Mar 18 Wed
Why is the Amen at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer?
The Eucharistic Prayer ends with the Final Doxology. It is a song of praise to God that began from the Preface. The priest takes the chalice and the paten with the host and, lifting them, sings or says,
Through him, and with him, and in him,
O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.
Through him: Through Jesus’ mediation, we have access to God. “No one can come to the Father except through me.” The Father hears us favorably, forgives us, and loves us.
With him: We are children of God, through the adoption Christ merited for us, and, as a consequence, we are made his co-heirs. “Without me, you can do nothing,” He says. With him, our lives will glorify God on the earth. On the altar, Jesus unites us to his perfect obedience. He wants us, throughout the whole day, to be with him in work and in prayer; He wants us to be his companions, in penance and in apostolate.
In him: There is the same life in him and in us. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him,” Christ says. So, his life flows out into ours; from the Head to us as members of his Mystical Body. Our nothingness, our sins, our miseries are, as it were, absorbed by Christ, and they disappear in his infinite perfection. In him, too, we love our brothers and devote ourselves to their service.
In the unity of the Holy Spirit: The Church is a unity brought together by the Holy Spirit. He joins us together as believers and gives us the life of grace by which we become children of God. He dwells in us, enabling us to offer the sacrifice of praise to God, together with the entire Church.
The people’s acclamation Amen is an assent and a conclusion. Our offering, which is Christ’s offering on the cross, calls for a unanimous and enthusiastic Amen.
Already in the third century, the Christian people were granted these privileges: “To hear the Eucharistic Prayer, to acclaim the final Amen, to go to the sacred table, to receive the divine Bread.”
Yet the assembly does not remain passive: it unites itself to the priest in faith and silence and assents in the various interventions in the Eucharistic Prayer.
Let us sing or say the Great Amen with all our hearts united to all our brethren. Let it resound the whole world over, as the Amen of our early brothers in the faith “resounded in heaven, as a celestial thunderclap in the Roman basilicas,” they said.
This is the most important Amen in the Mass. It is for us both a resolution and a prayer. It is a resolution upon which our love for God blooms; a prayer based on the future hope of resurrection.
As the priest holds the paten and chalice, let us remember that Mary also held her Son’s body after the crucifixion. Together with our Mother, Mother of the Church, we unite ourselves to the offering of the Church.