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Catechesis on the Liturgy: Sunday, Kiss of the Altar, Incense and Sign of the Cross

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Homily
Sunday, September 10, 2006, 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
St. Joseph Parish, Detroit

7. Today we continue our homilies on the Mass, as means to help all of us understand the Mass better, participate in it prayerfully with a greater appreciation of all its details, and to arm ourselves for apologetic topics in conversations with our non-Catholic friends.

Today we will consider four points: Mass is on Sunday, the priest’s kiss of the altar, the use of incense, and the sign of the cross.

Mass is on Sunday

We Catholics gather every Sunday for Mass. Why not every Monday or Thursday, or once a month instead of once a week? Because the Apostles, learning from Christ, have taught us to.

The second Vatican Council tells us, “‘By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord's Day or Sunday.’[1]

“The day of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the ‘eighth day,’ on which Christ after his ‘rest’ on the great sabbath [Holy Saturday] inaugurates the ‘day that the Lord has made,’ the ‘day that knows no evening.’ The Lord’s Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet.[2]

“Sunday is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly, when the faithful gather ‘to listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind the Passion, Resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus, and giving thanks to God who[, as Vatican II puts it,] “has begotten them again, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” unto a living hope.’[3]”[4]

The Priest Kisses the Altar

            8. After the introit, the priest kisses the altar. The true altar of the Lord’s new covenant is his Cross. There he was sacrificed, from the cross all graces flow, and the sacraments thence flow as well. It is also the table of the Lord, to which the faithful are invited.[5] In some places, the communal aspect of gathering around a table is stressed, and the Mass is then superficially downgraded from the feast of the body and blood of our sacrificed Lord, the food that gives us eternal life, to a social event where we all share a meal together; and this is an error. The altar is sanctified by the Lord, so let us not fall into an idolatry of the table itself.

            But because it is a “permanent sign of Jesus Christ among his people,”[6] the priest and deacon kiss the altar. This is a liturgical expression of reverence. “It is.. the salutation of the place wehre the holy mystery will be consummated.”[7] It is also a symbol of love of Christ, who is the cornerstone and spiritual rock of our faith. This kiss expresses also a love for his mystical body, the whole Church, especially the martyrs who were sacrificed for their faith in Christ, and the priest in the old order of the Mass said prayers asking for forgiveness for his sins.[8] The gospel book is kissed by the priest with similar sentiments, and the altar is again kissed at the end of Mass. And the whole congregation is invited to make the priest’s sentiments their own.

Incense of the Altar, and the Use of Incense in General

            9. Incense is used by the priest or ministers at different times in the Mass: the introit, the altar at the beginning of Mass, the Gospel, the preparation of the gifts, and the elevations of the Host and Chalice.[9] There are other uses of incense for special rites and even outside of Mass. It expresses prayer, sacrifice, and reverence to the thing incensed. It can be used at any Mass, but it is best used when music accompanies the Mass, and to heighten the solemnity. One of the Psalms reads, “May my prayer be set before you like incense,” (Ps 141:2) which we always remember when we see the raising cloud, and smell its beautiful perfume. The fact that it is the altar we incense adds meanings of purification and protection,[10] and adds to the perception of the place of the Mass as a sacred place.

The Sign of the Cross

            10. The priest then says his first words out loud, declaring the beginning of the Mass to be done in the name of the Holy Trinity. “The Father accomplished the ‘mystery of his will’ by giving his beloved Son and his Holy Spirit for the salvation of the world and for the glory of his name.”[11] “The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross… The sign of the cross strengthens us in temptations and difficulties.”[12]

            Next week we sill meditate on the location of the Mass, the church building; the biblical greeting of the priest to the congregation, the examination of conscience, and the prayer which starts I confess.

So in summary: By the day of Sunday, we reverence the risen Lord and the tradition of the Apostles; by the priest’s kiss of the altar, we reverence the sacrifice, the body of Christ, and the body of the Church; by incense we reverence persons and things in prayer and invoking protection; and by the sign of the Cross, we reverence the cross of our Savior, as well as the Holy Trinity, in whose image we were made out of love. Amen.