A Look at the Mass: The Sanctus

Having directed our minds towards God the Father in thanksgiving, we now, with the angels, enter in to gaze upon the Most Sacred Mysteries. The following words form the hymn, which Heaven and earth unite together in singing, as was mentioned in the Preface; thus emphasizing the union brought about through the Sacred Liturgy of the Church! We may hearken back to earlier in the Mass when we joined our voices to the hymn of the angel choirs in the Gloria, yet at that time they we joined ourselves to the hymn they sang on earth; now we join the heavenly choirs in singing the song they sing before the throne of God in Heaven (Revelation 4:8), and so we sing:

"Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest."

We shall examine this hymn line by line, yet before we do so, we should consider the Cherubic Hymn, which is used in the Eastern Rite Liturgies. It runs:

"Let us, who mystically represent the cherubim and sing the thrice-holy hymn to the life-giving Trinity, lay aside all worldly cares, that we may receive the King of all, invisibly escorted by the angelic hosts. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia."

This hymn itself is comparable in meaning to the Sanctus, even though the Sanctus itself is found in these liturgies. Indeed, it is found in all of the Liturgies of the Church! This speaks of its great antiquity, for it is likely to go back all the way to the synagogue. The main part of the Cherubic Hymn, which we must consider though, is this first line, "Let us who mystically represent the cherubim." While it is true that through the Holy Liturgy we are made present to the heavenly liturgy, and thus all of the angels are already present with us in worshiping the Lord, we may also say that we, the Faithful, represent the angels in a symbolic way.

To understand this, we must remember the Liturgy celebrated by the Priest and Sacred Ministers, is full of symbolism to show what occurs in the Heavenly Liturgy, and these things will cease at the end of time, when we see the Liturgy unveiled in Heaven. Nonetheless, through the ministry of the Priest we are also present at the Heavenly Liturgy, though we see it through the temporary veils of our Liturgy. Thus, although the angels are truly present with us when we attend Mass, we are given to sing the Sanctus as a reminder to ourselves of this fact.

But let us now begin our actual consideration of the text of this part of the Mass. The first line is found in two places in the Sacred Scriptures, once in the Old Testament and once in the New. We have already cited the New Testament location as Revelation 4:8, which is highly significant because as we have often noted, the Book of Revelation contains many visions representing the Heavenly Liturgy. The other spot, however, in the Bible where this line is found is Isaiah 6:3. We may note this vision is of the glory of the Lord, which shall be significant later in our considerations. Immediately following this call of "Holy, holy holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory," we read, "And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6:4)."

The choice of these visions for this portion of the Mass is quite significant, for the Lord is about to appear before us under the Eucharistic Species! His coming in the Mass shall be heralded by the smoke of incense and the ringing of bells. Thus, it is highly appropriate that we use this cry of "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts," for it is one of the greatest titles we can give to our Lord God. And this is on account of two reasons. In regards to its appearance in the Old Testament, this thrice holy cry was to show the all holiness and perfection of God. It may be called the perfect acknowledgment of His Divinity, and in conjunction with the title, "Lord God of hosts," for this title conveys His command over all the hosts and powers of Heaven. Thus, He is the perfect God, all-holy, all-powerful! How well these ideas flow from those just expressed in the Preface!

Yet this thrice holy cry may also be said to signify the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, and thus its appearance in the New Testament. While this may have been foreign to the mind of Isaiah (we simply cannot know), this concept would certainly be understood by St. John, who of course taught the Holy Trinity, for It was taught to him by our Lord Himself! To acknowledge God as thrice-holy, then is to acknowledge His Trinitarian Nature. Therefore, when we sing the Sanctus, we are confessing our belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Three Persons, yet One God and Lord!

And this confession is immediately followed by the phrase, "Heaven and earth are full of your glory." While this line is lacking from the Book of Revelation, and Isaiah does not include the word, "Heaven," Holy Mother Church, in Her wisdom has deigned it appropriate to include both this word and this line in the hymn, for, as Jungmann notes:

"No longer is it the Temple of Jerusalem [where Isaiah beheld his vision] that resounds with the triple Sanctus, nor is it only the seraphim who cry out one to another; heaven has become the scene and all the choirs of heavenly spirits, the militia caelestis exercitus, are united in the singing (135)."

How profound this statement is, for we may truly say that due to the nature of the Holy Mass, it is indeed Heaven and earth that sing these praises, for we are united as one, as we have already mentioned, through the Holy Eucharist! And it is throughout the entire earth that these praises resound, for as the Prophet Malachi says, a pure offering shall be offered in every place from the rising of the sun to its setting (Malachi 1:11)! Thus, we may indeed say every corner of the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord.

We must now hearken back to what we spoke of in our consideration of the Preface, that we are only able to praise God through Christ our Lord, Who bridges the gap between men and God. With this thought in mind, we may now consider the "Hosanna in the highest," for as we remember this is the cry used by the Jews as Jesus entered into Jerusalem in triumph (Mark 11:10). The same reason penetrates the thought of the Church in including this cry here, for our Lord is about to come in the Most Blessed Sacrament, a coming more triumphal than the entrance into Jerusalem, for this is a coming into our world like His coming in the Incarnation! This is another coming for our salvation!

And as it was in the mind of the Jews to cry, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," on account of their anticipation of deliverance from the oppression of Rome and the inauguration of the Kingdom of Israel, so we take up this cry, but with a fuller understanding of the mission of our Lord. We know that He comes in the Holy Eucharist, a memorial of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, not to save us from earthly oppressors, but to save us from spiritual oppressors. He comes not to institute an earthly kingdom, but to institute the Kingdom of Heaven on earth!

Our Lord Himself testified that, "My kingship is not of this world (John 18:36)." In doing so, as Pilate noted, He acknowledged that He was a king, yet He also pointed us in the direction of His kingship and called us to look beyond this world for it. He came into this earth to lead us out of bondage to it. Thus, as Son of Man we may cry out, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," and as Son of God, King of Heaven and earth, we conclude our song with, "Hosanna in the highest!" 

How glorious are these thoughts conveyed through this short yet most profound hymn! It was the custom in the early Church and even into the later Middle Ages, that this hymn would always be sung by the people as well as the clergy and choir, especially due to the reason we have mentioned above, that the Faithful are meant to symbolically represent the angelic choirs here. Although this changed with the introduction of polyphony into the Liturgy, and thus became too complicated for the normal man and woman to sing, the reform of the Liturgy following the Second Vatican Council has restored this portion of the Mass to a song of the Faithful.

Let us take this to heart then, for as we fall down on our knees at the final "Hosanna in the highest," may we envision ourselves to be among the angelic hosts falling prostrate in adoration of the King, Who is about to make His humble, yet glorious entrance before us, in order to bring us our salvation!

All historical information taken from:
Rev. Joseph A. Jungmann, S.J. The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development. Volume 2. Part IV: Sanctus and Benedictus, 128-138. Translated by Rev. Francis A. Brunner, C.SS.R. (Christian Classics: Notre Dame, Indiana, 1951).