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Catechesis on the Liturgy: The Eucharistic Prayer (See previous chapter in this series) (See next chapter in this series)
Homily
(This homily had been for a time lost due to technical problems with my computer, but was since recovered and published a week late on this site.)
50. Today we shall consider the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass. This is one more chapter on our theological catechesis regarding the Holy Sacrifice. We have only two more chapters to go: next week, the closing of the Mass; and I will leave the meditation on holy communion for the following week, Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, after which the season of Advent begins, as does the liturgical year of 2007. I think that meditation upon this prayer will help us all pay closer attention to the words and make them our own prayer, will teach us how to pray, and will reveal much about the nature of the Church, whose source and goal is ultimately the Holy Eucharist.
The Priest Prays Alone
51. If one did not know exactly what the “Eucharistic Prayer” was, or how to identify it in the Mass, it could be easily pointed out. We could say, “It’s that part during the Mass when the priest stands at the altar and says a long prayer alone, during which he consecrates the bread and wine.” The fact that the priest prays the entire, long prayer alone jumps out at us. 52. There are many prayers the priest prays not only alone, but quietly at Mass, because they are meant to help him fulfill his office more worthily while he presides over the Eucharistic Sacrifice. But this prayer he prays alone for a different reason. He says it in the person of Christ, a supernatural faculty or power of action which was given to him by the sacrament of Holy Orders. When all kneel, he stands; when all pray silently, his voice makes the High Prayer audible to all. And this reveals a mystery about the priesthood. For we are all priests, a priestly nation, by baptism. By this common priesthood we can all offer to God a sacrifice of praise on the altar of our hearts, without the need of a human mediator. But the priesthood of the ordained is different both in degree and in nature. The ordained priesthood makes manifest, visible, external if you will, and active in the world the priesthood of Jesus Christ. The ordained priesthood is not exercised only in the midst of one’s soul, but in the midst of the assembly of the baptized; the priest’s power is not one of might or force or coercion, but one of sanctification. A priest can even sanctify his brothers and sisters while he himself might not be as holy as they. 53. A priest acts in persona Christi, in the person of Christ, during the Mass, and so he confects transubstantiation completely alone, with the aid of no one, and no one can hinder him. It is somewhat like the prayer of Jesus in the cenacle, the room of the Last Supper, where Jesus and Jesus alone, the one great high priest in whose priesthood all priests participate, offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to the Father. Or as Jesus in Gethsemane, who withdrew from his disciples to pray, and to pray alone.
To the Father
54. The entire Eucharistic prayer is directed to the Father. While its effect is intercession, praise and transubstantiation of God the Son, and the action of it happens through God the Holy Spirit, it is still directed to God the Father. 55. When you pray, do you talk to God as Father? There is such a crisis in manhood today, manhood is so despised by certain civil movements and by the media in general, manhood is equated with pride and abuse, that there is a repression of male as male in our society. What would happen if any of you founded an organization called “National Organization of Males.” Or if you founded the “Society for Male Studies” then expected public tax funds to support your projects by the millions and millions of dollars. Or you founded the “Global Fund for Males,” to arbitrarily pour out hundreds of millions of dollars on whomever you wish under the condition that they were male? You’d be considered a chauvinist, hated by all, and probably someone would figure out a way to either put you in jail or assassinate you. Yes, manhood has become hated, and men fear being true men. And so most hate thinking of God as Father. The second Vatican Council has given us four Eucharistic Prayers, and the fourth one is almost never used, not only because it is long and we all have so little patience for spiritual things, but mostly because it continually uses the word “man.” God saved “man,” etc. There are priests in this Archdiocese and all over the world who refuse to use the word man, either as a collective term for the whole human species, or even as a reference to the male half of humans, bizarrely enough, not even in reference to our Lord or in reference to the male persons who appear in the scriptures. This is simply pathological. It is wrong and sinful to abuse women because their women, but compensating for it by repressing manhood is only to exchange evil for evil, and one set of societal evils for another. 56. God has revealed himself with the word, “Father.” God as “Father” was taught by Jesus Christ, who is God, and called himself the “Son,” and not anything else but that. There are some who want to correct revelation, or somehow improve on God’s teachings to us, by changing those words. Such a practice only merits condemnation and rejection. God revealed himself: take it or leave it. Pray to God and call him Father. He is the Father. He is your Father. He is our Father! He’s not some world-spirit, nor is he Zeus on Olympus, nor is he Allah who demands the blood of his human enemies, God is the Holy Trinity, and with great boldness we cry out, God is my Father, God is our Father, the perfect Father, the model every Father should follow.
The Church Present at Mass
57. But in the Eucharistic prayer, we invoke not only the Father, but all the angels and saints in heaven. In the First Eucharistic prayer, we even have a litany of saints we mention by name. The First Eucharistic prayer is also called the Roman Canon. It is the only Eucharistic Prayer the Church used until about forty years ago. It was prayed for centuries before Pope Gregory, in the very early seventh century, codified it for regular use. The fact that now there are tons of Eucharistic prayers, clearly not used or drafted by the apostles, puts a great strain on theologians who defend apostolic succession; but we need not fear, for as long as we stay faithful to the Catholic Church, which has the power to loose and bind, in doing so we stay faithful to God. The first Eucharistic prayer tastes too “old Church” for many self-styled “modern” priests today; and it is too long for those who are impatient. The second Eucharistic prayer is far shorter and most priests use this one for its brevity. 58. When we invoke the saints, we start with Our Lady, first of all the saints, who has a unique and superior relationship to God the Son, and we should love her and pray to her and ask her often for her intercession. Then we invoke not all the saints, but the apostles and the martyrs. Apostles, since they govern the Church and have passed the whole of Catholicism on to us; the martyrs, since the Mass is a sacrifice of flesh and blood. We invoke those who were clergy, those who were lay, we invoke both men and women. We even invoke the angels, and the saints are not angels in heaven but still humans, awaiting the resurrection of their bodies. Angels tend to the throne of God, and they carry the divine sacrifice and all our prayers with them to the altar of God, where he lovingly looks down upon us, his children, with tenderness and mercy. And so the Eucharistic Prayer is a great, rich source to learn much about the Church itself, until Christ comes again.
59. During the Eucharistic prayer, let us all, priest and congregation, pay special attention, let us call upon God as our Father here upon earth, and let us join all the angels in saints in the great sacrifice, allowing the Father’s grace to flood in upon our souls and make us true saints. Amen.
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