The Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles, May 3, 2024

1 Corinthians 15, 1-8

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.

Regarding St. Philip, it is interesting to note how he came to become an Apostle: “On the following day, he went forth into Galilee and he found Philip, and Jesus said to him: follow me” (John 1, 43).  This would be the day after Jesus had met Peter, which was the day after the Lord had called Andrew and John to be his Apostles.  The text telling of Philip’s call makes it sound as though Jesus deliberately went to Galilee in order to call Philip.  Jesus “found” him, as though looking for him.  St. John does not give us an extrinsic reason for Jesus to look for Philip.  It is as though Jesus had heard of Philip and decided that he would make a fine Apostle.  Possibly Peter and Andrew knew Philip as a fellow fisherman on the Sea of Galilee and told Jesus about him as a sometime follower of John the Baptist, as they were.  This would fit in with Andrew bringing his brother Peter to Jesus and then Philip calling on his friend Nathanael to meet him.  His missionary journeys after Pentecost took him to Syria and Greece.  He is said to have converted the wife of a city official in the city of Hierapolis and that he was crucified there.

The theme of several of the Apostles knowing each other beforehand meeting the Lord leads us to the man with whom St. Philip shares his feast day: St. James.  This is not James, the elder brother of St. John, but James, the so-called brother of the Lord.  He is called this way this in Matthew 13, 55; in the early though apocryphal so-called Proto-Gospel of James; by the very early Father, Papian (d. 136), and by several other Fathers.  St. Paul also speaks of “James, the brother of the Lord” in Galatians 1, 19.  The Hebrew/Aramaic word for brother encompasses any male relative of a person.  That the Greek word does this as well is clear from He is said in the Gospels to be the son of Alphaeus, and by comparing lists of the Lord’s female disciples St. Jerome, among others, determined that his mother was Mary of Cleopas, who stood near the Cross.  (Cleopas may have been the name of her father).  The list of the Lord’s relatives in Matthew 13, 55 states that he was related to men named Simon and Jude, whom tradition hands down to be fellow Apostles.  St. James was distinguished early on by Church writers as “the Less” or “the Lesser”, likely due to the brother of St. John being the older of the two.  The Jewish historian Josephus, who also identifies James as the brother of the Lord, reports that the Jews in Jerusalem, where James shepherded the Judean Christians, called him “James the Just”, a title certainly earned by his insistence on works of mercy in his Epistle.  The Church historian Hegissipus (ca. 150) records that he lived very much like St. John the Baptist, drinking no wine, eating no meat, not cutting his hair or bathing.  Josephus hands on that the newly installed high priest Ananus, a rigid Sadducee, had James arrested as a Christian, tried, and stoned.  Others add that he was finished off with a club.

The traditional prayer for their feast day: O God, who gives us to be gladdened on the anniversary of the Apostles Philip and James, grant, we beseech you, that we who rejoice in their merits may be instructed by their examples.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The twenty-third article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Fraction of the Host

Though most often missed by the congregation who are busy greet each other during the Sign of Peace, the Fraction of the Host is one of the most sacred actions in the Holy Mass.  The priest takes his large Host and breaks it in two down the middle, then breaks off a small part from one of the halves and places it in the Lord’s Most Precious Blood in the chalice while saying, “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.”  The placing of the small piece of the Host, also known as “the Particle” in the Precious Blood is a sign of the Risen Christ: he is indeed risen, but his wounds remain, just as we see in the case of St. Thomas beholding them.  The priest breaks the Host just as the Lord broke the bread at the Last Supper (cf. Matthew 26, 26).  The breaking of the Bread is found in very ancient times in the Church, from the first century Didache, to the writings of the Fathers.  Indeed, the Mass was first known as “the breaking of the Bread” (cf. Acts 2, 42).  The ritual for the Fraction and the Mixture, before the Middle Ages, was somewhat involved but was simplified over time.  With the Missal promulgated by the sixteenth century Council of Trent (only slightly modified until the late 1960’s) the Fraction and Mixture took place while the priest said, Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum (“The peace of the Lord be with you always”), making the Sign of the Cross with the Particle over the chalice before dropping it in.  Thus, the Sign of Peace had been joined for centuries to the Fraction and Mixture.  It is an important part of the worship of God for the congregation to see this and to know what the priest is saying as he does it, though he says the words quietly.  We might say that through the actions of the priest, the Lord Jesus is preparing himself to be received by us.

Next: The praying of the Agnus Dei (The Lamb of God)

  

 

 Thursday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 2, 2024

John 15, 9-11

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”

The Lord Jesus reveals not only his life with the Father, but his life with those who believe in him.  Previously he has referred to the faithful as “branches” belonging to him”the vine”.  Now he shows that this relationship abounds in more than the necessary nutrients for spiritual life: it abounds in that which is necessary for true happiness: love.  And this love is the greatest, purest, most selfless love: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15, 13).  He has already said that “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10, 10 but what he meant by “abundantly” was hard to understand.  He makes clear now that this “abundance” is this greatest level of love possible: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10, 11).  The Lord Jesus came to make us know his love for us so that we might be truly happy.  And how touching that he shows his concern for our happiness when he is shortly to be arrested by a gang of the Sanhedrin’s guards, and bound, and led off to those who hated him with an impossible level of hatred.

This humble Shepherd, burning with love for us, tell us to “remain” in his love.  How do we do this, to live in his love as though it were a dwelling?  By keeping his commandments: “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.”  And what are these commandments that he gives?  Does he order more sacrifices in the Temple?  More foods to refrain from?  Works that can be accomplished only difficulty?  No.  It is something which is very simple: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15, 12).  That is, purely, unselfishly, looking for the other’s good.  Have we earned the Shepherd’s love?  Have we acquired it with money?  Do we deserve it in any way?  Likewise, we should love others not because they have done something for us or because they exhibit lovable traits, but because of who we are and know ourselves to be: loved passionately by the Son of God.  And we should love them also, who are so loved by him.

“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”  So near to crucifixion and still speaking of joy: his joy and ours.  His joy, exulting in the Father; and our joy, exuberant over the One who loves us.  He shares his joy in his Father through revealing that he loves us with the love he has with his Father, a complete and total love, complete and total joy.

The twenty-second article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Sign of Peace

Originally, this act of charity was called “the Kiss of Peace”, or, simply, “the Peace”.  Writers as early as St. Justin (d. 165) and Tertullian (d. 240) describe a greeting which the fully initiated Christians exchanged after the homily that followed the Gospel and after the catechumens and non-believers were dismissed by the deacon.  It served to mark the beginning of the second part of the Mass during which the Sacrifice was offered, and it also was used to ascertain that no one remained at Mass who did not understand what was to happen.  A serious problem for the early Christians came in the form of false accusations and outright slander regarding their rituals, especially the Mass.  Both Justin and Tertullian wrote works defending the Christian practices and denying that such things as incest or human sacrifice occurred in them, charges arising from a false understanding of the doctrine that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and that the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ appears on the altar.  After the legalization of the Faith in the early fourth century, the practical reason for the Kiss of Peace disappeared and the practice in some localities it fell into disuse or but in others it was moved to another place within the Mass.  

The Kiss of Peace was settled by the early Middle Ages in the place where it is found now, as part of the preparation for the reception of Holy Communion.  At the time it was moved, the “kiss” itself was relegated only to the clergy during high Mass, becoming very formalized.  At the more usual low Mass, the peace was exchanged only verbally between the priest and the server: “The peace of the Lord be with you.”  “And with your spirit.”  Nowadays the Missal allows the priest as the altar say, “Let us offer each other the Sign of Peace”, and people are free to exchange it according to local custom.  In the West this usually means a handshake.  While the verbal giving of the Peace is required, the physical sign of it is optional.  The priest may not opt for it and continue on either Mass, and parishioners need not engage in it.  A problem with the placing of the Sign of Peace at this place in the Mass is that it distracts the congregation from the divine Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, on the altar: Body, Blood, soul, and divinity.  Those aware of this may choose not to look away from the altar for any reason.  Those who do choose to exchange the Sign of Peace are supposed to do this only with those immediately around them and should not leave their pew.  The priest is not supposed to leave the sanctuary (the area around the altar) except for some grave reason, such as to greet a grieving family at a funeral Mass.  The exchange should not last longer than a few moments so as not to delay the consummation of the Sacrifice by the priest and the reception of Holy Communion by the people.

Next: The Fracture of the Host

 Wednesday, May 1, 2024, The Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker

Matthew 13, 54-58

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

Normally in the course of things, the Gospel for today would be John 6, 52-59, continuing with the words of Jesus in which he describes himself as the Bread of Life, and as the Flesh which would be given up to save the world.  However, the Church disposes that her ecclesiastical seasons be marked with the feasts of important saints, and today’s reading is for the Mass in honor of St. Joseph the Worker.  John 6, 52-59 will be taken up here tomorrow in conjunction with tomorrow’s regular Gospel reading, which concludes chapter 6.  This chapter is so essential for understanding Jesus and also ourselves as his followers, that to understand it we must examine all of it.

All the same, the reading here fits in well with what we considered yesterday in John 6.  In fact, the crowd of John 6 echoes the words of the people of today’s reading: “The Jews therefore murmured at him, because he had said: I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 

And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say: I came down from heaven?” (John 6, 41-42).  Quite inexplicably, these two verses are not included in the Mass readings.  I have many questions of my own about the present lectionary, the book of the Mass readings, that was concocted and adopted in the mid 1960’s and lately revised slightly, and this is one of them.  

The people of Nazareth ask a good question, “They were astonished and said, ‘Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?’ ”  Similar questions were asked wherever Jesus went.  As far back as when Jesus stayed behind in the temple at age twelve, we find him in the midst of “the doctors”, and all were amazed at his wisdom (cf. Luke 2: 46-47).  We also hear the Pharisees and Scribes wondering where Jesus received his wisdom from since he had been educated in their schools.  The people struggle to reconcile his ordinary appearance with his extraordinary words, works, and claims.  They begin with his reputed father, Joseph: “Is he not the carpenter’s son?”  In Judea, he will be hailed as the “son of David”, but the people of Nazareth are not interested in this.  They may not even have been aware of his lineage.  Instead, they refer to Joseph as “the carpenter”.  This is a very odd way to speak about a neighbor.  If you or I were sitting on our front porch and someone walked by and asked us if we knew where the mailman lived, wouldn’t that sound strange, even if we knew that Tom Brown, two houses down, worked as a mailman?  The people of Nazareth almost give the impression that they do not want to speak Joseph’s name.  They do use Mary’s name, but not that of her husband.  Or was there  something wrong with being a carpenter, as was the case with being a tax collector?

Now, English translations render the Greek “teknon” as carpenter, but the proper word for carpenter in Greek is “xylourgos”.  “Teknon” can mean carpenter, but also mason, craftsman, builder, or even teacher.  When the people call Jesus the “son of the carpenter”, they spoke better than they knew, for the Father of Jesus is not only the Craftsman of craftsmen, but also one who created the material from which he fashioned all things.  Of course, we only have the Greek word to analyze, not the original Aramaic or Hebrew.  It might have been “na-gar”, which means “one who works in wood”.  

Whatever the case may be regarding how this righteous man Joseph was perceived by the townspeople, it pleased the Son of God to be thought of as his son, and as one who learned his father’s trade.  

“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?”  Jesus does not stoop to answer their question with with long winded explanations that would not have been understood anyway.  He simply allows the mystery to hang there, for now.  This was not the time to rationalize but to accept, and the gathered folk are unwilling to do this.  The lack of faith on their part so limited their capacity for receiving grace that the Lord’s miracles in his home town are few.  The Evangelists do not trouble to describe them.  Perhaps this lack of appreciation of the Son reflects their reception of the work his stepfather had done: its skillful, unpretentious qualities would be unappreciated by a society that craves ostentation and empty special effects.

Let us imitate this quiet worker, St. Joseph, who set such an example for the Son placed in his charge, and perform our duties conscious that whoever else sees our labor, God most surely does.

The twenty-first article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Our Father

An early document tells how St. Peter said Mass when he was spreading the Holy Faith in Antioch, before he came to Rome.  It says that he said three prayers and the Lord’s Prayer.  It is found in all the western and eastern rites of ancient times and so must have been said at Mass from the beginning.  We know from the second century African writer Tertullian that the Our Father was said in the church in Africa after the Eucharistic Prayer and before Holy Communion.  In other places, however, it was said after Holy Communion.  St. Gregory the Great even seems to say that it was said in some places during the consecration.  It has always been said in Rome just before Holy Communion.  As our principal prayer, taught us by the Lord Jesus himself, “Our Father” is said or chanted just before the reception of the Sacrament which binds us more closely together in our union with Jesus Christ.  Because the prayer asks for the nourishment of grace necessary to persevere until the Father’s Kingdom comes, it is most fit to say it before we are fed with the Body of the Lord and before we are sent forth into the world again.

The very early document called the Didache, or, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (ca. 100), gives us the ritual the first Christians used for baptism, and also describes the Mass, though not fully.  In the course of this description it adds a response to the Our Father which Protestants use as though a formal part of the prayer: “For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever.”  This has its place in the Mass after the priest reiterates to the Father the petition that he protect his Church from all evil and distress.  

Due to the familiarity of Catholics with this prayer, one of the first they are taught in parochial school or in CCD, it is often said very quickly — and thoughtlessly — both by priests and by their congregations.  It must be kept in mind that this was THE prayer the Lord taught his Apostles.  It is most solemn and holy, so much so that the Church has hardly altered its English translation in all the centuries it has existed.  When we pray it, we are praying according to the mind of Christ.  It should be said, then, slowly and with recollection.  If those around us insist on disrespectfully hurrying through it, we can say it quietly, as though shutting the door of our private room and praying in secret so that Our Father who sees in secret will be pleased.

Next: the Sign of Peace

 Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, April 30, 2020

John 14, 27-31a

Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”

Jesus offers real peace, which he insists is distinct from what the world offers.  When Jesus and, later, St. Paul and St. John, talk about “the world”, they are referring to everything that tugs at us and tries to compel us to look away from heaven.  It is the temporary, the sordid, the sensual.  It is secular society, from which God has been purged to allow greater individual “freedom”.  It is a siren luring us on to the rocks of sin and destruction.  The “peace” which the world offers is a lie: that if only we buy one more thing or pursue one more activity, our hearts will rest easy.  But in reality, the more we have, the more we want.  The peace of the world is not a swimming pool in which we can drift happily, but a raging whirlpool in which we must always struggle, and ultimately fail.  The peace the Lord offers is the cessation of every desire.  He alone is the true object of our yearning: our hearts were made for him alone.  We feel this increasingly as we practice self-denial and mortifications.  When we have cleaned out our hearts with the help of his grace, when we expel the world from them. they are capable of receiving him and he takes up his abode there.  Thus, the Prince of Peace reigns from our very interior.  There is nothing left to desire, no more ambition to fulfill.  Christ alone is our peace.  It is how we are made.  As St. Augustine famously says in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”

The Church uses the Lord’s words at Mass, in the prayers following the Eucharistic Prayer: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  After speaking them, the priest addresses the congregation, one of the few times during the Mass he actually does so: “The peace of the Lord be with you always.”  And the people respond, “And with your spirit.”  It is the peace of Christ that is offered through the priest.  This is not a good wish for someone’s well-being or success, it is a prayer for the spiritual growth of the Christian that Christ may fully dwell in him.  When the people exchange this with one another, it is likewise a prayer for the other person’s peace in Christ.  Unfortunately, the exchange of “the peace” at Mass has devolved into a purely civil ceremony and wishes for the other person to feel happy.  It has become a sort of recess period during which people turn their attention away from the God who is sacramentally enthroned upon the altar.  Ironically, in many places it has become a distraction from the Source of the peace which we allegedly desire for one another.  Still, this exercise is optional, and a person is free to continue to pray, directing his attention to the altar.

Let us cast aside the demands of the world, the itch of fallen human nature, to seek fulfillment and peace in false gods and to find complete joy and rest in the love of God alone.

I will write on the place of the Our Father at Mass tomorrow as I have become ill.

 Monday in the Fifth Week of Easter, April 29, 2024

John 14, 21-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.  I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

The Lord Jesus is speaking to his Apostles at the Last Supper, speaking openly to those who have been made ready to hear — if not to fully understand — the full truth of his Divine Sonship, of his intimacy with the Father, and of how they, the Apostles, may attain eternal life and share in his into,act with the Father.

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.”  The Greek word translated as “has” which means both “to possess” and “to consider”.  A person who has the Lord’s commandments understands them and is committed to carrying them out.  They belong to him as a gift he has gratefully received.  The commandments of Jesus mark the recipient as a member of his Body and a partaker of the New Covenant in his Blood just as surely as circumcision physically marked a person as a child of Abraham and a sharer in the Old Covenant.  And while circumcision is a sign normally kept hidden, carrying out the commandments of Christ is a sign that is quite prominent.  They show a person not only as acting in a distinct way, but as being inwardly a distinctly different kind of person — a Christian.  And obedience to the Lord’s commandments is an act of love of him.  This reminds us that love is not so much an emotion as an action.

“Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”  This is the essence of the spiritual life. Love of Christ through the carrying out of his commandments prepares a person for Christ to reveal himself to him, so that the person experiences the love Christ has for him so that he can say with St. Paul, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

“Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”  St. Jude asks a very good question.  “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”  The Lord does not seem to answer St. Jude’s question.  What Jesus is telling him is that there are not enough years in a human lifetime for him to do this, but that through the Apostles and their successors the world will know him so that the Lord will come to anyone who  loves him and will make him his dwelling.

“Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”  Many will say that they love the Lord Jesus, but if they do not obey his commandments, they show that they do not.  They are liars.

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”  Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be as real a presence in their lives and in the lives of those who love him as he himself has been in the time before he ascends into heaven.

The Lord tells all of this to the Apostles just hours away from his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  They will have these words to console them on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, for in them the Lord speaks not only of the present but of the future.  They will cling to these words at that time and one day soon the Holy Spirit would teach them everything and remind them of everything the Lord had told them.  This has all been passed on to us so that we may ponder, and wonder, and love.

The twentieth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Doxology and the Amen

The Eucharistic Prayer is concluded with the priest chanting or reciting a prayer called the Doxology, a word that comes from the Greek word for (glory).  This prayer is the culmination of the consecration of the bread and wine, making them the Body and Blood of the Son of God.  It is a outburst of praise, as though all of creation must cry out at the wondrous news of this miracle and of the infinite love manifested by it.  As the Lord said to the Pharisees with respect to his followers rejoicing in his entrance of Jerusalem: “I say to you that if these shall hold their peace, the very stones will cry out!” (Luke 19, 40).  The prayer is as follows: “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 forever and ever.”  At the same time as the priest says this, he holds the chalice and the Host about chest high.  This elevation is not made for the benefit of the congregation but is part of the praise offered to God, for it is through his Son, and with his Son and in his Son, present in the priest’s hands, that all glory is given to him.  The elevation acts as a sort of emphasis:  “Through this, your Son, in my hands”.  The prayer should be chanted or spoken so that the words are clear and distinct.  Though brief, it is full of the most profound theology and so ripping through it, as is often done, deprives the congregation of even the most basic understanding of what it means.

The Amen spoken in response by the congregation concludes the Eucharistic Prayer.  It seems that priests often join in the Amen, especially if it is sung or chanted, but this is the people’s prayer.  The priest offers the praise of the Doxology and the people affirm it on their part with the Amen.  Sometimes the Amen is called “the Great Amen”, but this is not correct.  “The Great Amen” is a nickname for a musical setting for the Amen also called the Dresden Amen, since it was composed for use in the royal chapel in that city in the 1800’s.  

Next: The Our Father

 The Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 28, 2024

John 15, 1–8

Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

As we approach the Feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, the Church presents to us readings from the Gospels in which the Lord Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit and the Church.  We are reminded of the unity we enjoy with the Lord through our baptism into his Body, and we are prompted to meditate on the meaning of this mystery.

During the Last Supper, the Lord emphasized the unity of the Apostles with him in order to offer them consolation for their separation from him in his coming Passion and Death, and also for the long years ahead in which they would go abroad, proclaiming the Redemption which he wrought for the human race.  

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.”  In this way, the Lord likens a plant to himself, not himself to a plant.  Thus, characteristics we see of the vine we can understand as signs for the reality of Jesus.

“He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”  Jesus speaks of the Father examining his Body, the Vine, and determining that certain branches do not bear fruit.  He then takes these away and the angels “will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.”  The fruit of the branches of the earthly vine is the grape, but the fruit of the branches of the heavenly Vine, that is, the members of the Body of Jesus, are converts, which the Father greatly desires.  To this end, the Father “prunes” the branches so they may bring forth the most produce.  This “pruning” strengthens the members in their virtues and faith and enables them to persevere despite inclement weather.  We members may experience this “pruning” as trials and sufferings, but the Father does not abandon us in them, for we are set in them for a purpose.  He holds us tight, for he rejoices in us: “My delights are to be with the children of men” (Proverbs 8, 31). 

Let us hold fast to the Body of our Lord, whose ingrafted members we are, knowing that the Father has desired us so much that he sent his Son into the world for us, and in clinging to the Son may we bear the fruit of many conversions through our words, works, and prayers.

The nineteenth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Memorial Acclamation

This feature of the Mass really does not have a name but has come to be called “The Memorial Acclamation” as a way to talk about it.  It is a vocal response by the congregation to the changing of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  The committee in charge of reforming the Mass in the 1960’s created this, having in view its goal of increasing what it considered a more active participation in the Mass by the laity.  The words, “The mystery of faith” which the priest states before the acclamation are taken from the ancient words of the consecration of the Blood of Christ and are meant to respond in faith to the divine mystery which has just taken place on the altar.  Of three options for the acclamation, one is taken directly from Scripture and the other two are inspired by Scripture.  A fourth (“Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again”) did not appear in the authorized Latin version of the Roman Missal, from which all translations into modern languages must be made but was placed in the Missal for use in the U.S. subsequently it was dropped from the latest revision of the Missal by the U.S. bishops for this reason.

Next: the Doxology and the Amen