Concede nobis, quaesumus, Domine, haec digne frequentare mysteria, quia, quoties huius hostiae commemoratio celebratur, opus nostrae redemptionis exercetur.
“Grant, we pray you, Lord, that we may participate in these mysteries worthily: for as often as the memorial of this sacrifice is celebrated, the work of our redemption is carried out.”
This is the celebrated prayer over the gifts, prescribed by the Roman Missal for use today, the 2nd Sunday of the Year. It’s short, and starkly simple, but it points to the heart of our Catholic faith. It explains why we are here now, and what we’re doing. The prayer is quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 1364), and in the documents of Vatican II. It actually appears as the first quotation of the first Council document, on page 1 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. It’s quoted again in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, Lumen gentium, paragraph 3, which shows how God’s plan for our redemption in Christ is carried out in and through the Church.
The prayer is ancient. We find it in a slightly different form in the Leonine Sacramentary, and exactly as we have it today in the Gelasian Sacramentary.
The Leonine Sacramentary is the oldest collection of prayers for the Latin liturgy in existence. A manuscript version of it, now kept in the City of Verona, was written in the early years of the 7th century. But its contents are much older than that. It’s called Leonine because it reflects especially the thought and style of St. Leo the Great, who was Pope from 440-461. No one now can say to what extent Leo himself actually composed or supervised the collection. Some scholars even think these prayers influenced his famous liturgical homilies, rather than vice versa. The Gelasian Sacramentary is named after St. Gelasius I, who was Pope from 492-496. It’s more complete than the Leonine Sacramentary, though our earliest surviving manuscript of was written in about 740, for use in the Frankish Court and Empire.
“Grant, we pray you, Lord,” says our prayer, “that we may participate in these mysteries worthily: for as often as the memorial of this sacrifice is celebrated, the work of our redemption is carried out.”
The prayer assumes, and teaches, that something divine happens at Mass: something of awesome and universal significance. Through this action of the Church, this act of remembrance, this ritual of sharing and communion, carried out in obedience to Christ’s command, God acts: the work of our redemption is carried out.
This is very bold doctrine indeed. It means that the principal actor at Mass is not the ordained Priest standing at the Altar, but Jesus Christ Himself. It means that at every Mass, Jesus Christ, now risen from the dead, makes intercession for us: at every Mass he offers to the Father the death he suffered on the Cross. Does this mean that his death somehow needs to be repeated? Certainly not! As the single and all sufficient sacrifice, it never need be and never will be repeated. Nevertheless, at the Last Supper Jesus taught his Apostles and their successors to offer it sacramentally again and again. Through their ministry, all the power and grace that flow from the event of his saving death would be made present, for our participation, and communicated, for our sanctification.
If today’s prayer over the gifts boldly states this extraordinary doctrine of our faith, it also boldly asks for something no less extraordinary. It asks that we may participate worthily in the mystery we celebrate.
And that was one of the central concerns of Vatican II. The Council really was all about inviting all the baptised to participate fully in the mystery of Christ. This was the fundamental reason for the liturgical reform. The Council wanted to encourage everyone’s full, conscious and active participation in the liturgy, because through that above all we participate in the Priestly work of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
Today is the first of the Sundays of ordinary time, and we stand as it were looking ahead to the coming year. We ask God that it may be a year of grace for us: that Jesus may be present in it, and that we may be ever more closely united with him. And we know that this happens in a very concrete way through the Mass. Even now today, in this small Church in the North East of Scotland, Jesus Christ will be present and active, and through us will effectively carry out his redeeming work.
The 16th century Reformers were shocked by the idea that God chooses to work through human action, and that we can participate in God’s work worthily. But the doctrine simply follows on the logic of the Incarnation. In Christ, God carried out his divine work in a human way. And if the Mass only takes place through our cooperation in God’s work, so did the Incarnation: for it only occurred after our Lady had given her consent. Let it be done to me according to your word, she said.
At Cana Our Lady quietly urged those present: Do whatever he tells you. And the last solemn command of Jesus to his Church was: Do this in memory of me. So we are here now, doing what Jesus has asked us to do. In turn we ask him, through our action, to perform once again his miracle of grace.
And we also ask that we may participate in it worthily.
We will do that, even though we are sinners, if we allow Jesus to carry out his work in us. We’ll participate in the liturgy worthily if we open our hearts to him: if we allow him to enter our life as he wants to, and to transform us, as he transformed the water at the wedding feast.
Come then, Lord, into my heart, today and throughout this coming year. Take up this self centred sinner, doomed to die. Make me truly a Son of God, filled with your Spirit; having your mind in me: destined to share with you in eternal life.