Msgr de Vereteuil

In last week’s article “St Paul and the Eucharist” I tried to show that for St Paul a celebration of the Eucharist was only authentic if the gathered people recognised one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord and treated one another accordingly.

He called us to examine ourselves before we celebrate to see if we were eating and drinking unworthily (1Cor 11:28), that is, without recognising “the body” (1Cor 11: 29), our unity in Christ. 

The Roman Missal, sometimes called the Sacramentary, is the book which contains all the prayers for Mass and which the priest uses at the altar and the chair. The Missal has with it a document called “The General Instruction of the Roman Missal”(GIRM).

In 2002 a revised General Instruction was issued in anticipation of a revised missal which will be published in 2010 or 2011. In this article I shall attempt to show that the GIRM helps us to see the importance of unity and care for one another (as St Paul instructs us) and gives us ways to deepen it in our celebration of the Eucharist.

One of the striking features of the GIRM 2002 is its highlighting of the importance of the assembly – us – as we gather for Mass. For example, the document begins the description of the individual parts of the Mass with the words, “When the people have gathered….”

This is very different from the GIRM of the pre-Vatican II missal which began “When the priest is ready….” and mentioned the people only once.

The present document speaks continually of those celebrating the Mass and does so with terms such as “people of God”, “gathered people”, “whole company”, “assembly”  – all terms reminding us of St Paul’s admonition in his Letter to the Corinthians that we are to see ourselves as one body and celebrate as such.

In articles 95 and 96 we are presented with the attitude we as the celebrating community should have, and in the following words from art. 95 we see clearly the teaching of St Paul  – “…their charity toward brothers and sisters who participate with them in the same celebration. Thus they are to shun any appearance of individualism or division, keeping before their eyes that they have only one Father in heaven and accordingly are all brothers and sisters to each other”.

This is what St Paul told the Corinthians (1Cor 11:17-33) and what the Church continues to teach us today. This is underlined in the following article of the GIRM: “Indeed they form one body, whether by hearing the Word of God, or by joining in the prayers and singing, or above all by the common offering of Sacrifice and by a common partaking at the Lord’s table.”

It is basic to our attendance at Mass that we celebrate with this mindset – that we are one body, and that as we gather in the church building to celebrate the Eucharist, we do so as brothers and sisters, not as individuals who have come for our private devotion or as people divided by any one of the lines of division we find in the world.

GIRM calls us in our celebration of the Eucharist to express our unity by taking an active part in the responses and actions which in turn will foster deeper unity: “Since the celebration of Mass by its nature has a ‘communitarian’ character both the dialogue between the priest and the faithful gathered together and the acclamations are of great significance; in fact they are not only outward signs of communal celebration but foster and bring about communion between priest and people” (art 34). Notice the words “Mass by its nature has a communitarian character” – exactly Paul’s point!

 Our posture is important in this regard: “A common posture to be observed by all participants, is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered for the sacred liturgy”(art 42).

Even the design and ordering of the church building is enlisted in the Church’s striving for a sense of unity so that the building is to be “such that in some way it conveys the image of the gathered assembly” (art 294).

In its discussion of the individual parts of the Mass GIRM tells us that the purpose of the Opening Rites [the opening song, greeting, penitential, Gloria , opening prayer] is four-fold, the first one being to unify the gathered people (art 46).

The opening song should serve this purpose (to “foster the unity of those who have gathered” – art 47), as should the approach of the priest (tone of voice, audibility, eye contact, etc), and the participation of the people.

The “I Confess” reminds us, even as we take personal responsibility for our sins, that we are celebrating the Mass together and that we need one another as we admit our sinfulness to one another (“I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters….”) and ask for one another’s help on our Christian journey (“and I ask …….you, my brothers and sisters to pray for me…”).

Note how we address one another in the liturgy – “brothers and sisters”. The liturgical language helps us to live up to the urging of St Paul to recognise the body and to see that we are all one in Christ.

The sign of peace reinforces (or should) our unity, our oneness in Christ: “the Church asks for peace and unity for herself and the faithful express to each other their ecclesial communion and mutual charity before communicating in the Sacrament” (art 82).

Could St Paul ask for anything more? The document then cites St Paul himself (1Cor 10:17) when it tells us in art 83: “The many faithful are made one body by receiving communion from the one Bread of Life which is Christ.”

Continuing its instruction on the communion rite, the document says of the communion song: “Its purpose is to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to show their joy of heart, and to highlight the communitarian nature of the procession to receive communion”(art 86). We are in this together, my brothers and sisters!

The Church’s desire is clear – now we have to examine ourselves (1Cor 11:28) to see how well we celebrate and how well our parishes put into practice the teaching of Scripture and the Church. If our celebrations are not all they should be as far as our care for one another and recognition of our common call as children of God is concerned our Church may well be weak (1Cor 11:30).