We are now in our 4th week of our tour through the Mass — we’ve been busy keeping Mass in ChristMass — and today, on this final Sunday of the Advent Season, we have come to the very heart of the liturgy:

The Eucharistic Sacrifice. The consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. This is the Source and Summit…

In our first reading this weekend from the prophet Isaiah, we heard the Lord encourage King Ahaz to “ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!”

But Ahaz unfortunately answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” 

Well, we are about to do what Ahaz refused to do.

We are going to ask for a sign from God that is far deeper than the netherworld and infinitely higher than the sky…

…We will dare to ask that bread and wine be changed into God.

And so we pick up where we left off last week in our exploration of the Liturgy. We’ve already received and prepared the gifts. The altar is all set. The priest has washed his hands…

And now the congregation stands together as the priest invites them: “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.”

— “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His holy Church.” 

Let’s pay close attention to a couple of details about this exchange.

First, the priest says “my sacrifice AND yours.”

It’s absolutely crucial for all of us to realize that the priest isn’t just doing something magical by himself up here… as if he’s on some sort of stage and you’re watching a kind of show happen…

No, you are intimately involved in this sacrifice as well. In a profound way, we are ALL priests together. YOU are priests by your baptism… I am a priest both by my baptism AND through my ordination. 

Baptismal priesthood and Ministerial priesthood are different of course… they obviously have unique, distinct roles within the Church, but they both have their origin in the One Priesthood of Jesus Christ.

So the priest is now calling upon YOUR baptismal priesthood to be activated and engaged. The sacrifice will be offered “at my hands for the praise and glory of God’s name and for the good of the whole Church” …but I’m doing this ON BEHALF of you and WITH you… The ordained priest’s role is to unite ALL OF YOU with this one sacrifice of the Mass — He’s dragging ALL of humanity up to this altar with him!

The second important observation about this exchange is this: The priest prays that this sacrifice might be “acceptable.”

Now, here’s the thing: The only way this offering will ever be acceptable is if JESUS himself is the one who offers it. The Cross is the only acceptable sacrifice there is. Jesus dying out of love for us in obedience to the Father’s will is the ONLY act of truly perfect worship.

So if our sacrifice is going to be worthy and acceptable, it needs to somehow become HIS sacrifice… We have to worship God through Jesus, with Jesus, and in Jesus!

What’s mind-blowing is that by virtue of his ordination, the ministerial priest now gets to do just that for YOU. He stands in the place of Christ, on behalf of the entire congregation, and he gets to offer this PERFECT and ACCEPTABLE sacrifice “in persona Christi,” which means “in the person of Christ.” 

One way to try and understand it is that the priest lends his humanity to Jesus for Him to use as He will…

Very good. 

Next comes the prayer over the offerings, and then the dialogue kicks off:

“The Lord be with you!”

—And with your spirit

“Lift up your hearts!”

— “We lift them up to the Lord!”

“Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.”

—It is right and just.

Let us offer the EUCHARIST… our “THANKSGIVING” to God — Lets thank Him no matter what else is going on…

And you say: “It is right and just” which is to say: Yes, that’s exactly what God deserves. It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE to give Him thanks…”

Then comes a prayer we call the “Preface.” 

The preface changes Sunday to Sunday, but it always reflects the feast or season we’re celebrating, reminding us of the awesome things God has done in the past. The prayer builds and builds and builds, eventually calling on all the angels and archangels, Thrones and Dominions and all the hosts and Powers of Heaven to join in, until it reaches a kind of crescendo in what we call the “Sanctus.”

This is that chant we all sing together — “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.”

This is the song that all those angels and archangels, thrones and dominions are singing CONSTANTLY in the presence of God — so as we sing the Sanctus, we should be reminded that…

…believe it or not: We are now in Heaven.

Or…perhaps a better way of putting it is: Heaven and Earth are being united… wedded together… in the Mass. The liturgy is actually a participation in… a foretaste of the Heavenly worship that is going on CONSTANTLY, ALL DAY EVERY DAY… for ALL eternity…

And by God’s gift — we are now being caught up in the midst of that! 

“Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus” — If only we could see all the angels and archangels worshipping God with us at this moment. Our little church would be even MORE crowded! We’re all crying out “HOLY HOLY HOLY” before the throne of the Thrice Holy, Most Blessed Trinity together with ALL the hosts of heaven…

…All your patron saints are here with us too. All of your relatives, loved ones, friends and ancestors who have gone before us and have already been received into the glory of Heaven — The entire communion of Saints is here united with us as we lift our hearts to God!

As soon as we finish the Sanctus, you fall on your knees, because this is the posture most appropriate when we’re in the presence of the Living God.

Once everyone is kneeling together, a deep silence fills the church… and the priest solemnly launches into the Eucharistic Prayer. He is the only one standing now — Why? — Because you’ve pushed the priest forward as your representative — he is standing up there on your behalf before God. 

Here I’d like to make a point about the posture and overall directionality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

Most of us are probably used to seeing the priest on the other side of the altar, facing the people while praying the Eucharistic prayer. But did you know that there is an older, even more ancient way of doing it that I believe communicates what we’re doing in a really powerful way?

I’m talking about praying the Mass “Ad Orientam.” 

The word literally means “toward the East” — a reference to the ancient practice of the Church to celebrate the Eucharist facing the sun as it rose in the eastern skies — a powerful symbol of the Resurrection of Christ at first light on Easter morning. 

Celebrating Mass “ad orientam” is when the priest faces, not the congregation — but God the Father. The priest isn’t putting his “back to the people” — as if he was trying to be rude or exclusionary…

No! — the priest is leading the entire Church in facing God together. He is like the captain of a great boat up there at the helm… and we are all going in the same direction with him.

And this makes a LOT of sense if you think about it. When you are on an airplane, you definitely DON’T want the pilot to be facing the passengers. No! — You want that pilot to be in the cockpit, looking forward, making sure the flight is smooth and safe for everyone!

That’s why, while there’s nothing wrong with saying the Mass “versus populum”— which means “towards the people” — there is something beautiful and richly symbolic about entering into the Mass “ad orientam.” 

Personally, whenever I pray “ad orientam,” I feel less like I’m up on a stage, performing for you — or worse, as if I’m speaking to YOU and not to God. The Mass isn’t about us talking to each other — it’s about the ENTIRE Church together turning toward God and worshipping Him! Offering the sacrifice to HIM…

But I digress. 

Because we’ve now arrived at the holiest, most beautiful part of the entire Mass… The source and summit itself… 

The consecration of the bread and wine.

First comes what’s called the epliclesis. The “epliclesis” is when the priest extends his hands over the bread and wine, and calls down the Holy Spirit. A bell is rung once to announce this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

“Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate these mysteries.”

It’s only through the DIVINE POWER of the Holy Spirit that bread and wine can ever become Jesus for us. The Spirit Himself comes and OVERSHADOWS these gifts — just as the Holy Spirit once overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary when God took on human flesh inside her womb! 

This is what the Angel announced to St Joseph in our gospel this weekend: 

“Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.”

It is through the Holy Spirit that this regular bread and ordinary wine will become God-in-the-flesh!

Then come the “words of institution.”

This is the moment when the priest is most obviously acting “in person Christi” — in the person of Christ — because he is enacting the same exact events of the Last Supper, and he is speaking the same sacred words of Jesus — He makes them his own!

The priest takes the bread in his hands, and bends down low at the altar…

Monsignor Knox says that the priest “bends down” because “he has reached the very door of the heavenly temple, and takes one look through the keyhole. And he says ‘Ssssh! I’ve seen it! The glory of God, that fills earth and Heaven, shining in front of me. There, do you see it? Take off your shoes, all of you, and lets go in very quietly, on tip-toe.”

Then Christ’s words fall from the priest’s own lips…

“Take this, all of you, and eat of it. For this is My Body, which will be given up for you.”

He then slowly lifts up the Host — he elevates the Sacred Victim for all to see, yes, but he is really lifting Jesus up to the Father as if to say: “Take Him… Receive Him. We give you Your Beloved Son…Jesus belongs to You, Father, and we now belong to Jesus. Please receive us WITH HIM!!!”

The bells are run 3 times to emphasize how intensely holy this moment is… if anyone happens to be dozing off, they are called back: “Look! It’s HIM… He’s HERE now… We can literally SEE HIM!”

St John Vianney once said that “the Eucharist is the love of Christ made visible.”

When the Host is elevated, the love of Christ is ABLE TO BE SEEN… it’s RIGHT THERE! 

As Jesus once said: “When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.” — Well there he is! — lifted up high, drawing the whole world to Himself like a divine magnet!

After he gently sets the Host down again on the paten, the priest then genuflects to the Presence of Our Lord now on the altar.

He then takes the cup. And again, the priest bends low, and speaks into the chalice… as the Spirit once hovered over the waters in the beginning of creation, the Spirit now breaths onto the surface of the wine:

“Take this, all of you, and drink from it. For this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the New and Eternal Covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.”

He then slowly elevates the chalice and the bells are rung again. He is lifting up the Precious Blood that has been shed for many — which is to say: For ALL who are willing to accept Jesus and follow Him. It’s the same Blood that dripped down the wood of the Cross. The same Blood that has forgiven every sin that ever has or ever will ever be committed!

The priest genuflects again in humble worship. The Eucharistic prayer goes on. Until finally, we come to the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer, which is called the Doxology.

And the priest lifts up the Host and the Chalice together, chanting: 

“Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.”

What are we doing? — We are lifting up the PERFECT and COMPLETED sacrifice to the Father… It is finished! Into your hands we commend our spirits! We offer everything through Jesus, with Jesus, and in Jesus!!! All glory and honor is yours forever and ever!!!

And the people respond with the GREAT Amen. 

It ought to truly be GREAT… it ought to be powerful… it ought to shake the whole church with holy joy!!!!

Because what we’ve just participated in — what Christ has just accomplished for us — is THE most important thing that could ever take place. It’s what reorders our chaos, heals our relationship with God, and makes the whole world new again.

But this is where I must leave you for now…

Next week, we all know… is Christmas.

ChristMass itself.

We don’t have to wait much longer now…

We will conclude our tour of the liturgy then.