From the Pastor’s Desk:
The richness of our Catholic Liturgies especially the Mass comes from the ancient church. The Mass didn’t start with the Latin Mass of the Council of Trent. It did not start in the Middle Ages, nor did it start at the collapse of the Roman Empire during the fifth century. It began at the Last Supper with Christ and the twelve apostles.
I want to go back to the ancient Church as far back as possible and to writings describing the Mass and other Sacraments. St. Ignatius of Antioch was bishop of Antioch in Syria. He was condemned to die in Rome in 110 AD. His importance I believe comes from his seven letters he wrote as he traveled from Antioch to Rome where he was martyred. The Eucharist is the heart and soul of his teachings. Much of the language he used seemed to come from or be in accordance with the Didache. He wrote of the Church as the place of sacrifice. He also wrote of the bishop who presided over the sacrifice, and that it is at the altar that the Church received its unity in Christ. He wrote and I quote, “For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show for the unity of his blood; one altar, as there is one bishop.” As the Didache states, so do Ignatius’ letters point to the bishop as the ordinary minister of the Eucharist. Ignatius is the first to use the order of presbyter (priest). The term Priest was not used until later in the Church, so as not to confuse the order with the Jewish priests who offered animal sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem.
The pagan governor of part of Turkey in the early part of the 2nd century was Pliny the Younger. He wrote a detailed account of Christian worship to Emperor Trajan. “Christians meet on a certain fixed day before it is light. They sing in alternate verses a hymn to Christ and bind themselves by a solemn oath.” Scholars do debate about Pliny’s use of the term, oath. Pliny’s reporting could reflect the Church’s very early use of the term “sacrament” to describe the mysteries of faith. Also, according to Pliny, the Church’s Sunday worship consisted of two meetings. The first meeting was with a hymn and readings and the second was to partake of food. With the Second Vatican Council, the Church once more went back to the “Liturgy of the Word” and the “Liturgy of the Eucharist”.
St. Justin Martyr is the next person I want to explore. Justin gives the most complete description of the early Church’s Mass as it was celebrated in the Western part of the Roman Empire. He wrote about it for Emperor Antoninus Pius around the year 155. Justin began his life as a pagan and studied in several philosophical schools. Once he discovered Christianity, he used his philosophical knowledge to write a rational defense of Christian faith and life. Justin’s Apologies are divided into the First and Second Apology. His detailed descriptions of two Roman liturgies are a Mass that includes a baptism, and a regular Sunday Mass. The parts of the Mass have remained essentially the same through the centuries. Our Mass today is much like what Justin described as the Mass since the Church Fathers used Justin’s written account to reform the Roman Rite at the Second Vatican Council. What the Second Vatican Council did in reforming the Liturgy of the Mass, was go back to the earliest accounts and remove much of the repetitiveness of the Tridentine Mass of the 1500s. (to be continued)