’s ark, that when the ark came to a stopping point, the doors and windows were opened and everyone and everything went forth out into the world.
This is exactly what happens to us when the Mass ends. We should leave our parish full of humility, awe and love for Our Lord, at which point we must fulfill our commission to take Jesus out to the world! I cannot stress this enough dear reader… It is imperative that you understand this point!

IF we are NOT called to go out and change the world, then what’s the point of any of this?! In Mark 16:15, Jesus says: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus says: “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.”

THIS is our mission and we cannot fulfill that mission if we do not “Go Forth” as we are commanded in sacred scripture and as we are commanded by the priest speaking as the person of Christ in our midst… THAT, my dear reader, is why the last words spoken in The Mass are some of the most important… Just as we cannot determine the fullness of the intent, purpose or plot of a book without reading it in it’s entirety, we cannot begin to understand the purpose of The Mass unless we fully participate in the entire celebration…

We are being sent forth, by the priest in persona Christi Copitis (in the person of Christ the head). We are called, after being nourished with and by our Lord, to attend to our mission as Christians. If you remember my previous blog, we are called to “bear our cross” and, if necessary, suffer for Our Lord. We are sent forth to bring Christ to the world, and that mission starts right outside the doors of the church… It is easy for us to sit back comfortably within the walls of our church with our friends or within the mental confines of our busy lives and talk about how “someone should spread God’s word and work on bringing people back to The Church” (as if it is solely someone else’s responsibility).

“Christianity is a fighting religion.”

C.S. Lewis

BUT WE are the ones called to transfigure and change the world! WE are charged with that responsibility and so, therefore it must START with EACH ONE OF US!

At the start of this Christmas season and as we wrap up Advent, if I may use one final analogy… Our calling, our duty our RESPONSIBILITY is to bear Jesus, as we have received His body, blood, soul and divinity, out to the world! We have become what we have eaten. As Bishop Barron puts it, we have been Christified. JUST as Mary bore Jesus, God’s word made flesh into the world, we are to bear Jesus as the fulfillment of our great commission, out to the world in order to draw others to Christ….

I love how Dr. Edward Sri puts it as the closing line of his book, A Biblical Walk Through The Mass… “The closing line of the liturgy, therefore, is not an aimless dismissal. It is a dismissal with a mission. It is a sending forth of God’s people to bring the mysteries of Christ into the world.”

May all glory, honor and praise be to YOU Almighty Father, forever and ever, Amen…

Until Next Time Dear Reader…

Your Humble Servant In Christ,

William