Aug 7 Thu
Why do we hear, This Mass is offered for…?
Two notions that have fallen into eclipse: that of the Mass as sacrifice and the concept of suffrages.
How many times do Catholics hear that ritual phrase announcing the intention for the Mass, usually for “the repose of the soul of…?”
The problem with ritual phrases is that they sometimes become white noise: routine enough to be expected without notice but not thought about too often.
Do we understand what “to offer Mass” means? To what extent might the focus on the horizontal Church (the local assembly), blur the focus on the vertical: the offering to God?”
Why are the “Four Last Things” reduced to two: death and Heaven? If we rarely, if ever, talk about judgment and purgatory (much less Hell), then why would we expect Catholics raised in such a milieu to find anything really necessary about suffrages?
Many think that “this Mass is offered for” X refers to what the priest is doing. Meanwhile, what are the Catholics doing in the pews?
Vatican II established consciously “full and active participation” as the norm for all Catholics in the liturgy.
How could they, as members of the common priesthood of the faithful, offer and take part liturgically in a full and active way, if the idea of “sacrifice” is absent?
These are not rhetorical questions. I remember once, just before Confirmation, the priest giving me a penance of “offer Mass” that Sunday for such and such an intention. I had no idea what he was talking about and, therefore, how to perform my penance. He explained about forming an “intention,” i.e., that I was asking God in this Mass to bless X and help him through Jesus’ sacrifice.
Two elements of the theology of the Eucharist should be recapped: the idea that the Mass makes present Christ’s “sacrifice” and the importance of suffrages for the dead.
The participation in the Eucharistic liturgy for the intention of X should presuppose some basic understanding of sacrifice: how what we’re doing here and now relates to Christ’s Self-Offering and its application for this particular intention.
After all, if the common priesthood of a faithful enables him to “offer” the Mass, he needs at least a rough outline to know what he is doing. His “offering” cannot simply mean his presence, because Vatican II seemed to demand more than a “check-in” at the “essential” parts of Mass. His “offering” is a share in Christ’s priesthood.
Some might try to downplay the very idea of Mass “for the intention of,” dismissing it as a too-exclusively individualistic approach. Yet Christ’s infinite merits extend to intentions beyond the one made explicit for this Mass. But our tradition also recognizes the practice of praying explicitly for a specific intention. That concept should not be lost.
Even on Vatican II’s terms for liturgical participation—full and active—the contemporary Catholic seems handicapped unless he recovers two notions that have unfortunately fallen into eclipse: that of Eucharist as sacrifice and of suffrages for the souls in Purgatory. Otherwise, we talk about “offering” the Mass without really understanding what we are talking about.
Excerpts from John M. Grondelski