The climax of the Eucharistic Prayer and all ceremonies of adoration being completed, the Priest now resumes his position as representative of the people and continues the Great Prayer interceding to the Father that the Sacrifice now present on the altar may avail unto salvation for all present and for the whole world. The continuation of his prayer continues the theme of the anamnesis, i.e. the memorial of the Lord's Passion and Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, and then quickly moves into the idea of Sacrifice, which shall be continued for the next two prayers.
As we shall see this prayer has no concluding formula option, i.e. "Through Christ our Lord. Amen." We may take from this that it is once again part of a threefold prayer, and it is especially important to note that as it is required that all the Priests celebrating the Mass say this prayer, we may conclude it forms part of the inner sanctuary of the Eucharistic Prayer, just as the Hanc Oblationem did.
Thus we see the importance of anamnesis in the Holy Mass. If we recall the ending of the Consecration of the wine, "Do this in memory of me," we see the clear command of Jesus that the Sacrifice is not only to be perpetuated, but it is to be done as a memorial - a calling to mind - of the Redemption. St. Paul says, "As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26)." To partake of the Eucharist is to call to mind Christ's Death and Resurrection, for as we remember, the Eucharist is the Risen Body and Blood of Christ, and the Resurrection could not have occurred without His Death. Even more, the Church would not be celebrating the Paschal Mystery if not for the Ascension of Christ, for it was not until our Lord ascended that the Age of the Church began, on the day of Pentecost.
In order to have a full understanding of the Eucharist, it is necessary, then, to call to mind these events. Furthermore, as the Sacrifice is here made present, it behooves the Priest to call to mind, on behalf of all the Faithful, the great and saving deeds which he is commemorating, in the manner of an exposition, so that he may have at the forefront of his mind that which he is offering and the Faithful may understand that in which they participate.
The first third of this prayer of the Priest is then:
"Therefore, O Lord,
as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed Passion,
the Resurrection from the dead,
and the glorious Ascension into heaven
of Christ, your Son, our Lord,
we, your servants and your holy people,
offer to your glorious majesty
from the gifts that you have given us,
this pure victim,
this holy victim,
this spotless victim,
the holy Bread of eternal life
and the Chalice of everlasting salvation."
As we said, before the Sacrifice shall continue, the Priest shall explain that which is occurring and he does so with the first half of this prayer. As he has resumed the orans posture, he also resumes his address to God the Father with, "Therefore, O Lord," but as noted numerous times already, even though addressed to the Father, much of what is contained in the prayer is for the benefit of the Faithful, so that we may fully understand the Mysteries happening.
In the memorial of the Paschal Mystery, then, he first calls the Passion of the Lord Jesus, "blessed." Within these two words are contained all the elements of the final hours of the Lord before His death. While other Liturgies may add features, the Roman Rite has remained content with brevity. Not wishing to simply mention the Death of Christ, though, for it is within the entire Passion that His love for mankind and wondrous salvation is shown, She chooses to instead call to mind the entire Passion.
As Jungmann points out, "we surely have reason for hailing the Passion as blessed, since it is the root of our salvation (220)." True that God has chosen that we should be redeemed by His Son's Death on the Cross, and thus that is the moment of total expiation for sin, but the entire Passion is blessed, for the Death on the Cross hinges upon all of its events. As we are blessed because of our union with Christ, so the Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal and Denial, the Trials before the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate, the Scourging and Crowing with Thorns, and the Way of the Cross are all blessed because of their union with the Sacrifice of the Cross, i.e. Christ's expiatory Death. Each moment is an atonement for sin and each moment and aspect offers us a unique and new vision of the love God has for us and that He shows us in the Incarnation of Christ.
Yet the Cross is the victory over death because of the Resurrection of Christ! Thus, in recalling the Cross, we must recall the Resurrection from the dead. We may notice that of the three events of the Paschal Mystery, the Resurrection is apparently without an adjective, but this would be a false assumption. Rather it may be supposed the adjective, "blessed," is joined to it as well. The Cross and the Resurrection are so intimately tied together, for the Cross proves the humanity of Christ, while the Resurrection proves the Divinity. We cannot contemplate the one without the other. The Passion is blessed on account of the Cross, but the Cross is blessed because of Jesus' Divinity. As the great Crux Fidelis proclaims, "Sweet the timber, sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear!" The Cross is the greatest of all trees; it is the new Tree of Life, due to the Fruit it bears, namely our Lord Jesus Christ. And this Cross and Risen King are now present on our altar!
But we also call to mind that third portion of the Paschal Mystery, "the glorious Ascension into heaven." Because Christ has ascended into the Heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father, He is able to make intercession for us. He is now the one Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), and thus, it is Christ Who shall present the prayers of the Church to the Father and gain a gracious hearing. It is on account of His Ascension, then, these sacrifices and the prayers offered by the Priest may have merit in the sight of God then, for it is Christ Himself Who offers them.
Furthermore, the Eucharist is so intimately tied to the Ascension of Christ it cannot be contemplated fully apart from it. The Blessed Sacrament is the fulfillment of Christ's promise to remain with us until the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). Through the Eucharist we are glorified and raised up to the Heavenly Life, because we are united to the Risen and Ascended Lord Who reigns in glory in that Life!
Now as we have mentioned, after expounding on these three parts of the Paschal Mystery, the Great Prayer moves into mention of the Sacrifice here offered. But before the Sacrifice shall be defined, we must take note of this interesting phrase, "we your servants and your holy people offer...." There are two possibilities we may here consider. The first is that "we your servants," refers to the Priests offering the Mass, whereas, "your holy people," refers to the Faithful who offer themselves and their prayers in union with the Sacrifice of Christ offered by the Priest. This interpretation would fit well with the Latin of the Prayer especially, for a comma separates the two groups and, nos - Latin for "we" - is joined with, "servants," and not, "your holy people," both by punctuation and by grammatical agreement
Yet we shall here propose an alternative interpretation, and this is that the Priest is speaking as a representative of the people here, and thus speaks on behalf of the entire congregation, who are all the servants and holy people of God. For support of this idea, we shall look at the Second Letter of St. Peter where he says, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people (1 Peter 2:9)." St. Peter is addressing himself not to clergy, but to all Christians, and these same terms have taken up residence in the Eucharistic Prayer to characterize all who participate in this Offering.
But we must be careful in our interpretation here, for the Priest acts in Persona Christi in offering the Sacrifice of the Cross to the Father, whereas the people do not. Nevertheless, we must remember the Priest is also a representative of the people and offers the sacrifice of the Church, namely the prayers and petitions which the Faithful bring to the Mass in union with the Cross, and it is these prayers which must find favor with God and which the Faithful offer through the Priest, who is also offering the Sacrifice of the Cross. As far as these sacrifices and prayers are thus united to the one Sacrifice they are part of the Oblation of Christ.
The Priest is, then, praying in these three prayers that God will accept the sacrifices and petitions of His Church, as we shall continue to examine in the next two posts. The first reason for acceptance is here given and it is also the first explanation of the Sacrifice on our altar, for these two ideas go together. Jesus Himself is the offering here Who is pure, holy, and spotless, but His Sacrifice has been made present to us through the gifts we have offered to God. Only through our own gifts of bread and wine can the Eucharist be Consecrated. Nonetheless, we must hearken our thoughts back to the Offertory Rites, where we praised the Father for giving us these very gifts of bread and wine.
It is true; we have the means of offering to God the Body and Blood of Christ because God has provided them for us! But as we said then, so we repeat now, this is an act of the mercy of God. Though condemned to receive bread and wine only through the sweat of his brow (Genesis 3:19), man now has been given the means whereby that bread and wine may become, "the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation." If, then, we are willing to cooperate with God and offer the sacrifice of, "a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17)," we may be saved by the Sacrifice of Christ which our sacrifices shall be joined in perfect union to!
We must not, however, harbor the thought that the Cross gains its value from the state of our souls, but the reverse is true, our sacrifices only gain value through the Cross. For the Victim on the Cross is pure and spotless in a way the oblations of the Old Law never could be, for the Victim is Jesus Christ, Who was never touched by sin or defect. Even to the end, not a bone of His was broken (John 19:36). The Victim on the Cross was also holy, but not in the same manner of the sheep and goats of the Old Testament which were holy because they were simply set apart, but Jesus is holy because He is the source of all holiness, God Himself.
The offerings of the Church which the Priest is presenting to God are therefore acceptable to God insofar as they are offered with pure, holy, and spotless hearts. For as God found the sacrifices of the Old Law detestable when they were offered in sin (Amos 5:21-23), so He will be even less pleased with our own attempts to offer His Most Beloved Son to His Glorious Majesty in an unworthy manner. Instead, we must make oblations in the manner of Abel, Abraham, and Melchizedek, which shall be pleasing to God and which we shall now consider!
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: Unde et memores, 218-226.
Translated by Rev. Francis A. Brunner, C.SS.R. (Christian Classics:
Notre Dame, Indiana, 1951).
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