What is the Mass?

In the last post, we saw that the Liturgy is a Heavenly, eternal reality.  It is Christ’s work on behalf of His people – His offering of Himself, once and for all, as the perfect sacrifice to the Father in order to make human salvation possible.  The question I ended with was how this all connects with Mass at your parish this Sunday morning.  How does the earthly liturgy, which we experience when we go to Mass, relate to the Heavenly reality?  We call them both ‘the liturgy,’ right?

            The idea of a Heavenly liturgy is pretty obvious in Scripture (especially in Hebrews and Revelation), not to mention in the Church’s 2000 year tradition.  You will find an understanding of Heavenly liturgy in most Christian denominations.  The question of earthly ritual has been much more difficult over the years.  One approach to the question has been to think of Christian ritual as a set of words and actions that magically summon Heaven down to earth so that we can experience it.  Or, the same type of thinking might lead to the idea that the magic words shoot us up into Heaven to be part of it.  Neither idea is correct, from the Catholic perspective.  The key thing to understand as a Catholic is that the ritual and words are not magical means to an end at all.  Instead, the ritual and words at Mass are themselves actual participation in the heavenly liturgy.  Here is an example from the Mass that might be helpful:

During Mass, the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy”) is not a ritual cause which has the effect of enabling us to participate for a moment in the worship of the angels in heaven.  It is not a question of cause and effect; rather when we sing the Sanctus during Mass we are actually singing with the angels in heaven.  The reason we use particular words at this moment of the liturgy is not that the Church has mandated a specific formula as our way of getting up to heaven.  The words of the Sanctus are not our ticket in; we are already participating in the heavenly liturgy.  The reason we use those particular words is that we are joining with something already taking place.  The Sanctus is especially important because we have the words and context directly from scripture.  The Church had the idea to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” in the liturgy because God revealed that that’s what the angels are singing in Heaven (Revelation 4:8)!

In other words, during Mass earth and heaven are united – we don’t have to ‘get up there’ or bring heaven down to us.  That is a pretty amazing reality, isn’t it?  As the Church understands it, when you participate at Mass you are participating in what goes on in heaven!  Here is how the Vatican 2 documents describe the liturgy:

“In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle (see Rev. 21:2; Col. 3:1; Heb. 8:2).  With all the hosts of heaven we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 8). 

On earth, we don’t experience the fullness of heaven (otherwise we would be up there already!), but as the Church says, we have a foretaste of heaven in the liturgy – a hint of what it is like. 

So, the first thing to understand is that the Mass is not a bunch of magic ritual words and actions we have to perform, in order to get an early taste of heaven.  Instead, the Mass is the early taste of heaven – when we participate at Mass, we are participating in heaven. 

This gives us an important distinction between the Heavenly Liturgy, which is eternal (‘once and for all’) and never changes; and the earthly liturgy which changes over time.  Over 2000 years, and in different ways in different places, the Church has developed various forms of the earthly liturgy.  We have to be careful to keep the distinction in mind – the forms (words, actions, music, language) change in different times and places on earth, but the reality we participate in does not change.  You can think of the different rites and languages and historical developments of the earthly liturgy as a hundred different ways of participating in the same heavenly thing.  As an analogy, you might think about the many ways a married couple celebrates their anniversary.  Maybe one year it is a surprise trip, or a party, or a special dinner, or a gift.  Whatever form it takes in a particular year, the underlying reality (the love and unity of the couple) remains the same.  They are celebrating the same thing in a hundred different ways over time.  If you take that analogy around the world, you would see that in different cultures and places and times there have been many different customs for celebrating the beauty of married love. 

The same thing is true of the liturgy.  Be careful not to get too complacent as a suburban American Catholic – what you see on Sunday morning is only a part of the Church’s history and tradition.  The word ‘Catholic’ means universal – that means for all places, but also for all times.  The earthly liturgy has taken many different forms, as the Church has grown and developed over time.  What remains the same through all changes in earthly liturgy is the heavenly reality that the Church participates in. 

That brings us to an answer for this post’s question – “What is the Mass?”  The Mass is the particular form of the earthly liturgy that we happen to participate in, as 21^st century Catholics.  You may not know this, but even if you just look at our particular time there are many different ‘rites’ (forms of the liturgy) celebrated around the world.  This happens because the Church respects historical liturgical traditions, even when changing the mainstream liturgy.  For example at the Council of Trent in the 16^th century, liturgical traditions more than 200 years old were allowed to continue.  That’s where we get the Dominican Rite, the Mozarabic Rite (in parts of Spain), and the Ambrosian Rite (just in the city of Milan!), among others.  Or, in some cases Christian groups joining the Church are allowed to keep most of their traditional liturgy.  This is the case with the “Anglican Use” rite, and is being worked on right now with the large numbers of Anglicans interested in coming into communion with Rome.  Similar things have happened through history with Orthodox Christians from various countries – they have come back into communion with Rome.  So, there are many Eastern rites of the Catholic Church (Greek, Hungarian, Ruthenian, Ukranian, etc).  There is also the Coptic rite – composed of Egyptian Christians who returned to communion with Rome.  This is just a sampling of the many liturgical traditions around the world today.  The Roman Rite is by far the largest, but these others exist alongside. 

So, the Mass is what we call the particular form of the liturgy most Catholics around the world participate in today (the Roman Rite).  The important thing to remember is what unites all of these different forms of liturgy in different times and places – participation in the eternal Heavenly Liturgy! 

You may be wondering how this works – how do we have the ability to be united with heaven?  That is the subject of the next post – “How does the Liturgy work?”

What is the Liturgy?

The best way to begin talking about Liturgy is simply to define the word.  The way most people use the word, you probably think 'liturgy' is just another way of saying 'Mass'.  Actually, the concept is much bigger than that.  This discussion gets pretty heady and hard to wrap your mind around, but bear with me!  You need to understand what the Liturgy is, for music or the Mass or anything else to make sense. 

The word 'Liturgy' comes from two Greek words:  laos and ergon.  Laos means 'the people' or 'the public', and ergon means 'work' or simply 'to do'.  These words are combined into the single Greek word leitourgia, which means 'public work'.  In ancient Greece leitourgia had the same meaning as the modern 'public works' department, except that it was done by private citizens.  Maybe the neighborhood bridge or water system needed to be repaired - a citizen would perform leitourgia by fixing the problem at his own expense.  The key concept is that leitourgia was a public work performed at personal expense on behalf of the public.  This was the term adopted by Christians to describe their communal rituals - it seems strange, doesn't it?

To understand what this term means in the Christian sense, we need to know three things:  who is doing the work, what the work is, and who is benefiting by the work.  Here is the quick answer:  Christ is doing the work, the work is salvation, and the public in need of salvation is humanity.  So, the Liturgy is Christ performing the work of saving us! 

The best place in the Bible to look for more information is the book of Hebrews, which talks about how Christ performs the work of salvation.  Hebrews shows how in the Old Covenant (with the Jews), the people needed priests to offer sacrifices in the temple.  These sacrifices had to be offered again and again, to atone for the recurring sins of the people.  In the New Covenant (established by Christ), we only need one priest and one sacrifice - Christ is both.  He offers Himself, once and for all, as the perfect sacrifice on our behalf.  Here are a couple of important quotes from Hebrews, but whenever you have a minute be sure to read the first half of the book of Hebrews.  It gives you the whole history of salvation in a nutshell:

1.  “he [Christ] had to become like his brothers in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people.  Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Hebrews 3:17-18). 

2.  “Those priests [of the Old Covenant] were many because they were prevented by death from remaining in office, but he, because he remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away.  Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.  It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:  holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens.  He has no need as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself" (Hebrews 7:23-27).

3.  “For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf.  Not that he might offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary with blood that is not his own; if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly from the foundation of the world.  But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sins by his sacrifice.” (Hebrews 9:24-26). 

So, the book of Hebrews gives us a liturgical model for the history of Salvation.  Christ had to become human, so that he could function as our eternal High Priest - offering the perfect sacrifice to the Father in heaven.  This is the liturgy - His public work on our behalf! 

If you ever need a quick review of this concept, turn to the hymn "Alleluia, Sing to Jesus" in your hymnal and read through verses 3 and 4.  That is a great summary of this idea as well. 

Finally, I should say a quick word about the most common misunderstanding of the word liturgy.  A lot of people recently have taken those two Greek words ('people' and 'work') and gotten their meaning backward.  It is less common now than in the 60's and 70's, but you will still hear people talking about the liturgy as the "work of the people".  I'm not sure exactly how this got so mixed up recently - I suspect "work of the people" comes more from a Marxist view of Church history than a theological one.  In other words, people look at Church history as a long power struggle between the hierarchy and the people.  A lot of Catholics after Vatican II wanted to proclaim that the people had finally taken back the liturgy from the priests!  Power to the People!  Did I mention that this was most popular in the 60's through the 80's?  As you can see, this is exactly the opposite of what we are talking about - we can't save ourselves, no matter how much work we put into it!  Thankfully, the liturgy is Christ's saving work for us, and not our own work.  

The key point here, which you must remember, is that the liturgy is the public work of Christ, who offers Himself once and for all, as the perfect sacrifice to the Father for our salvation. 

Does this all sound far removed from Mass at your neighborhood parish this Sunday?  If you started this article thinking that 'liturgy' is another word for 'Mass', your head may be spinning right now.  Don't worry!  Remember the key point I summarized above, and read the next article - "What is the Mass?"  First understand the big picture of what the Liturgy is, then we'll talk about how the earthly Mass is a participation in that reality.