From the Pastor’s Desk:

As we begin to gather once again around the Eucharistic Table at the Sunday liturgies I am going to spend some time writing about the development of the Mass. Since I am a history person, I many times ask how, where from, why? Our Catholic celebration of the Mass is traceable all the way to the early church, of the first century. Christian worship was modeled after, or alongside the worship in Israel. Many of the prayers and songs used in the early church came from the synagogue, the Temple and Jewish home prayers. Some are still in use today. The Holy, Holy, Holy, is based on Isaiah 6:3 and was used in the synagogue service every Sabbath. The Alleluia from the Hallel Psalms was recited in the Passover meal, and many of our common refrains, such as Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, comes from Psalms or synagogue worship. Remember Jesus, the twelve apostles, and the majority of the first Christians were all Jews.

The Mass had its roots in the “worship” of Israel, whether in the Temple or synagogue. Christ clearly established it as something new. The essential difference between Christian liturgy and Jewish worship was that in the synagogue, salvation is hoped for, in the Mass it is announced as already accomplished. With the early Christians, the Mass was the source of life and strength itself, and life was unthinkable without it. That was what gave the early Christians the strength to suffer martyrdom. The Martyrs of Abitina, in North Africa, were sentenced to death for their refusal to renounce the Eucharist during the reign of Emperor Diocletian who ordered the last official persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire. The Mass for the early Christians was the meeting of heaven and earth. From St. Paul and the Didache (a Christian treatise of the early 2nd century) the Christians preached the unifying power of the Eucharist with the Church community. By the 3rd century, Bishop Firmilian from Cappadocia, wrote of differences in the liturgy from difference areas of the Roman Empire. However he spoke about common prayers used universally. Clement of Alexandria wrote about rules or “canons” for the proper celebration of the Mass. By the middle of the 3rd century, there were disciplinary manuals which concerned the celebrating of the Mass. One of those manuals was Didascalia. Prayers such as the “Holy, Holy, Holy” and the dialogue proceeding from “Lift up your Hearts” were standard by the middle of the 3rd century, perhaps even earlier, but there are no records.

Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist as Real and not symbolic, was held from the early Christians of the 1st and 2nd century. It was considered heretical by St. Ignatius and Justin Martyr to not accept the Real Presence. They also taught and wrote that Christ’s presence in the Eucharist was lasting and not confined to the time of the liturgy only. Tertullian and Justin wrote about the role of the early deacons who would carry the Eucharistic bread to the sick who were homebound. A side note which we might find a little humorous from Hippolytus, urges Christians to take care to reserve the Body of Christ where no mouse could nibble at it: “For it is the Body of Christ and not to be treated lightly.” The early Fathers of the Church such as Justin, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen give us a view of the Mass and the understanding of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist from the 1st century of Christianity. (I will continue next week.)