PRIOR'S WORD: TRADITION (III/Conclusion)

I would like to continue stressing that the popes in their teaching did not write differently than these Fathers of the Church (see Part I and II).  They were deeply conscious that they had received a treasure and had to transmit it perfectly to the next generations. as it is defined in the First Vatican Council, dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus :

“The Roman Pontiffs, moreover, according as the condition of the times and affairs advised, sometimes by calling ecumenical Councils or by examining the opinion of the Church spread throughout the world; sometimes by particular synods, sometimes by employing other helps which divine Providence supplied, have defined that those matters must be held which with God's help they have recognized as in agreement with Sacred Scripture and apostolic tradition. For, the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His  help they might guard sacredly the revelation transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith, and might faithfully set it forth.” (Denzinger Sch. 3069-3070). Here are two examples.

Tradition in the liturgy:

In a decretal letter of 416 A.D., Pope St Innocent I wrote: "If the priests of the Lord wanted to preserve the ecclesiastical institutions, as they are regulated by the tradition of the Holy Apostles, there would be no discordance in the offices and the consecrations. But when everyone thinks he can observe, not what comes from Tradition but what seems good to him, it follows that we witness a diversity in the manner of celebrating, according to the diversity of places and of Churches.  This inconvenience causes scandal for the people, who not knowing that the antique traditions have been altered by a human presumption, think that either the Churches don't agree among themselves, or that the Apostles have established contradictory things." (Dom Guéranger)

Tradition in Church law:

For example, on the order of the goals of marriage in canon 1013: “The primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of children; the secondary end is mutual support and a remedy for concupiscence”. The sources of this text are found in numerous documents of the Church over the centuries given in the footnotes of the Code of 1917 (NB. look at the years):

Eugenius IV, in the Council of Florence, Const. “Exultate Deo”, Nov. 22, 1439, n. 16; Benedict XIV, Const. “Dei miseratione” Nov. 3, 1741, n. 1; Leo XIII, Encycl. Letter “Arcanum”, Feb. 10, 1880; Holy Office, instr. (to the bishop of St Albert), Dec. 9, 1874, n. 5; Cong. of Prop. Fide, instr. (to the Greek-Rumen Bishop) 1858.

Popes always quotes their predecessors of past centuries.  That is the sign that they want to be faithful to Tradition.  So do we!

The Symbolism of the Offertory - Part 9

4th Point: The Spirit of the Offertory continued.....

We see here the link, the dramatic link between the infinite value of the Sacrifice of Our Lord, vastly sufficient to redeem the whole world, and all the interior problems of personal sanctification.  This relation is such, writes Fr. Combes, that each one of us, each soul carries within itself the responsibility of the concrete failures of the Redemption.  Each sinful autonomy, every lack of generosity partially renders inefficient the Sacrifice which by right should save a million worlds. 

However, it goes both ways, Father Combes rightly points out.  If selfishness paralyses Redemption, fidelity fulfills it. And it is no longer just about one’s personal sanctity, it is the secret to render effective the sanctification of all souls.

Let us continue with the words of St Therese Couderc herself, how she understood this total offering of oneself, ‘se livrer’.

But then, what does it mean to hand oneself over? I understand the whole extension of this word ‘to hand oneself over’ but I can’t explain it.  I only know that it is very vast, that it includes the present and the future.  To hand oneself over is more than to be devoted to, it is more than the gift of self, it is even more than to abandon oneself to God.  To hand oneself over is to die to all and to self, to have no more care of oneself except to make sure it is always turned towards God.  Moreover, to hand oneself over, it is also to seek ourselves in nothing, whether for the spiritual or for the corporal, I mean to no longer seek any personal satisfaction, but only the divine good pleasure.  We must add that to hand oneself over is also that spirit of detachment that holds on nothing, whether persons, things, time, places.  It is to cling to all, to accept all, to submit ourselves to all.

That is a beautiful description of what the offertory signifies for our spiritual life.

I would dare say that, secundum quid, from this point of view, quoad nos, for us, the Offertory could be the most important moment of the Holy Mass. And it is all signified, we could add, in these few drops of water, blessed by the priest, and mingled to the wine.

As we have briefly seen with St Therese Couderc, we must give our consent, our ‘yes’ to the mystery of the Redemption. That is our part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Hebrews were told to eat the Pascal Lamb, with bitter herbs, standing, holding a walking stick.  All this was a clear figure that we must unite ourselves to the Holy Eucharist by bringing to it our own consents, our own crosses, and our own little and big sacrifices.

This is expressed in these drops of water.  When we see the priest at the Epistle side blessing the water and pouring it in the chalice, let us ask ourselves, What have I done since my last mass that can be offered on the altar, in the chalice?  Have I consented to all the sacrifices my Savior has asked from me?   Oh, I know that it can be so hard at times to give that ‘yes’ to the Will of God!

Yes to a sickness that breaks bright projects, a promising future, yes to a vocation, to yet another child, to an act of forgiveness, to a humiliation, to an act of obedience !

Prior's Word: Tradition (II)

Here are some famous texts to prove how Tradition was understood in the first centuries:

Tertulian wrote about 200 A.D. his book The Prescription against Heretics:

“(The Father sent His Son who in turn sent His Apostles:) Immediately, therefore, so did the apostles, whom this designation indicates as the sent.  (…) After first bearing witness to the faith in Jesus Christ throughout Judæa, and founding churches (there), they next went forth into the world and preached the same doctrine of the same faith to the nations. They then in like manner founded churches in every city, from which all the other churches, one after another, derived the tradition of the faith, and the seeds of doctrine, and are every day deriving them, that they may become churches. Indeed, it is on this account only that they will be able to deem themselves apostolic, as being the offspring of apostolic churches. Every sort of thing must necessarily revert to its original for its classification. Therefore the churches, although they are so many and so great, comprise but the one primitive church, (founded) by the apostles, from which they all (spring). In this way all are primitive, and all are apostolic, while they are all proved to be one, in (unbroken) unity, by their peaceful communion, and title of brotherhood, and bond of hospitality — privileges which no other rule directs than the one tradition of the selfsame mystery.

“From this, therefore, do we draw up our rule. Since the Lord Jesus Christ sent the apostles to preach, (our rule is) that no others ought to be received as preachers than those whom Christ appointed; for no man knows the Father save the Son, and he to whomever the Son will reveal Him. Matthew 11:27 Nor does the Son seem to have revealed Him to any other than the apostles, whom He sent forth to preach — that, of course, which He revealed to them. Now, what that was which they preached — in other words, what it was which Christ revealed to them — can, as I must here likewise prescribe, properly be proved in no other way than by those very churches which the apostles founded in person, by declaring the gospel to them directly themselves, both vivâ voce, as the phrase is, and subsequently by their epistles. If, then, these things are so, it is in the same degree manifest that all doctrine which agrees with the apostolic churches— those molds and original sources of the faith must be reckoned for truth, as undoubtedly containing that which the (said) churches received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God. Whereas all doctrine must be prejudged as false which savors of contrariety to the truth of the churches and apostles of Christ and God. It remains, then, that we demonstrate whether this doctrine of ours, of which we have now given the rule, has its origin in the tradition of the apostles, and whether all other doctrines do not ipso facto proceed from falsehood. We hold communion with the apostolic churches because our doctrine is in no respect different from theirs. This is our witness of truth.” (Chapters 20 and 21)     http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm

St Vincent of Lerins, in his Commonitory, (434 A.D.) gives the golden rule of the Catholic faith:

“Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all (ubique, semper et ab omnibus). For that is truly and in the strictest sense Catholic, which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.”  http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3506.htm 

These texts from the early Fathers and Christian writers give the clear teaching of the first centuries of the Church on the nature of Tradition.

The Symbolism of the Offertory - Part 8

Second Part: The Symbolism of the Offertory (Cont)

 A few moments before the Incarnation, Our Lady too, understanding the message of the Angel inviting her, the New Eve, to be the ‘adjutorium sibi simile’, the helper like unto himself, of the New Adam in the mystery of the redemption of the world through a terribly painful sacrifice, Our Lady also offered herself completely for this work:

Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word. (Lk 1:38)

We can find an authorized commentary of her answer, what she herself felt, in what she asked the children of Fatima on the day of her very first apparition to them

– Will you offer yourselves to God, and bear all the sufferings He sends you? In atonement for all the sins that offend Him? And for the conversion of sinners?

– Oh, we will, we will!, the children spontaneously replied.

– Then you will have a great deal to suffer, but the grace of God will be with you and will strengthen you.

You are all familiar with two St Teresas. Few, especially in the English-speaking world, have heard of the third one, St Therese Couderc, 1805-1885, the foundress of the Congregation of the Cenacle, nuns specializing in giving the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius to women, in the 19th century. Her main biographer is Fr. André Combes, the same who wrote so much on the Saint of Lisieux.

Fr. Combes relates the following historical moment, one of the highest mystical point in the life of this little known saint.  It was June 26, 1864. Notice that there are three progressing stages in what you will hear.

First, she wrote:

This morning (…) I was just about to start my meditation, when I heard the sound of numerous bells calling the faithful to attend the divine mysteries.  At that moment, I desired to unite myself to all the masses that were being said, and directed my intention to unite myself to them all.

Secondly, she is lifted to the mystical level:

Then I had a general view of the whole Catholic universe and of a multitude of altars where the adorable Victim was simultaneously being offered.  The blood of the spotless Lamb flowed in abundance on each of these altars, which seemed to me to be enveloped in a very light smoke rising towards Heaven.

My soul was captivated and penetrated by a sentiment of love and gratitude at the sight of this superabundant satisfaction offered for us by Our Lord.

But at the same moment I was deeply astonished that the whole world was not sanctified thereby.

And so I asked how come the Sacrifice of the Cross having been offered only once, being sufficient to redeem all souls, and now, renewed so many times, was not sufficient to sanctify them all?

We now come to the third phase of this event:

Here is the answer I seemed to have heard.

The sacrifice without doubt is sufficient by itself, and the blood of Jesus Christ more than sufficient for the sanctification of millions of worlds, but souls lack correspondence and generosity.

Now the great means to enter in the way of perfection and holiness is to deliver oneself, to hand ourselves over, to surrender ourselves totally to our Good God. (in French, “se livrer au Bon Dieu”).

Prior's Word: Tradition (I)

To be a Catholic is to have the mind of the Catholic Church, the Sensus Ecclesiae, to submit to the teaching, the morals, the liturgy and the discipline of the Catholic Church. Faith is a submission of the intellect to the truth revealed by God and proposed by His Church.

As we have seen in the readings of the Second Sunday of Lent, God the Father orders us to listen to His Divine Son who passes on to us the Truth He Himself received from His Father.  Jesus, in His turn, orders His Apostles to go and teach all nations whatsoever He has taught them.  He who hears them hears Him, he who rejects them, rejects Him.  It is clear.  The Apostles are one with Our Lord, they are His ambassadors. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ.

They taught the very same things to their own disciples and the chain of Tradition has thus been linked ever since, until our own days, and will be so until the end of the world.  That is also what is called the note of apostolicity: the unbroken chain of teaching and of the succession in the hierarchy.

Here are some famous texts to prove how Tradition was understood in the first centuries on different aspects of the faith, the morals, liturgy.  It helps to know these things today; it strengthens our own faith, since we are part of this uninterrupted chain, this apostolic faith.

St Paul’s famous text to the Galatian (about 53 A.D.) is a revealed landmark:

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema. (…) For I give you to understand, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:8-12)

St Ireneus wrote around the year 180 A.D., in his book Against the Heresies about tradition and the necessity of apostolic continuity:

“But, again, when we refer them (the heretics) to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters (bishops and priests) in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles, because they have discovered the unadulterated truth. For [they maintain] that the apostles intermingled the things of the law with the words of the Saviour; (…) It comes to this, therefore, that these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor to tradition.

“It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times…

“(…) tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority…”

“(List of the first Popes, Linus, Anacletus, Clement, etc. up to Eleutherius -- the pope reigning then) In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth.” (Book 2, chapters 2 and 3)  http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103302.htm

The Symbolism of the Offertory - Part 7

Second Part: The Symbolism of the Offertory

 3) Third Point: The Incensation

In the more solemn masses, there is a beautiful ceremony, full of mysteries, called the incensation.  There are four incensations during the mass : the first before the Introït, the second before and after the Gospel, the third, the most solemn, at the Offertory, and finally the fourth at the elevation. All the incensations are a sign of our prayers, of the sacrifice of ourselves to God.

They are also reminding us of the Angels standing by the altar and holding in their hands the golden thurible.

Msgr. de Ségur sees even further:

The silver or gold thurible, is a figure of the sacred Humanity of Our blessed Lord.  The burning charcoal inside, represents the fire of the Holy Ghost burning in his Sacred Heart. The blessed incense which the priest places on the burning charcoals signifies the constant prayer of Our Lord, His divine adoration of His Father.  But it also represents the prayers of those united to Him in Heaven and on earth, the Angels and Saints in Heaven, and the faithful and saints on earth.

The priest puts three spoonful of incense, first in honor of the Blessed Trinity, but also to represent the adorations of the Church of the Patriarchs, from Adam to Moses, of the Jewish Church, from Moses to Our Lord, and of the Roman Christian Church, from Our Lord’s first coming to the Second.

Msgr. De Ségur then goes on to explain the order of the incensations at the offertory, here is the general principle:

All these incensations concern Our Lord Jesus Christ, present and living in all His various members, and the diversity of these incensations manifests both the unity of Christian life in the Church as well as the multiplicity of vocations and graces.

4) Fourth Point: The Spirit of the Offertory

Dominus Vobiscum.

I did tell you that by this 4th Dominus Vobiscum, we were asking for the 4th gift of the Holy Ghost, the gift of Fortitude, which we need whenever we face a difficult good. Now, let us draw some lessons for our daily life from the general symbolism or meaning of the Offertory, and you will understand why the Offertory begins with the wish of the gift of fortitude.

The very name Offertory contains in itself a whole doctrine on the nature of the Holy Mass and a profound program of spiritual life. That is certainly why it has also been changed in the New Mass – words are signs, have we not stated? – it is now called “The Preparation of the Gifts.”  The link between the Offertory and our Spiritual life, our good works, is gone.

St Paul tells us in chapter 10:5-7 of his epistle to the Hebrews that the first prayer of Our Lord entering this world was the offering of Himself :

When he cometh into the world, he saith: Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest not: but a body thou hast fitted to me: Holocausts for sin did not please thee. Then said I: Behold I come: in the head of the book it is written of me: that I should do thy will, O God. Tunc dixi: Ecce venio: in capite libri scriptum est de me: Ut faciam, Deus, voluntatem tuam.

And His last word, bringing His ultimate Sacrifice to perfection, as He had just said, Consumatum est, was also an offering, a final surrender, a complete handing over of Himself:

Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And saying this, he gave up the ghost.  Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum. (Lk 23:46)

The Mind of the Church – Sensus Ecclesiæ

When young Marcel Lefebvre was trained in the French Seminary in Rome between 1923 and 1929, he learned that to be a Catholic, one had to study and embrace the teaching of the Catholic Church. And if ever there was a disagreement between one’s ideas and this teaching, one’s ideas had to be corrected.  This is what is called “to have a formed conscience”, which means in line with the teaching of the Church.

St Pius X, in explaining what Modernism is, clearly stated that for a modernist, personal conscience was more important than that teaching of the Church; doctrine and morality had to submit to this subjective conscience.

The exhortation Amoris Laetitia teaches that if a couple living in adultery sincerely think they have to remain in that situation, even living as husband and wife, then God Himself wants it. Now, we hear from another source, also leaning on the exhortation, that there are some situations that require the use of artifical contraceptives. It is Fr. Chiodi, newly appointed at the Pontifical Academy for Life by Pope Francis who said so in a conference in Rome last December 14.  In Amoris Laetitia the key word concerning those living in adultery is “discernment”, the priest has to discern the conscience of the couple in an irregular situation. Here, in the matter of contraception, the key word is “responsibility”.  Here are the words of Fr. Chiodi: “ … in situations when natural methods are impossible or unfeasible, other forms of responsibility need to be found. There are circumstances – I refer to Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8 – that precisely for the sake of responsibility require contraception… then, an artificial method for the regulation of birth could be recognized as an act of responsibility…” (Faithful Insight, February 2018, p.30)

How far this is from the clear teaching of Pope Pius XI in his encyclical on Christian marriage:

“First consideration is due to the offspring, which many have the boldness to call the disagreeable burden of matrimony and which they say is to be carefully avoided by married people not through virtuous continence (which Christian law permits in matrimony when both parties consent) but by frustrating the marriage act. Some justify this criminal abuse on the ground that they are weary of children and wish to gratify their desires without their consequent burden. Others say that they cannot on the one hand remain continent nor on the other can they have children because of the difficulties whether on the part of the mother or on the part of family circumstances.

“But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.

“Small wonder, therefore, if Holy Writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime and at times has punished it with death. As St. Augustine notes, ‘Intercourse even with one’s legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented. Onan, the son of Juda, did this and the Lord killed him for it.’ ” (nn. 53-55)

The Symbolism of the Offertory - Part 6

Second Part: The Symbolism of the Offertory

Totíus mundi salute – for the salvation of the whole world. These words are said when the priest offers the chalice.  The thought of countless souls deprived of the fruits of Redemption was a real martyrdom for Archbishop Lefebvre.  In a 1982 homily to his seminarians he said:

This is also the cause of the Church’s martyrdom, and must be your martyrdom too. If you do not understand that, if you are not martyrized by the sight of these souls that refuse Our Lord, then you are not really sons of the Church. (…) Like Our Lord, you must have the desire to pray, offer yourselves, suffer and give yourselves entirely to God so that souls might open their hearts and receive the Name of Jesus outside of which there is no salvation. (The Mass, p.63)

So here we have a reference to those who are at present in act, members of the Church and the others, all the others on the face of the earth who are called to be members of the Church, for whom Our Savior died, just as He did for you and for me.

The Council of Trent makes a reference to this when it teaches that,

It has been enjoined by the Church on priests, to mix water with the wine that is to be offered in the chalice; as well because it is believed that Christ the Lord did this, as also because from His side there came out blood and water; the memory of which mystery is renewed by this commixture; and, whereas in the apocalypse of blessed John, the peoples are called waters, the union of that faithful people with Christ their head is hereby represented. (Chapter 7)

In the Solemn High Mass, after the offering of the chalice, the subdeacon receives the humeral veil and holds the paten in plano, at the foot of the altar.  In that position he represents Our Lady of Sorrows accompanying Her divine Son during the Passion, Stabat Mater dolorosa, but he also represents the seraphim covering their face with their wings before the Majesty of the Thrice Most Holy, as in the vision of the prophet Isaiah.

I have already mentioned the reference to the souls in Purgatory when we omit the blessing of the water, during masses for the dead.

In one of the last prayers of the Offertory, the Suscipe Sancta Trinitas, one which expresses so profoundly our faith in the nature of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and which has simply been removed in the New Mass, we also have a beautiful profession of faith in the mystery of the communion of Saints, between the Saints in Heaven and the faithful on earth.  As the Council of Trent states,

the Church has been accustomed at times to celebrate, certain Masses in honour and memory of the saints. (Chapter 3)

So, by looking carefully at only a few simple rites and prayers of the Offertory, you see how the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass connects us with the 4,000 years of waiting for the Messiah in the Old Testament, with all the faithful since the Passion of Our Lord until the end of the world, with the Saints and Angels of Paradise, and with the souls in Purgatory.

The Sacrifice of Our Lord is truly at the same time the Sacrifice of His Mystical Body, the Church.

The Goals of Marriage

“Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:21). Whenever there is a multiplicity of purposes in something God made, there is always an order between these various purposes, one purpose will be more important than the other, and the second will depend on the first.  To invert that order can have disastrous consequences.

A perfect example of this is marriage which does have many purposes, or ends. There is the mutual love between the spouses, there is procreation, there is education, there is the remedy to concupiscence. What is first, what is second?  The traditional teaching of the Church is very clear: “The primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of children; the secondary end is mutual support and a remedy for concupiscence”(CIC 1917, c.1013,1)

As we have seen in last week’s Bulletin, “God created man to his own image.. male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27).  And God said to them: “Increase and multiply”. Thus the first goal of marriage is clearly to transmit life, to bring new lives into this world in order to make them go to heaven.  That will essentially require education, as we know too well. Parents do not perform their duty completely just by having children; the children will need many years of solid education in order to be able to face life as adults and fulfill all their responsibilities in view to getting to heaven.  

The first goal is therefore double: procreation and the education of children. It is through this double first goal that the second goal will be obtained: a solid mutual love between the spouses. Children are truly the bond between husband and wife, it is the children that is the main reason for the indissolubility of marriage, since the children need their parents for more than 20 years, and then even when they become adults themselves, they still need the advice of their parents for many more years. We all know this!

This being said, what happens if one changes this order of the ends of marriage, if one puts the mutual love of the spouses before procreation and education? Many things: if the most important thing in marriage, if the first end were that love between husband and wife then, logically, the children would become a secondary end, and could even become an obstacle to that apparent love. Then, it would not be wrong to avoid having children, as long as there would be the mutual love between the spouses, because the purpose of marriage would still be fulfilled. For example, a young couple would then be entitled to avoid having children in the first years of their marriage in order to travel around the world, or to finish some studies.

During Vatican II, there were violent debates on this very point of the order of the ends of marriage. The liberal fathers were pushing for putting the mutual love first, while the conservative ones fought tooth and nail to maintain the traditional order. Sadly enough the liberals won that battle, and it is now inscribed in the new Code of Canon Law (1983), in its Canon 1055: “The marriage covenant… is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of the children…”

(To be continued)

The Symbolism of the Offertory - Part 5

Second Part: The Symbolism of the Offertory

There are many symbols during the Offertory that show this universality of the Church in time.

After the offertory antiphon, in the low Mass the priest removes the chalice veil, unveils it, or in other words, reveals the oblations.  A great mystery is about to take place, the Mysterium Fidei par excellence.  This unveiling of the Chalice, which we are very accustomed to, echoes the more solemn unveiling of the Cross on Good Friday. It also reminds us of the stripping of Our Savior as they prepared Him for the bloody scourging.

The priest places the chalice on the right side of the corporal, takes the paten with the Host, looks up at the cross, lowers his eyes and says the first prayer, Suscipe, Sancte Pater, Receive, Holy Father.

Msgr. de Ségur shows how simple ceremonies can convey a truly Catholic, universal meaning to the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The paten with the bread (not yet consecrated but already sign of the consecrated Host, since we offer it as the immaculatam hostiam, the immaculate victim), represents the Mosaic Law (which is the Church of the Old Testament), with its figurative victims and its altar.  That altar had been consecrated and had four horns in the four corners. The priest, at the offertory, holds the paten with his two hands, joined, and with his four fingers. The joined hands express the union of the sacrifices of the Old Testament with the Sacrifice of Our Lord (the shadow linked to the reality, would say St Paul), and the four fingers of the priest, especially consecrated at his ordination, represent the four horns of the mosaic altar.

For the offering of the Host, the priest is told first to look up at the crucifix, then, lower his eyes and continue the prayer looking at the paten.  For the offering of the chalice, a few moments later, he is told to keep looking at the crucifix.  The lowering of the eyes represents the inferiority of the sacrifices of the Old Law compared to that of the New Law, represented by the continual look at the cross.

Moreover, when the priest offers the chalice he holds it by his right hand and supports it with his left.  The right hand is an image of the Christian Church offering the Sacrifice of the New Testament, while the left hand represents the Church of the Patriarchs and of Moses carrying, or preparing the New Covenant, like a handmaid. (p.236-237)

We have then, a reference to the unity and continuity of the Church, in the Old and in the New Testament. Don’t we have, after the consecration, a mention of the sacrifices of Abel, Abraham and Melchisedech? Don’t we have prayers, throughout the Mass, coming from the Old Testament, from the Psalms, and the various books of the Bible, and others from the New Testament, and others still, composed by the Church over the centuries, to our very days, like for some of the texts of the Mass of the Assomption of 1950?  The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is truly at the center of the whole of man’s history if we just paid attention to its inspired prayers and ceremonies.

One lady came to our Mass in Seoul, South Korea, a few years ago.  She had been a professional tennis player, no. 17 in Korea.  After having been born Buddhist, she became Protestant in her 20s. At about 40, she underwent a crisis of faith since her pastor was expressly preaching the sola fide, that faith alone was necessary for salvation.  And she got the grace to sense that there was something wrong with that.  Faith must work through charity, obviously.  One of her tennis students, one of our faithful, invited her to our Mass.  Her first Catholic Mass ever.  We asked her after the Mass what were her impression.  Here is her literal answer: “It reminded me of the Sacrifice of Abraham!”  She is now baptized.