Why does the priest use bread and wine in the Mass?
The priest takes the paten with the bread and, holding it slightly raised above the altar, says,
- Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation…
We may respond, “Blessed be God for ever.”
The first Christians used ordinary bread at Mass marked with a cross or some other symbol of Christ. From about the ninth century, azyme bread began to be used, recalling the unleavened bread Jesus used at the Last Supper.
Bread is the most eloquent symbol of human existence. To earn your bread means to make a living.
Also, the little piece of bread on the paten represents, poetically, the union of man’s work with the earth, a natural element.
Therefore, when we offer bread as a participation in Christ’s sacrifice, we intend also to offer all the beauty and goodness of nature united to our own work.
Like in the Gospel episode of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, Christ wants us to put in whatever we have got. The boy in the Gospel parted with the few loaves and fish he had, even though he could not believe his meager contribution would solve anything.
Then, the celebrant pours wine into the chalice and says,
- Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation...
Then, bowing in an attitude of profound humility, offering not only these gifts but also our self-oblation, he says,
- Lord God, we ask you to receive us…
This prayer is taken from the song of the three companions of Daniel who were thrown into the furnace. The priest speaks in his own name and in those of the faithful, and asks God to accept the sacrifice about to be offered. God should find in us true humility and sincere repentance for our sins.
The priest may incense the gifts placed upon the altar and then the cross and the altar itself, to signify the Church’s offering and prayer rising like incense in the sight of God. Next, the priest, because of his sacred ministry, and the people, by reason of their baptismal dignity, may be incensed.
It was an ancient custom to take wine mixed with water, as the chalice of Jesus contained in the Last Supper. The Church retained this gesture to symbolize the sanctification of the Christian, which is accomplished through his union with Jesus Christ. The water becomes a symbol of ourselves: our lives, with all their weaknesses.
Have you stopped to think what happens to the drops of water mixed with the wine? They are absorbed by it and then become inseparable from it. So does Jesus absorb us. The drops of water are of negligible worth; they are not even enough to quench anyone’s thirst. Yet, they will end up being divine blood! And all that because they let themselves be mixed with the wine and be dissolved in it, thus manifesting self-denial, personal renunciation.
At this moment, we grow in our desire to offer ourselves in total self-surrender, as the few drops of water in the chalice have reminded us. So, we will be able to become one with Jesus Christ after the Consecration.
Nov 13 Thu