We halted our study
of the Mass in 2012 by wrapping up our look at the Liturgy of the Word. Someone
asked me why I left out the Creed. It is a study of its own and we can do that
later. Today we will enter into the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The opening
prayers of this section are so reflective of our lives and those of so many
people in the Old Testament. Picture Abel offering the first fruits of his
harvest to God. Picture Abraham offering the ram as a sacrifice in place of his
son Isaac. Now picture yourself taking all you have and offering it back to God,
acknowledging that everything we have comes from God. It is His to give and His
to take away. Here we acknowledge that the very bread and wine we place on the
altar before Him are gifts of His earth, and it is under His power that they will
become the ultimate, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let us always pray this
part of the Mass with fervent hearts and pure consciences. Abel’s sacrifice was
accepted by God because it was pure. We must present ourselves in the same condition.
Blessed are you, Lord God of all
creation, for through your
goodness we have received the
bread we offer you: fruit of the
earth and work of human
hands, it will become for us the
bread of life.
Blessed are you, Lord God of all
creation, for through your
goodness we have received
the wine we offer you: fruit of
the vine and work of human
hands it will become our
spiritual drink.
With humble spirit and contrite
heart may we be accepted by
you, O Lord, and may our
sacrifice in your sight this day
be pleasing to you, Lord God.
creation, for through your
goodness we have received the
bread we offer you: fruit of the
earth and work of human
hands, it will become for us the
bread of life.
Blessed are you, Lord God of all
creation, for through your
goodness we have received
the wine we offer you: fruit of
the vine and work of human
hands it will become our
spiritual drink.
With humble spirit and contrite
heart may we be accepted by
you, O Lord, and may our
sacrifice in your sight this day
be pleasing to you, Lord God.
The Liturgy of the Eucharist begins with the preparation
of the gifts. When the bread and wine are placed upon the altar and
raised by the Priest as an offering to God, we often hear two prayers spoken
aloud over each element (they can also be spoken quietly by the Priest).
….The prayers accompanying the offering of the bread and
wine are very important, because they express the sacramental reality of the
Sacred Liturgy. Through our human work amidst creation, we offer back to
God what is already His (the new translation highlights that we first
“received” these gifts from Him), and He brings it to its heavenly
fulfillment. In an overarching sense, this applies to our entire
Christian lives on earth. Just as the bread and wine become Christ’s Body
and Blood, we look forward to our resurrection in glorified bodies (as we
profess in the Creed), and also to the perfection of all creation in the
heavenly Jerusalem.
The people’s response to both prayers remains, “Blessed
be God for ever” (a phrase that is actually a traditional introduction for
Jewish prayers).
The entire preceding exchange during the preparation of
the gifts bears similarity to prayers found in an episode from the Book of
Daniel, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are cast into a fiery furnace for
refusing to worship an idol created by King Nebuchadnezzar. Abednego
(also known as Azariah) utters a prayer from within the furnace that begins,
“Blessed are you, and praiseworthy, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and
glorious forever is your name” (Dan 3:26). And as the three men are kept
safe by an Angel while in the furnace, they sing a litany of praise, wherein
they repeatedly bless the Lord and extol His name “above all forever.”
After offering the bread and wine, the Priest then
quietly recites, “With humble spirit and contrite heart…” More than a
simple rearranging of the current translation, the new text is a much clearer
allusion to a portion of the same prayer spoken by Abednego in the furnace:
“But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; as though it
were holocausts of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, so let our
sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those
who trust in you cannot be put to shame” (Dan 3:39-40).
This also recalls Psalm 51 (50), which affirms that the
Lord desires a humble heart over burnt sacrifices. http://old.usccb.org/romanmissal/samples-priest-gifts.shtml
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