|  Meditations Before Mass
by Romano Guardini
XII. The Sacred Act
FOLLOWING our discussion of
the sacred order of time and space, it would now be interesting to
turn to that which takes place in them: the act of the Mass itself.
But since we are going to consider the Mass in detail in Part II of
this book, only one aspect of it need to be mentioned here: the
nature of its action.
A religious act can have
various origins. What we desire most today is immediate experience.
Let us suppose that a group of people has just been rescued from
mortal danger. It is not difficult to imagine that in response to
some inner urge they grow still, remove their hats, or make some
other earnest gesture of reverence and gratitude to God. Their act
would be a direct expression of their experience, possible only at
that moment and for those particular people. Were it to be repeated,
it would at once become artificial and embarrassing.
The act could also spring
from the consciousness of a significant, regularly recurring hour:
for instance, after the labor, encounters, and providential
experiences of the day, before man enters upon the darkness of
sleep, which heralds death's long night. At this moment his impulse
is to pause, to collect and place himself in the hands of his Maker,
and if he has learned to heed such inner promptings, he will do so.
With the beginning of the day comes a similar impulse. Then too man
is conscious of the need to do something religious, to become
established in himself and turn to face what God expects of him
during the coming day. At the close of the old year, the opening of
the new, such an impulse, intensified, also makes itself felt. Acts
of this kind are repeatable, even under varying circumstances and by
different people; for they spring, not from a unique experience, but
from the recurrent rhythms of existence.
Finally, a religious act can
also be instituted, that is, some act can be made valid and
obligatory. Only he who possesses authority can institute with
genuine validity. God did so during the Exodus from Egypt, when He
commanded that the liberation be annually commemorated in the feast
of the Passover. It was during this commemoration, at the Last
Supper, that Christ instituted a second commemoration, that of His
death. His oneness with the Father's will, His life and salutary
destiny, His living, messianic reality all are expressed in the
words spoken over the bread and wine and in the common partaking of
the sacred food. And He instructed His followers to repeat it
forever: "As often as you shall do these things, in memory of
Me shall you do them." This is institution par excellence, the
core of Christian divine service. When God established the law of
the Passover, He instructed the people to offer sacrifice on a
certain day, celebrating together a feast commemorating their former
liberation from Egypt. This act, which emerged from the humanly
possible, received its real significance from divine direction. The
act Christ instituted is different. He did not say: "On a
certain day of the year you are to come together and share a meal in
friendship. Then shall the eldest bless bread and wine and invoke My
memory." Such an act would be similar to the Passover, issuing
from the humanly possible; only the event it was celebrating would
be divine. Christ spoke differently. His "do these things"
implies "things I have just done"; yet what He did
surpasses human possibility. It is an act of God springing as
incomprehensibly from His love and omnipotence as the acts of
Creation or the Incarnation. And such an act He entrusts to men! He
does not say: "Pray God to do thus," but simply "do."
Thus He places in human hands an act which can be fulfilled only by
the divine. Its mystery is similar to that of sacred time and place,
already discussed. Man acts; but in his human action is the act of
God. And not only in the general sense that God is present in all
human endeavor because all our reality and strength, wisdom and will
come from Him. This is a specific, historical act; here the word
"institution" has a special, unique significance. God
determined, proclaimed and instituted; man is to execute the act.
When he does so, God makes of it something of which He alone is
capable.
Subject to the divine nature
of the act is a certain human attitude, a certain indispensable
bearing. If something of the origin and freshness of the experience
is to be transmitted, the individual must be aware of what is
happening and have the vigor to express it. Its expression must be
credible, vital, genuine, powerful in word and gesture. If the act
is to be related significantly to regularly returning hours or
seasons, the participant must feel the truth of the relation and of
the mystery behind it. He must have an expression for it that
remains valid through all the variations of the hours. For the
institutional act one other thing is necessary: not creative
experience and repeatable expression, not the constantly renewed
realization of its existential significance in our lives, but
obedience to the will of the Institutor. It is for men to "hear"
the Lord and to do as He commands. It is service, as independent of
personal experience as of comprehension of its natural significance.
It is service in faith and obedience. It is not an independent human
act, but acceptance of a divine undertaking that prepares a place
for it, shapes for it a body of earthly cooperation. In the
profoundest sense of the word it is a selfless act whereby man
arrives at his true self. That is why the act of the Mass can be
renewed time and again under the most varied circumstances of
general as well as personal history, in hours of spiritual abundance
and of spiritual need, in affliction and mourning or in freedom and
joy.
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