What is ‘Living the Mass’?
Catholics have three types of Mass. Only two are really spoken of. First is High Mass which is the Saturday evening, Sunday morning Masses. The second is the weekday masses held most commonly every day; typically held in the morning, the other in the evening. But the third Mass is what the Church calls ‘Living the Mass’.
- Image via Wikipedia
Living the Mass is an actual form of Mass, and the most important because it is a continual offering of our lives and devotion that is to remain in constant submission to God’s will. Allow me to take you through Holy Scripture and re-unveil a truth that the Church has always taught over her 2000 years of service.
We begin in Genesis with those who were first in God’s holy orders, Adam and Eve. Adam was made in the image of God, and we know God is the epitome of all religion, spirituality, priesthood, and holy orders. God’s divinity transcends immemorial. So as Adam is created in God’s image, he is also created in the same likeness of spiritual authority. He is called to name every animal [in the Hebrew culture, names revealed the very essential core of a person – this is why every prophet that had his name changed by God was because it was to suit his role] and subdue the earth. But with this authority over every material thing, he was to consecrate it and offer it as an oblation to God. This is known because God called Adam to never receive for himself the fruit of the tree of knowledge and evil.
But Adam found himself equal to God, thinking that he was worthy to receive what was due to God only. Knowledge and power. Adam’s pride blinded him with vanity as he took what was meant for God only and took it for himself.
This was the first act of man receiving unto himself what was only to be rendered unto God. This was the first sacrifice that man proposed to himself as his own God, finding himself worthy as God is to receive such oblations.
From this point forth, mankind had squandered holy orders until the calling of Abraham. As we progress through the Church Fathers, we come to Moses and Aaron. As we see in the Tent of the Dwelling of the Ark of the Covenant, the priests, and only the priests, were allowed to sacrifice oblations to God. The people were allowed to offer their tithes and sacrifices, but only the priests could actually present them unto the LORD.
But let us not forget, most importantly, the showbread of the priests. The showbread was unleavened bread that was to be consecrated and consumed with every sacrifice. Only the priests were allowed this holy delicacy.
Next we turn to Gospels of the New Testament. Jesus came and died, that we might accept the adoption as children of the Living God. Christ, Whom is the Son of God, says He is like us in every way but sin. This specifically includes the adoption as sons and daughters of God, and just equivocally as priests and priestesses [I use that term loosely]. This we know, because as Jesus was sent, He also sends us. Jesus was sent to offer His life and all the things He does as a sacrifice. We are called to relinquish everything we have if we are called to the vow of poverty. Jesus made this clear when he said to the young man, “give away all your assets and follow me”.
What is more enticing is that not only are we to be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect, and that God will never give us anything more than we can bare because the chains of death have been broken and death has no victory. Everything we do, we are to do unto the LORD. This is because Christ, through the redemption of His Precious Blood of His Passion, we are made into priests as He is.
How does this tie into a perpetual lifestyle of Mass?
Before Adam sinned, death did not reign, Adam was to offer everything to the LORD, and Adam was able to receive all but one oblation [the fruit of the tree] because he was in the priesthood, uncorrupted by sin. Christ came, not only to pay the debt of sin but break the bondage to sin. This is why we are called to be perfect as the Father is perfect. This is why Christ tells us, having broken the chains of death and slavery to sin, that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, and so therefore the commandment to be perfect is not giving us more than we can bare. But more importantly, this is why we can receive the Blessed Sacrament, the most precious Eucharist.
We have been called into the priesthood, that when we receive this Blessed Sacrament, we are in actuality offering it as an oblation to God the Father. We would not be able to receive this holy communion lest we were sent as Christ is sent, adopted as sons and daughters into holy order, which is the priesthood. Remember, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The showbread, which was the foreshadowing of the Eucharist, was to be consumed, which isn’t really a receptive act but an act of offering, only by the priests. But now all have been called into this priesthood.
To go even deeper, the kingdom of heaven is present on earth, according first to Christ. St. Peter and St. Paul confirm this too in their letters to the Christian communities. Because the kingdom of heaven has been built upon earth, we know that it must have the utmost essence of Mass. As we read in the book of Revelation [formerly known as Apocalypse], we find that the angels and saints are constantly consecrating prayers as sacrifices and oblations unto the Father. This is the Mass.
How do we know that it is perpetually on earth in our very lives? Because in the Lord’s Prayer, Christ gives us a significant piece to the puzzle. His most sacred words informs us that “thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” If heaven is a constant mass, so than must be earth. And if the kingdom of heaven is on earth, than the mass of heaven kingdom still remains perpetual, even while it’s on earth,
If Christ was frivolous in saying that we are in the priesthood as He is, than we would be wrongful to consume this fulfillment of the Old Testament showbread that is now the Eucharist, because it is truly a sacrifice unto the Father. We have to be as Christ says we are, only because upon receiving Holy Communion, we are not really recipients so much as we are offering it unto God, and the Old Testament law says only those in the priesthood can make the sacrifice.
Also, every act we make is an offering unto God. Again, only the priests could offer the oblations. But now Christ commanded us to turn everything into an oblation, a sacrifice, when He commanded, “everything you do, do unto the LORD”.
This is living the mass. It is the action of our every day lives as priests/priestesses and servants in the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Every thing we offer is an oblation, but the most perfect and divine oblation is the Savior Jesus Christ made present in the Real Presence.
For the difference between the general priesthood given to all of mankind and the priesthood given to the clergy in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, please read 1 Peter 2 and the article Holy Orders.
“In him we are all priests” Revelation 1:6; 1 Peter 2:9.
Truly yours,
Drew Castel.
