Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Anthony Brankin
[Part I]
A number of years ago, I ran across a parish bulletin that—in its own perky style tried to give a definition of the Mass. As nearly as I can recall it said the Mass is where “we gather, we remember, we celebrate.” We gather, we remember, we celebrate? I was stopped cold. This to me seemed to be the most inadequate explanation of the Mass possible. Woefully inadequate—and at least because it failed to explain why the Mass and what we do in the Mass and what happens in the Mass is different from any other time when we gather, remember or celebrate—like a retirement party—or a five year old’s birthday party.
You will notice that this definition of the Mass repeats the word “we” three times. We gather. We remember. We celebrate. Oh the author finally gets around to the guy named Jesus—but you get it—Jesus is just there as a foil for our experiences—a cypher to help us explain who we are and why we are important. For the author—and for many a modernist liturgist—the Mass is all about us. The modernist liturgist would much rather ignore God—ignore what He has done in our lives—and move on to more important things like “Me.”
Modern Me
Now what do I mean by Modernist? Well, to put it simply, a modernist really doesn’t believe in the objective reality of the supernatural. All doctrine and dogmas about the Supernatural are actually a concept we use to explain our experiences. For example, a modernist does not have to explicitly deny the resurrection of Jesus—he will just slide over it, sidestep it—so that he can talk about our own “resurrection” experiences. In the same way a modernist regards the Mass merely as a useful human tool by which we can order our other human experiences. This is just not compelling. In fact it is boring to the extreme—solipsistic and selfish to the nth degree.
If the truth be told—the proliferation of this sort of theology—has done incredible damage to the Church. You can probably draw a straight line from a modernist understanding of the Mass where we gather, we remember and we celebrate to the collapse of Catholic worship in so much of the world.
Let us instead give a different definition: The Mass is the Un-bloody Sacrifice of Christ on our altars—where Christ as Priest and Victim offers Himself to the Father under the appearances of bread and wine. That is pretty straightforward. Now that is something that might hold our attention.
I remember back in the seminary of the seventies, as a sort of nod to the old days, we were treated to a week or two of what the Church meant when she said that the Mass was a true sacrifice. We were given to understand that the whole notion of the Mass as a sacrifice was pretty passé. But once we heard of some of the classical theologians that delved into the Mass as Sacrifice—such as Vincent McNabb, Louis Billot and Maurice de la Taille. And it was utterly fascinating. Here were these brilliant lights of the Church—albeit from other centuries—and they believed that something supernatural was actually happening on our altars—during Mass. That drew me in. And I have been fascinated and full of wonder ever since.
“Oh, God, we belong utterly too you.” This offering is called the Oblation.
[Part II next week.]