A Journey Through the Mass

Surrounded by 50,000 Easter flowers in full bloom, the faithful gathered for the General Audience in St Peter's Square on 4 April to hear the conclusion of Pope Francis' series of liturgical catechesis on the Mass. Since November last year, Pope Francis has devoted fifteen of his weekly audiences to a rediscovery of the significance of the Mass, in the hope that Christians might come to recognise the Eucharist as a living encounter with Jesus and be transformed through their participation in the liturgy.

As we have come to expect from Pope Francis, his catechesis was far more than an exploration of liturgical principles and rubrics. Rather, listeners were treated to a rich tapestry of liturgical theology, practical suggestions and anecdotal stories as he adopted the tone of a wise father teaching essential truths and establishing certain expectations. He frequently cast his notes aside in order to engage the people in a form of dialogue, posing simple questions and inviting their participation by way of response. The pope's deep understanding and love of the liturgy was plainly manifest, as was his fervent desire that Christian people everywhere might come to appreciate its profundity in order to live more fully their relationship with God.

Catholic News Service has produced a series of online video clips where extracts of the pope's addresses have been subtitled in English. These clips, each running for just two or three minutes, capture the pope's gentle tone of voice, give a glimpse of his pastoral style, and offer an insight into his teaching. As he prepares to speak, a hush descends over the crowd. The sense of anticipation is palpable. While it is impossible to encapsulate the richness of the pope's teaching here, this is an attempt to draw out the main thread of each catechesis.

1. AT MASS, LIFT UP HEARTS, NOT PHONES!

Mass as living encounter with Christ. In his opening catechesis, the pope declared that the Eucharist is wondrous because it makes Jesus present amongst us. To those who become distracted at Mass and talk amongst themselves, or claim that Masses are dull, Pope Francis emphasised that the Lord is actually present! How, then, could Mass ever be boring? The pope reflected on his sadness at seeing mobile phones lifted up during Mass to take photographs. The priest presiding at a celebration says at a certain point: 'Lift up your hearts'. He does not say 'Lift up your cell phones to take a photo!' ... Mass is not a spectacle: it is going to encounter the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord. Remember: no cell phones. Just as St Thomas needed to see and touch the wounds of the risen Lord, Pope Francis acknowledged the need of all people to have a tangible, sensory experience in order to know God, and he pointed to the Sacraments, in particular the Eucharist, as the way to meet this human need.

2. PREPARE FOR MASS IN SILENCE

Mass as prayer. After defining prayer as a dialogue or personal relationship with God, Pope Francis identified the Mass as 'prayer par excellence', because it is an encounter with God through his word and through the Body and Blood of Christ. Just as Jesus called his disciples to 'be with' him, so too is the Eucharist our privileged moment to 'be with' Jesus. The pope encouraged the faithful to sit in silence with Jesus for five minutes before Mass, rather than chatting with people in the pews. This is not the moment for small talk; it is the moment of silence to prepare ourselves for the dialogue. It is the moment for recollection within the heart, to prepare ourselves for the encounter with Jesus. The pope then spoke of the need to let ourselves be surprised at every Mass with the realisation that God loves us despite our weaknesses. The Lord encounters our frailty so as to lead us back to our first call: that of being in the image and likeness of God. This is the environment of the Eucharist. This is prayer.

3. THE MASS AS CALVARY

Mass as memorial. Pope Francis explained the significance of memorial as not merely the recollection of past events, but a means of making them present and real. Thus, in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes bread broken for us in the present moment, pouring out his mercy as he did on the Cross. The pope encouraged the faithful to conceptualise going to Mass as going to Calvary itself to witness the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. As we enter the church to celebrate Mass, let us think about this: I am going to Calvary, where Jesus gave his life for me .... We pause in silence, in sorrow and also in the joy of being saved. In this way, the small talk and spectacle should disappear and the faithful might enter more deeply into the Paschal Mystery of Christ, made present again each time the Mass is celebrated.

4. CATHOLICS NEED MASS EACH SUNDAY

Mass as source of nourishment. Pope Francis lamented the loss of a sense of 'Sunday' in secularised societies. He implored the faithful to draw their energy from eucharistic communion as an inexhaustible source of strength to face life's challenges. Without Christ we are condemned to be dominated by everyday weariness, with its worries, and by fear of the future. The Sunday encounter with the Lord gives us the strength to experience the present with confidence and courage and to go forth with hope.

5. MASS AND THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

Mass as a unified symphony of worship. In this fifth catechesis, Pope Francis began to explain each element of the Mass in turn, emphasising that they form one single act of worship. It is important to understand the signs and symbols of the liturgy in order to experience the Mass fully. The pope then appealed to parents and grandparents to teach children from an early age how to make the Sign of the Cross properly and reflected on the strange designs he has seen children make! He noted that as the Mass starts, we realise we are in a dialogue. We are entering a 'symphony' in which various tones of voice resonate, including moments of silence, in view of creating harmony among all the participants, which is to acknowledge that they are animated by a unique Spirit and united in the same aim.

6. RECOGNISING OUR SIN

Mass as opportunity to confess and be forgiven. The Mass opens with the Penitential Act, an invitation to confess our sins before God and the community with humility and sincerity. The formula of the penitential rite in the first person singular emphasises the dimension of sin which not only separates us from God but also from one another. The pope emphasised that, in order to feel God's merciful gaze, we must lower our gaze with humility. Measuring ourselves with the fragility of the clay of which we are moulded is an experience that strengthens us: as it makes us take account of our weakness, it opens our heart to invoke the divine mercy which transforms and converts.

7. POPE ON SACRED SILENCE

Mass as sacred silence. After briefly exploring the Gloria, Pope Francis chose to focus his teaching on the sacred silence preceding the Collect. Silence, he taught, is not about the absence of words, but rather preparing oneself to listen to the voice of the heart and the voice of the Holy Spirit. He urged presiders to grant people this opportunity to recollect themselves: I strongly recommend that priests observe this moment of silence and not rush. 'Let us pray' and let there be silence. I recommend this to priests. Without this silence, we run the risk of neglecting the recollection of the soul. The pope tenderly encouraged people to use this silence to gather their thoughts and then tell the Lord about their days of toil, joy or pain, and invoke God's help or entrust their concerns to his care.

8. LISTENING TO GOD'S WORD

Mass as a place to hear God speaking to us 'live'. Since God speaks directly to us in the readings at Mass, the pope strongly warned against thinking or talking about other things while the Scripture readings are being proclaimed. How many times, as the word of God is being read, are comments made: 'Look at him ... look at her; look at the hat she is wearing: it's ridiculous ... ' Should comments be made while the word of God is being read? ['No!] The key message, which the pope repeated several times, is the importance of listening so that the word of God might find its way from our ears to our hearts to our hands. To enable God's word to resonate clearly amongst the assembly, the pope insisted: We must look for good readers! Those who know how to read, not those who read distorting the words and nothing is understood. They must be prepared and rehearse before Mass in order to read well. The pope also placed responsibility upon each listener to arrive with hearts willing to be cultivated, so that what is heard passes into daily life.

9. ADVICE FOR PREACHERS

Mass as dialogue where Jesus Christ is at the centre. The special signs of honour and veneration which surround the gospel in the liturgy, coupled with the pattern of dialogue in the acclamations, are designed to help the assembly recognise the presence of Christ and be attentive to the Lord who is speaking to them. Pope Francis spoke of the homily as another means by which Christ makes his message known. He established that the people must assume the right interior disposition but had some practical advice for preachers: The homilist must be aware that he is not doing something of his own, but is giving voice to Jesus ... How often do we see that during the homily some fall asleep, others chat or go outside ... please, make the homily brief but prepare it well,· it should not last more than ten minutes, please. 

10. THE PROMISE OF PRAYER

Mass as a time to offer a personal response of faith. Despite the dreary weather this day, the pope began with a joyful welcome to all present and then turned his attention to the Prayers of the Faithful in the liturgy, encouraging the faithful to ask God for the things they need, trusting confidently that their prayers would be lovingly received. The pope warned against praying for worldly demands or self-referential requests, suggesting rather that prayers be directed towards the needs of the Church and the world. He gently reminded the people to adopt a spirit of faith in prayer, suggesting that they pray 'Lord, I believe... But help my lack of faith'.

11. THE FIRST CHRISTIAN ALTAR

Mass as gift of self. Members of the assembly present the bread and wine at the altar in the liturgy. They represent the spiritual offering of the Church. The pope explained that our offering of bread and wine is transformed by the Holy Spirit into Christ's sacrifice and becomes one spiritual offering pleasing to the Father. He then put his papers aside for a few moments, and spoke with a deep and earnest conviction: The Lord asks little of us, and he gives us so much. He asks us for good will in ordinary life; he asks us for an open heart; he asks us for the will to be better ... we bring our little gifts, the bread and wine, which then will become so much: Jesus himself who gives himself to us.

12. REDEMPTION IS FREE

Mass as mystery of faith. In order that the faithful might participate more fully in the Eucharistic Prayer, the pope explained certain aspects of the ancient formula. While acknowledging that people might struggle to understand the consecration of bread and wine, he insisted: We should not have odd thoughts. It is the Body of Jesus; it ends there! Faith comes to our aid,· by an act of faith we believe that it is the Body and Blood of Jesus. The priest says 'The mystery of faith' and we respond with an acclamation.

13. THE POWER OF THE OUR FATHER

Mass as reconciliation with God and neighbour. The pope distinguished the Our Father from all other Christian prayers as the prayer of God's children, taught by Jesus himself. Never content with conjecture or theological explanations, the pope challenged the people gathered in St Peter's Square to reflect on their understanding of God as Father: When you say "Father'; do you feel he is your Father, Father of humanity, Father of Jesus Christ? Do you have a relationship with this Father? When we pray the 'Our Father' we connect with the Father who loves us, but it's the Spirit that gives us this connection, this sentiment of being children of God. Through the Our Father, as we implore the forgiveness of our trespasses, we pledge to forgive those that have offended us. The pope gently acknowledged that it is not possible to forgive with our own strength, but instructed the people to request this grace: Lord, teach me to forgive as you have forgiven me.

14. HAPPY SPRING!

Mass as sacramental communion with Christ. After wishing the people 'Happy Spring!' the pope engaged them in dialogue once more. Can a tree or a plant whose ​roots have been removed, or which have no roots, flower? No! Can a tree which is not watered blossom nicely? No! If you have no roots, you cannot blossom, and who is the root? Jesus! Prayer and the sacraments water the roots and our life blossoms. Similarly, the sacramental communion at Mass nourishes us so that we might be conformed to Christ. The pope reassured the people that they could confidently pray, 'Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world'. Do not forget: Jesus always forgives. Jesus never tires of forgiving. It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness. Pope Francis then emphasised the Church's desire that the faithful receive the Lord's Body with hosts consecrated at the same Mass, and insisted that the sign of the eucharistic banquet is most fully revealed when Holy Communion is received under both kinds.

15. THE POWER OF THE MASS

Mass as commitment to Christian witness. At this final catechesis, the joy of Easter was on display in St Peter's Square, not only in the flowers and fine weather, but in Pope Francis' exuberant greeting and invitation to the people to wish each other a 'Happy Easter'. Throwing light on the Concluding Rites, he moved straight to the point which had been woven through so much of his catechesis: when the Mass finishes, the commitment to Christian witness commences. The pope warned the people against leaving the church chatting and talking lest the Mass not enter their hearts. Rather, he challenged them to leave each Mass better than when they entered, with more vitality and a more fervent desire to give Christian witness. We must not forget that we celebrate the Eucharist to learn to become eucharistic men and women. What does this mean? It means to let Christ act in our works: that his thoughts be our thoughts, his sentiments ours, his choices our choices. And this is holiness: to do as Christ did.

The full English transcripts of the pope's addresses and video clips of Pope Francis delivering his catecheses may be found together on the Liturgy Brisbane website. Use the QR code or go to https://lbdiscover.weebly.com/ Even non-Italian speakers, who must rely on subtitles, will be enriched by his gentle, conversational tone and warm facial expressions which bring his words to life. While one can always skim a printed transcript, the multimedia geme forces viewers to absorb the words at the relaxed, meditative pace with which Pope Francis addresses the people. This allows his words to take root in their hearts. The themes of joy, mercy and evangelisation - typical of the papacy of Pope Francis - resonate again in these liturgical catecheses as the pope encourages all people to let themselves be drawn into the transformative encounter with Jesus in the liturgy.

This article was originally published in Liturgy News ​Vol 48(2) June 2018. Reprinted with permission.