The Priest at Prayer, June 3

Second Part
The Priestly Ministry

The Second Priestly Duty: The Holy Eucharist

Second Meditation - Respect for the Mass and for Myself as Celebrant

I. Pope St. Gregory says: "Who will doubt that at the moment of Immolation the heavens open? Or that the angelic choirs are in attendance at this Mystery of Jesus Christ? and that the highest and the lowest, the visible and invisible, become one thing? Et summa et ima sociare unumque ex invisibilibus et visibilibus fieri?

SS. Chrysostom, Augustine, and other Fathers expound the same ideas. According to them, during the Holy Sacrifice the altar is surrounded by legions of glorious spirits.

What wonder that angels should attend, and attend with infinite self-abasement, where the very Lord of the heavenly choirs stoops to such depths of infu}ite condescension!

I quite believe it. What I find difficult to believe is that a worm of the earth like me should be invested with such an awe-inspiring dignity, and that in my hands should become incarnate, as it were, the "full of grace and of truth," the Only-Begotten of the womb of the Virgin-Mother.

II. Let us consider the tremendous respect with which the Church in her liturgy surrounds the celebrant. He can be the humblest of priests, an unknown chaplain or curate, one lacking in virtue and learning and without social standing; but scarcely has he reached the altar to say Mass when he is given all the honours and preferences. Would Jesus Christ Himself be given better treatment were He to appear in Person as Sacrificer, robed in the sacred vestments? All the faithful, without exception: kings, princes, bishops and even the Roman Pontiff, if present, will remain on bended knees while the celebrant stands; and in reciting the Confiteor, the Pope himself will bow towards him and say: et tibi, Pater. . . et te, Pater, and will prostrate to receive his blessings.

How clearly the rubrics and ceremonies give to under­stand that during the most holy Sacrifice only two persons demand attention and supreme respect: Jesus Christ, under the Sacramental species, and the priest, whose voice is instrumental of Christ's Presence!

While I celebrated, was I not perhaps the only person to forget this, and forget it dozens of times? Was I not the only person wanting in respect towards myself?

III. The Mass is the very Immolation of Calvary, and therefore, the goal of Christ's coming to the world and living in mortal flesh. And in the Mass, the same as on Golgotha, there can intervene, or at least attend, a great variety of people in a variety of roles.

What is the role of the priest when celebrating? Will he be one of Christ's executioners? one of the soldiers offering the Victim gall and vinegar? one of those cruel adversaries who mock at His sorrows and blaspheme? one of the crowd of the merely inquisitive who get a thrill from the tragic details of an execution? Or will he be found among those good souls who believe in Christ and accompany Him in His prayer and agony? Will he stand between the Mother and the beloved Disciple? No. My place and role, when saying Mass, is pre-eminent: I have identified myself with the Divine Victim and Sacrificer, with the Lamb of God and the Eternal Priest who immolates It; through my lips speak the lips, the omnipotence and the Heart of Christ: Hoc est Corpus meum; hie est Sanguis meus.

Have I ever esteemed myself, at least in those sublime moments, for what I am and represent?

Resolutions
1. I promise my Lord, the infinitely self-abased Victim for love of me, and I promise myself, in my great representative capacity at the Altar, at least a profound interior respect. And exteriorly, I shall see to it that wherever the Mass is concerned there shall be absolute conformity with the prescriptions of the Liturgy, especi­ally in connection with the cleanliness of vestments, sacred vessels, altar cloths, corporals, purificators, etc.; and also in the tidy appearance of the church and its altars. I shall bear out the truth of my daily declaration: Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae: Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house. (Ps. xxi, 8)

2. And since the veneration which the Mass inspires the faithful depends, in no small measure, upon the priest's pious observance of the rubrics, I propose to review the ceremonies of the Missal, so that in all earnest­ness, and as soon as possible, I may examine my conscience on how I abide by them.

I desire, for the Saviour's sake, to win the compliment paid to St. Vincent de Paul: "There indeed you have a priest who says Mass well!"
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!