Mass = God?

[sjs]

A friend of mine gave me a little booklet called “The Wonders of the Mass.” I was reading it yesterday and one line caught my eye. The line was, “The Mass is God Himself.” This got me thinking. When I say the sacrifice of Calvary I can have two different things on my mind. I can be thinking of the event of the sacrifice, that is the death of Jesus Christ on a cross, or I can be thinking of the matter of the sacrifice, that is Jesus Christ. Likewise I can say the Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary because at the Mass the one sacrifice of Christ in made present. Here I am using the term sacrifice of Calvary in the first sense outlined above. I have not however heard anyone, previous to this, use the term Mass to describe the sacrifice of Calvary in the second sense, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since Mass means dismissal the word Mass seems like an inappropriate term to describe God. I have always thought of Mass as the term used to describe the liturgies of the Word and Eucharist. Perhaps I am just not up on my Catholic lingo. Any comments?

 

[JimG]

I am not sure if I am following your distinction here.

The Mass makes the event of the sacrifice of Calvary present to us. It also makes the person of Jesus Christ present, since he, after all, is central to the event.

Since Jesus has both a human and a divine nature, and since Jesus becomes present at Mass “body, blood, soul, and divinity,” one could certainly say that the Mass is God himself, although that leaves out the reasoning behind the statement.

 

[sjs]

The Mass makes the event of the sacrifice of Calvary present to us. It also makes the person of Jesus Christ present, since he, after all, is central to the event.

There is a distinction to be made between the event at which Christ is made present, i.e. the Mass, and the actual presence, i.e. Jesus Christ. It seems odd to me to call a liturgical event God. God is not a liturgical event. He does however make himself present during a liturgical event.

Since Jesus has both a human and a divine nature, and since Jesus becomes present at Mass “body, blood, soul, and divinity,” one could certainly say that the Mass is God himself, although that leaves out the reasoning behind the statement.

I do not follow the logic you use. Here is a silly example which I think illustrates what I am trying to convey. Let’s say some band has a concert. The band becomes present at the concert in order to perform their show. However the band is not the concert. In the same why it seems odd to me to call the event which God uses to make himself present God himself.

 

[JimG]

OK, now I see the distinction you are making between the liturgy (an event) and the person of Christ. To say that the Mass is God may just be a bit of hyperbole, which is allowable in devotional writings. However, ever since the Last Supper, the liturgy of the eucharist has been closely identified with the person of Christ.