Devotion for today: One Mass, two parts, one history

Scripture for meditation: Mark 13:1-2

 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us: 1408: The Eucharistic celebration always includes: the proclamation of the Word of God; thanksgiving to God the Father for all his benefits, above all the gift of his Son; the consecration of bread and wine; and participation in the liturgical banquet by receiving the Lord’s body and blood. These elements constitute one single act of worship.

Pope Benedict XVI tells us: We have to bear in mind that Jewish worship had two elements. One was the sacrificial worship in the Temple, where in accordance with what the law prescribed, the various sacrifices were offered. Side by side with this Temple worship, which took place, and could only take place, in Jerusalem, a second element was steadily developing: the synagogue, which could be set up anywhere. Here the service of the word was celebrated, the Holy Scriptures were read, the Psalms were sung, people joined in praising God, hearing the Word of God interpreted, and making petitions to God. After the Resurrection of Jesus, his followers ceased to take part in the sacrificial cult in the Temple. They could no longer do so, for the curtain in the Temple was torn, that is, the Temple was empty. It was no longer that stone building that was the Temple, but the Lord, who had opened himself to the Father as a living Temple and had opened a way for the Father, from himself, into humanity. In place of the Temple there is the Eucharist, since Christ is the true Paschal Lamb; everything that ever took place in the Temple has been fulfilled in him,

But while, for this reason, the disciples no longer shared in the bloody sacrifices of the Temple but celebrated the new Paschal Lamb in their stead, they continued to take part in the synagogue worship just as before. The Bible of Israel was, after all, the Bible of Jesus Christ. They knew that the whole of the Holy Scriptures, law and prophets, was talking about him; they therefore tried to read this holy book of their fathers, together with Israel, as referring to Jesus and thus to open Israel’s heart to Jesus. They continued to sing the Psalms with Israel, so as thus to sing them with Jesus, and from within the New Covenant, to open up a way to understanding them from the standpoint of Christ. Yet at the same time we can follow, in the texts of the New Testament, that tragic path which was to lead eventually to the breakdown of what remained of unity with Israel.

Christians were unable to persuade Israel to read the Bible as the word of Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ. The synagogue rapidly closed itself against such an interpretation of Holy Scripture, and toward the end of the first century the break was complete. It was no longer possible to understand Scripture in company with Jesus within the synagogue. Thus Israel and the Church stood separate, side by side. The Church had become an independent entity. Since she could now no longer share in Israel’s service of the word, she had to perform her own. This meant necessarily that the two halves of the Liturgy, hitherto separate, came together: the service of the Word became united with the Eucharistic worship; and now that this had taken on the shape of fully developed Christian worship, and the Church was now fully the Church, the whole thing was relocated to Sunday morning, the time of the Resurrection; the logic of the Resurrection had worked itself out. The basic Christian form of worship, as we keep it up to the present day in the Church’s Eucharist, was thereby completed. (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God is Near Us, The Eucharist, The Heart of Life; Ignatius Press,2001)

My thoughts:  I never knew this, did you? So now we know how our liturgy was put together, and how far back it dates, and why it has readings and prayers and sacrifice. We know people must be gathered for the prayers and sacrifice as our Jewish family did since the time of Moses, and we know that Jesus did not come to replace the Old Testament, but to fulfill it. As you enter Mass, allow the richness of its heritage to overwhelm you. You are part of the tradition of the Old Testament, and part of its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Awesome!

Prayer: Praise and Thanksgiving

 We praise you dear God for creating us in all our diversity. For the gift of our many cultures, languages, diverse expressions of belief, customs, traditions, and ethnicities we thank you! We thank you for the many church traditions which have kept our communities strong and active even in places where they are a minority. Teach us to celebrate our different identities and traditions, so as to forge bonds of friendship and fellowship leading us to greater unity. (Taken from the international version of the text
of the Week of Prayer 2013. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/weeks-prayer-doc/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20120611_week-prayer-2013_en.html)