[Music]
as everybody knows vatican ii described
the mass as the source
and summit of the christian life and the
fathers of vatican ii
following the leaders of the liturgical
movement in the first part of the 20th
century
wanted famously a more conscious and
active participation in the mass on the
part of the laity they knew the mass was
not simply a theatrical display to be
watched but it was a prayer
to be participated in etc so we all know
those great um
teachings of vatican ii but i've become
convinced that uh
you know in the years after the council
when there's been such a a collapse
really
of people's participation in the mass
you know in the west
numbers hover between 10 and 25 percent
of catholics would attend mass on a
regular basis
that even a lot of catholics don't
really know what the mass
is that even if they are participating
and they're not quite sure
what it is they're participating in so
i've been feeling strongly about this
recently just to articulate for people
what is the mass i think for many
especially among the young
the mass is a kind of religious jamboree
we get together and we sing and we
and we say things and we um of a
religious you know
nature but what is it exactly what's
going on
i think a lot of people are very foggy
what i want to do now in this video
is say two very simple things about the
mass
now mind you anyone that's tempted to
write to me this is not an
exhaustive account of the mass i'm not
saying this is
all messes i want to do in fact perhaps
a series of these videos to look at
different
dimensions but just two things that
provide a sort of
frame of reference for the mass here's
the first one
the mass i think is the
privileged encounter with jesus christ
so as i've said many times before
christianity is not a philosophy
it's not a social theory it's not an
ideology
right christianity is a relationship
with
the risen christ it's a friendship with
him
everything in christianity relates to
and comes back to that
friendship what's the mass the mass is
the most intense
way this side of eternity that we can
commune with jesus
think for a second of the two major
divisions of the mass we talk about the
liturgy of the word
and the liturgy of the eucharist right
well
when you're meeting with somebody or
you're having friends over right what
are the two
basic things that you do well
we do we talk we visit and then we eat
typically right so friends come over you
don't immediately serve dinner
you spend time conversing talking what's
going on what's happening
back and forth so think of the first
part of the mass the liturgy of the word
christ communing with his people
his people communing with him christ
speaking to his people his people
speaking back to him
very important by the way i'll say more
about another video
that the priest the presider at the mass
is not
operating in his own name his own person
but rather
in persona christi the priest is not in
his own
you know psychology he's meant to speak
the words of christ now this is
eminently clear
in the readings in the first part of
mass from the old testament
from the epistles usually the pauline
epistles from the gospel
what is that but christ the word right
who speaks in all of creation
speaks in a heightened way through
israel speaks definitively
in the gospels christ the word speaks
to his people what do people do just
dumbly sit there
no no at the mass they respond
now think of all the responses of the
people
especially i might draw attention to the
responsorial psalm
notice please the responsorial psalm
the psalms the great songbook of israel
that contains almost
all the all the feelings and thoughts
and reactions of the people of god
vis-a-vis
the creator the church uses that great
song book
to respond to the word of god we hear
from isaiah from jeremiah from
the book of genesis from exodus and then
using the psalms the great prayer book
the song book of the church
we respond but see the whole
liturgy of the eucharist word has that
quality
i might even say a sort of call and
response quality
the head christ calling out to the
members of his mystical body
and the members of the mystical body now
calling back to him
think of the song of songs in the bible
this
lovely call and response between the man
and the woman
right that's the first part of the mass
the mystical body forming itself more
intensely
visiting with each other christ and his
people
okay second half of the mass the liturgy
of the eucharist you might say
is the moment when we eat together so
christ
is the host of this great banquet
again the priest operating not in his
own name
but in christ's name hosts a banquet
at which not just you know choice wines
and
juicy meat is served but at which the
very
body and blood of jesus is
offered and then the communion again
appropriately called the communion when
the people of god
come and they eat the body and drink the
blood of christ
what more intimate encounter could there
be
having visited having called and
responded right
now we commune in the most intense way
oh you know i can commune with with the
god out in the woods
well yeah in a vague way sure
because god is the is the creator of all
things and so sure in the beauty of the
woods and
the beach great great but it's nothing
compared
to the communion with the word incarnate
that happens at the mass in the liturgy
of the word and the eucharist
which is why as i've said it's a tragedy
of the first order
that 75 or 80 percent of catholics
don't come to the source and summit of
the christian life
the mass the mass is the privileged
encounter
with the lord jesus okay here's the
second
idea and again everybody there's a lot
more i could say about the mass these
are two
two simple you know frames of reference
the mass is the supreme instance of play
now i'm drawing here on the great
liturgical theologian romano
guardini read his still wonderful spirit
of the liturgy
play what's play play is something done
for its own sake as opposed to
work which is always done for the sake
of a further end
right so if i go to work
i do so to make money to support my
family
or to to attain other ends right the
work is subordinate to
an end beyond itself if i work on my car
it's so i can get it in in shape to
drive someplace i want to go
right work is not an end in itself
work is subordinate to a further end
which means it's less important than
play
see especially in our modern western
consciousness we get that precisely
backwards
we tend to say oh play that's not very
serious
no on the contrary play is what you seek
for its own sake so if i
play the guitar i play the piano
i play baseball i watch
golf i listen to a symphony i get
lost in a in an engrossing novel right
those aren't forms of work those are
forms of play
because they're sought for their own
sake
what's the highest form of play
it would be playing in the presence of
the lord
right if god is the highest possible
good
then when i enter into the presence of
god
i'm engaging in the sublimest form of
play that's the mass
to say the mass is the highest form of
play is to say it's the sublimest thing
i can possibly do
as a human being you know i thought of
this because just recently
i had the privilege of being at the mass
of installation for new members
of the knights and ladies of the holy
sepulchre which is a
you know important order within the
church and um
if you've ever been to one of these
masses you know that that the knights
and ladies really they dress up for the
affair so the men were these long capes
emblazoned with the jerusalem cross they
were
jaunty berets the women have black gowns
and mantillas and so on so forth
and at the liturgy there were a number
of bishops and priests
two bishops and in mass vestments and
high miters
and wielding great swords came forward
and dubbed the new members of the
of the order well as i was watching all
this go on i couldn't help but think of
g.k chesterton's famous line about the
serious
play of children right what do children
do
spontaneously when they engage and play
they love to dress up they dress up as
as princes or as a queen or they dress
up as a
as a knight or as a lady the the idea is
is play is often accompanied by this
sort of artistic
expression well well there we were at
this
massive installation it's a high sublime
form of play so of course the people
were
were dressed up
so the mass an encounter yes
of extraordinary unsurpassed intensity
with the lord the mass the supreme
form of play if we stay away from the
mass
as far too many catholics do
we are depriving ourselves of these two
very sublime realities
you