On the surface of it, Mass is a fairly passive thing for the congregant. Besides standing, sitting, and kneeling, there are a handful or more responses, and that’s about it, at least on an external level. We forget too easily that Mass speaks the language of symbols, and that it takes a little bit of work. The Church invites us to full, active, and conscious participation. We have to put something into it, and we take so much away from it. This marvelous exchange—our whole selves for the Lord’s whole self—is the dialogue that is the Mass.
The dialogue begins with the Lord’s summons. Mass is the highest form of prayer, and the Catechism reminds us, “The living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response” (CCC 2567). We can sometimes think that we are the ones who take the initiative to schedule time for prayer or to choose which Mass we’ll go to this weekend. But it is actually the Lord who draws us.
Once we get to Mass, we begin by acknowledging our sins and failures to each other and to the Lord, who only wants to forgive. God calls, we respond and humble ourselves before him. Then he speaks, literally and audibly, in the Scripture readings. The Bible is the living Word of God, and the General Instruction on the Roman Missal points out, “When the Sacred Scriptures are read in the Church, God himself speaks to his people, and Christ, present in his word, proclaims the Gospel” (no. 29). The very structure of the Liturgy of the Word is itself a dialogue. The Lord speaks first in the First Reading, and we answer with the Responsorial Psalm, making the prayer and song of ancient Israel and of Jesus himself our own. Then the Lord speaks again in the Second Reading and the Gospel. He speaks further through the preaching of the homily, applying what he has just said to our specific circumstances.
We respond to this divine speech by professing the ancient and unchanging faith as articulated in the Creed. Far from a simple statement of doctrine, the Creed expresses our belief in God himself and in the things he has revealed to be true about himself and about us: God created you, loves you, redeemed you, and wants you to rise with a physical body to enjoy eternal life with him. Then we speak directly to the Lord with a series of petitions for ourselves and our world.
So far, Mass begins with the small talk of the Introductory Rites and proceeds to the deeper conversation of the readings and the needs of our hearts. With the Offertory, the conversation goes even deeper to the level of a complete exchange of persons. The Offertory is meant to be just that, a time of offering something. It isn’t halftime. Whether or not you physically place something in the collection basket, this is the time to place all of your prayers, works, joys, and sufferings–indeed, your entire self–in the basket and on the altar. We give ourselves entirely to the One who gave all of himself for us. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, that dynamic is sacramentally re-presented before us.
The Eucharistic Prayer is a lengthy prayer in which Christ the High Priest acts in and through his ordained priest to offer his own sacrifice of prayer and praise to the Father and through the Holy Spirit. By participating in this part of the Mass, we unite our own prayers with the prayer of Jesus in the very act of his dying for our sins. We offer ourselves along with his perfect offering. This is the marvelous exchange that takes place in the Mass: I give the Lord all of me, and he gives me all of himself in return. This exchange occurs even when I cannot receive Communion as long as I am uniting myself to Jesus’ sacrificial offering on the altar.
When we are able to receive Communion, it is the deepest moment of spiritual intimacy. God gives himself fully–Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity–to his creature, and we creatures in turn must make a conscious offering of our full selves–body, blood, soul, and humanity–to our Creator. This is such a profound moment, that words can scarcely describe it. It’s no wonder then that immediately following the reception of communion, there are very few words in the Mass, just a simple prayer and a final blessing.
Sometimes people will complain that they don’t get anything out of Mass. Maybe you’ve felt that way before too. But the Lord’s whole self is available to us. Perhaps he is the one who should be complaining that he doesn’t get anything out of Mass, because that requires us to make the offering in a way that is full, active, and conscious. The Lord offers himself fully, actively, and consciously to us, and we should do the same in return. This mutual giving of selves is the marvelous exchange that can happen at every Mass.
