What is the most important part of the Mass?
The Eucharistic Prayer marks the summit of the Mass. Eucharist means thanksgiving. As the priest recites the Eucharistic Prayer, we should concentrate all our senses on the action—the mystery—taking place on the altar. We should join the priest and the entire Church in offering to God the redeeming sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and give thanks for God’s goodness and glory.
The Eucharistic Prayer itself begins with a short dialogue between the priest and us, before the Preface, and ends with the doxology preceding the Lord’s Prayer. Throughout the prayer, the priest speaks in the first-person plural; he repeatedly says “we,” which places him at the head together with the body, which is the Church, in the person of Christ. Only when he pronounces the words of the Consecration does he slip into the first person singular. The other pronoun to notice is “you,” addressed to the Father.
The name of this central part of the Mass, Eucharistic Prayer, aptly describes it. The term Canon, of Greek origin, means rule or standard. The expressions Liturgical Action or Sacred Action are also applied to the Eucharistic Prayer. So is the word Anaphora, which means offering.
It is a prayer that the Son of God, with the Church forever united to him, directs to God the Father. The Eucharistic Prayer is Christocentric as well, because it makes constant references to the main actions of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, represented by the priest, the other Christ.
In the Gospels, the kingdom of God is compared to a wedding feast. Jesus is the Bridegroom who loves and gives eternal life to his spouse, the Church, the “bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2). The redemptive act of Christ towards the Church, the Bride, is expressed in the Eucharist most excellently. The Mass then becomes like an anticipation and foretaste of the banquet of heaven.
This fact also explains why women are not to be ordained: Since the priesthood is a sacrament, it is a sign that not only is effective but also should be intelligible to the faithful. “When Christ’s role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacramentally, there would not be this ‘natural resemblance’ which must exist between Christ and his minister if the role of Christ were not taken by a man.”
The Eucharistic Prayer states praise to God, especially at the beginning, and also thanksgiving. Then, we give thanks with action, with deeds: the Consecration.
In the east, the priest says the Canon in seclusion, to emphasize the idea of mystery. A partition, called iconostasis, adorned with icons, is set between the sanctuary and the people.
This was not the custom in the Roman rite. The faithful always had the unique privilege of being direct witnesses of the mystery: “You can read the prophecies, the epistles, and the Gospels at home; but only in the House of God—and nowhere else—can you hear and see the Consecration of the body and blood of the Lord.”
Nov 27 Thu