Will we have Mass in heaven?

[EmeraldOak]

Does anybody know if we will still be going to Mass in heaven? Is going to Mass an eternal commandment or just for while here on earth? Thank you.

 

[Elizium23]

Does anybody know if we will still be going to Mass in heaven? Is going to Mass an eternal commandment or just for while here on earth? Thank you.

There is nothing but Mass in Heaven.

 

[Ad_Orientem]

The Mass, and sacrifice in general, is just for this life. The Eucharist does connect us with Heaven, but it is only a foretaste. The blessed in Heaven are fully purged of sin, and possess God immediately and fully, without the need for sacrifice or sacraments.

St. Thomas writes (S.T. III, Q. 22, a5):
The Saints who will be in heaven will not need any further expiation by the priesthood of Christ, but having expiated, they will need consummation through Christ Himself, on Whom their glory depends…

To be sure those in Heaven worship the Lamb that was slain (Apoc. 5), and in a way they participate in the Mass on earth for as long as it is offered on earth. But in Heaven itself there is no need for the Mass.

 

[Elizium23]

The Book of Revelation: Guide to Catholic Worship

According to Joseph Ratzinger, the last book of the Bible, Revelation or the Apocalypse of St. John, is showing forth a kind of “archetypal liturgy” to which all our earthly liturgies must bear resemblance:

With its vision of the cosmic liturgy, in the midst of which stands the Lamb who was sacrificed, the Apocalypse has presented the essential contents of the eucharistic sacrament in an impressive form that sets a standard for every local liturgy. From the point of view of the Apocalypse, the essential matter of all eucharistic liturgy is its participation in the heavenly liturgy; it is from thence that it necessarily derives its unity, its catholicity, and its universality. (Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, 110-11)

Lesson Five: Heaven On Earth: The Liturgy of the Eucharist

John is “caught up in spirit on the Lord’s Day.” In other words, possibly while celebrating the Eucharist himself, John is taken to heaven.

And John sees the same things we see when we come to Mass.

He sees an altar (see Revelation 8:3); candles (1:12); incense (5:8); priests dressed in robes (4:4). And he sees bread or manna (2:17), and bowls or chalices of blood (seeRevelation 16).

He sees heavenly worshippers – angels and saints – crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy” (4:8), singing a hymn to the glory of God, the heavenly king (15:3) and shouting “alleluia” (19:1,3,6) and making the sign of the cross on their foreheads (14:1).

There are readings from Scripture (Revelation 2-3), and, finally, the “wedding feast of the Lamb”(19:9).

An Acceptable Sacrifice: Reforming the Liturgical Reform

The celebrants of the heavenly liturgy

1137 The book of Revelation of St. John, read in the Church’s liturgy, first reveals to us, “A throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne”: "the Lord God."1 It then shows the Lamb, “standing, as though it had been slain”: Christ crucified and risen, the one high priest of the true sanctuary, the same one "who offers and is offered, who gives and is given."2 Finally it presents “the river of the water of life . . . flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb,” one of most beautiful symbols of the Holy Spirit.3

1138 “Recapitulated in Christ,” these are the ones who take part in the service of the praise of God and the fulfillment of his plan: the heavenly powers, all creation (the four living beings), the servants of the Old and New Covenants (the twenty-four elders), the new People of God (the one hundred and forty-four thousand),4 especially the martyrs “slain for the word of God,” and the all-holy Mother of God (the Woman), the Bride of the Lamb,5 and finally "a great multitude which no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, and peoples and tongues."6

1139 It is in this eternal liturgy that the Spirit and the Church enable us to participate whenever we celebrate the mystery of salvation in the sacraments.

“No need for the Mass?” No need for anything else!

 

[Stephen_says]

^^what they said.

So, by extension, when you go to mass, you go to heaven!

Think about that the next time you hear the pries say during the Eucharistic prayer

“TOGETHER WITH ALL THE ANGELS AND SAINTS”

It’s because they are all together with us. Heaven and earth are together

 

[petra22]

^^what they said.

So, by extension, when you go to mass, you go to heaven!

Think about that the next time you hear the pries say during the Eucharistic prayer

“TOGETHER WITH ALL THE ANGELS AND SAINTS”

It’s because they are all together with us. Heaven and earth are together

:angel1:

 

[porthos11]

Does anybody know if we will still be going to Mass in heaven? Is going to Mass an eternal commandment or just for while here on earth? Thank you.

Mass is the only thing we will be doing in heaven. The only difference is that the Sacrament will no longer be there, as we will see the Priest and Victim face-to-face.

 

[EmeraldOak]

^^what they said.

So, by extension, when you go to mass, you go to heaven!

Think about that the next time you hear the pries say during the Eucharistic prayer

“TOGETHER WITH ALL THE ANGELS AND SAINTS”

It’s because they are all together with us. Heaven and earth are together

What a beautiful thing to contemplate.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts

 

[Kenny_Kamel]

There is nothing but Mass in Heaven.

Mass is the only thing we will be doing in heaven. The only difference is that the Sacrament will no longer be there, as we will see the Priest and Victim face-to-face.

I would think that Mass and what is associated is for the faithful on Earth exclusively, Eucharistic Adoration OTOH

 

[TimothyH]

We will not have Mass in Heaven. Ad Orientem’s said it perfectly in post number 2.

These threads go on and on and on about how Mass is sacrifice. There will be no more need for sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ will not need to be re-presented to the Father. There will be no need for further expiation of sin.

We will not need the sacramental presence of Jesus because we will have the physical presence of Jesus the person.We will not have to worship God in “Spirit and truth” but will worship him face to face.

We will not need sanctifying grace because we will have been completely and perfectly sanctified.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1)

Mass is only a shadow, a foretaste of what we will experience in heaven. Heaven will be infinitely more that we can ever experience here, even at Mass.

-Tim-

 

[Elizium23]

THE SPIRIT OF THE LITURGY, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Reviewed by Brian W. Harrison

Having set the liturgy in its broadest historical - and indeed, cosmic - context in his first section, Ratzinger goes on to develop the idea of time in the liturgy, stressing the intermediate or ‘in-between’ status of the whole Christian dispensation. As pre-Christian time was the period of worshipping God in ‘shadows’ (the sacrifices of the Old Law), and as the full reality of worship in the beatific vision will not be attained until the glorified life of the Resurrection, so Christian liturgy is situated halfway, as it were, between these two poles. Being more than a mere shadow, yet less than the full eschatological reality which is yet to come, the Church’s worship can be described as an ‘image’ of the eternal heavenly Liturgy. Ratzinger sees this ‘between-time’ status of the New Covenant as manifested in “the three levels on which Christian worship operates” (p. 54): it looks back to the foundational events of salvation history, culminating in the Cross and Resurrection of the Saviour; it celebrates these events liturgically, above all in the re-enactment of Jesus’ words and actions at the Last Supper, through which His unique sacrifice is made present and effective; and it looks forward to our perfect union with Him in glory - a union which begins even now as we are ‘taken up’ into Christ and incorporated more fully into Him by our reception of His Body and Blood.

Emphasis is mine.

Perhaps my terminology in the above posts was wrong. The Heavenly Liturgy is not called “Mass”, but it is the fullness of what we experience now on Earth as the Mass.

 

[TK421]

The elect experience an instantaneous deification of their being, as the Divine Presence completely permeates their entire being: mind, body, and soul. This experience, the “Beatific Vision”, will completely consume their entire psychosomatic person. It will be a climax of beatitude, or elation, which will instantaneously peak upon being permeated with the Divine Presence, and it will never decline after that point for all eternity. We will experience the life of the Trinity, and through the Trinity, we will in turn experience the fullness of all other elect in Heaven as well. Thus, we will have a relationship with every other person in Heaven which is incomprehensibly deeper than the deepest relationship between an earthly parent and child, two spouses, or two siblings. With this participation in the Trinity in place, there will be an eternity of worship, praise, song, chant, dance, adoration, etc., which will be a “Divine Liturgy”.

Technically speaking it won’t be a Mass (though the Mass is modeled after the Divine Liturgy) because the time of sacrifice will be over. There was no Mass in the eternity before the creation of man, and there will be no Mass in the eternity beyond either. The Divine Liturgy is a total self-donation, of God completely giving himself to man, and man completely giving himself to God. That is essentially what the gift of Heaven is: God is giving Himself to you.

Refer to addresses 66-69 in St JPII’s Theology of the Body, which explores the nature of the human person after the Resurrection.

However, the Church includes the militant in the temporal world, so as long as there is Mass being offered, Heaven participates in it as well. There is not a separation between the Church in Heaven and the Church in the world. They are one.

 

[porthos11]

We will not have Mass in Heaven. Ad Orientem’s said it perfectly in post number 2.

These threads go on and on and on about how Mass is sacrifice. There will be no more need for sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ will not need to be re-presented to the Father. There will be no need for further expiation of sin.

We will not need the sacramental presence of Jesus because we will have the physical presence of Jesus the person.We will not have to worship God in “Spirit and truth” but will worship him face to face.

We will not need sanctifying grace because we will have been completely and perfectly sanctified.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1)

Mass is only a shadow, a foretaste of what we will experience in heaven. Heaven will be infinitely more that we can ever experience here, even at Mass.

-Tim-

Actually, the Sacrifice will never cease; it is eternal. This is because Christ’s priesthood will never pass, so all that will be in heaven is the eternal liturgy. Because the Sacrifice is one and eternal, there will be nothing but Mass in heaven.

The only difference is that the Sacrament will be no more, because in heaven the Sacraments will cease. The Priest and Victim will still be there, eternally offering the Sacrifice, so the Mass remains.

Just to be clear, I make the distinction between the Eucharist and the Sacrifice. The Eucharist will cease. The Sacrifice goes on forever.

 

[WillyAL]

There is nothing but Mass in Heaven.

What about the after-Mass doughnuts? I bet they’re especially good.

 

[TK421]

After-Mass donuts.

The handouts before entering St Peter’s are very explicit about this.

 

[Elizium23]

Is there Mass in heaven? Is Christ a priest forever?

Does the book of Revelation say there is “Mass” in heaven?

Although many contemporary theologians like to speak as though there is “Mass” in heaven – and they are quite fond of pointing to the Revelation of St. John as the biblical foundation for their novelties – we must reject this notion as foreign to both Scripture and Tradition.
The book of Revelation does not say that there is “Mass” in heaven. In fact, St. John specifies that there is no longer any sacrifice being offered in heaven – therefore, there can be no Mass!

In the fifth chapter, St. John presents the “Lamb who had been slain”, which is Christ. This is the closest to sacrifice the book comes, but even here it is clear that the Lamb is not being offered – rather, the Lamb has already been consummated and now comes to bring final consummation and judgment upon the earth!

The Lamb once slain is not a priest offering sacrifice, but is priest consummated. Indeed, it is clear that he is not being offered, for the heavenly host says thou wast slain in the past tense. Indeed, the Lamb which once was slain and has redeemed his people, now (in heaven and at the end of time) gives eternal glory to his saints and receives their praises.

There is no Mass in heaven, because there is no re-presentation of the Sacrifice of the Cross. While there is surely “Liturgy” (insofar as the saints and angels praise God forever), there is no sacrifice – but Christ reigns as priest consummated and consummating.

 

[ProVobis]

Maybe we should worry about getting there first?

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I hope so. At least then I can be at one that is liturgically correct…