Meditations Before Mass
by Romano Guardini

XXV. Reality

AT THE Last Supper we saw how the Lord established institution upon institution: the memorial of His saving love and its covenant between God and the new holy people upon the memorial of the liberation from Egypt under the old covenant, now completed. For He "to whom all power" and authority has been given declares it terminated, since all that it promised and prepared for has been fulfilled. Now the new, valid, commemorative feast is there, to remain "until the Lord returns" at the end of time. Those who believe in Him are to come together and "do this," to do exactly what He did on that last evening. The command involves Him too; for when His followers obey and do, what happened then will happen again, just as when He Himself acted. They are to take bread, give thanks, bless it and speak over it the words He spoke. They are to take the chalice and again thank, bless, speak as He did. Not anyone is entitled to do this, but those whom Jesus addressed at that time, His table-companions at the last Passover, the apostles, to whom He had already committed His authority (see Matt. 10); after them, those to whom they in turn would pass on their powers, the bishops and their assistants in the divine office, the priests. What these bearers of office do will be no private act. The whole concept of office suggests something that lies not in the sphere of the personally creative or the spontaneous, but in the law and in the delegation of authority. An office exists not for its bearer, but for all, for the whole. When the priest performs what the Lord commanded, all act with him, so that after the Lord's death one can truly say that "they," the believers, "continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles and in the communion of the breaking of the bread and in the prayers" (Acts 2:42). "And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread in their houses, they took their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and being in favor with all the people" (Acts 2:46-47).

From this we see that at the time the Christians were still living in the old order, observing the prescribed services of the temple as the others did. They had not yet realized that the temple with its services, together with the entire order of the Old Testament, was ended and that a new life-pattern was slowly taking shape. Already the little community has something entirely of its own, the ceremonial breaking of bread "in their houses." In all probability, groups of early Christians met in homes large enough for the purpose. At first there was simply an ordinary meal, an expression of fraternal unity and a means of helping the poorer among them. Sometimes however, probably on Sundays, the meal took on a special, festive note (see Acts 20:7). It was always a real meal, though judging from St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, it was not always an entirely spiritual affair! The Epistle is concerned chiefly with current abuses, but it also suggests how those gatherings were supposed to be, and how-at least in the beginning-they usually were. The believers shared together the Agape or meal of love and community in the sight of God, to which each contributed something. On Sundays and special days the celebration, longer and more impressive, was deeply imbued with the memory of the Lord. On those days the one who presided over the meal, the apostle or his representative, related the story of Jesus' life and teaching and salutary death. In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, for instance, we see St. Paul urging the believers not to forget that they "proclaim the death of the Lord" whenever they partake, the proclamation referring to the solemn pronouncement and praise of the sacred mysteries to follow. Here again the old Passover tradition of the host's reverent account of the exodus from Egyptian slavery is terminated and supplanted by the new message of our liberation through Jesus Christ.

Then, at a certain moment in the meal, the Lord's representative took bread and the cup, acting as the Lord had commanded him to do. Before this it has been commemoration in the spirit, a speaking and hearing, weighing and accepting: now it is still commemoration, but of a totally different kind. For that which was commemorated during the first part of the Mass was not actually present, save in the imagination of the believers, in the continually efficacious love and grace which stirred in their hearts and souls. Now the significance of the event changes. The moment the priest as the Lord's representative, speaks the words, "This is my body" What is "commemorated" is also actually present in truth and in reality.

"This is my body," "this is my blood"; under no circumstance may the "is" in these holiest of sentences be interpreted as "means" or "is a symbol of" my body and blood. If ever the Lord's admonition, "Let your speech be, 'Yes, yes'; 'No, no'; and whatever is beyond these comes from the evil one" was deeply urgent, it is here. It is not only wrong but sacrilegious to tamper with these words. What they express is simplest truth, and what takes place pure reality. He who speaks them is neither a "great" nor "the greatest" religious personality of millenia, but the Son of God. His words are no expression of mystical profundity, but a command of Him who has all earthly and heavenly power. They have no equivalent in human speech, for they are words of Omnipotence. We can compare them only with other words of the Lord, when "he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there came a great calm" (Matt. 8:26); or, to the leper, "I will, be thou made clean" (Matt. 8:3); or to Jairus' dead child, "Girl, arise!" (Luke 8:54). Their real equivalent is the Father's "Be" (light made) from which creation itself emerged. (See the first chapter of Genesis.) Christ gave these sacred words to those He delegated to guard and execute His memorial. Their origin does not lie in the priest or bishop who speaks them but in Christ, Who gave them to priest and bishop. Yet because they are God-given (given entirely) through grace, they become the priest's own words when he speaks them in obedience to Christ. Hence the Mass is a commemoration, but a commemoration of a very special kind. By the words of the Transubstantiation, what took place on Maundy Thursday, Christ's gift of self as nourishment for eternal life, takes place again-in a form which also outwardly resembles the Savior's act on that holy night.

The commemoration of the Mass is unique. Since it does not exist at all on the human level, it is impossible to judge it from here, or to "compare" it with other apparently similar religio-symbolic acts. Who are we to define the limits of its possibilities? All we can do is to "hear," for what is taking place is revelation. And it could not be revealed more simply or directly; there can be no question of symbolism here. The apostles were no modern psychologists or symbolists, but men of antiquity, whose thinking was characteristically objective and realistic. They had not forgotten the great speech at Capharnaum in which Jesus had insisted (for many to the point of intolerability) on the fact that He was to offer Himself as real food and real drink, thus forcing His followers to an uncompromising either-or of faith. There is not a trace of symbolism in the Acts of the Apostles or in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, or in any of the earliest Christian writing on this sacred mystery. Without exception it is taken as revelation, which we cannot call into question, asking whether it be possible. It is a communication and a command of God, for whom all things are possible. Our attitude can be neither that of testing nor of criticizing; it can only be that of belief, and belief implies obedience. As it is a question of mystery, we must acknowledge it solely because of God's word. As soon as we lose sight of this fact, everything is lost. That is why there is the call of warning and reminding just prior to the heart of the Mass, the Consecration: the call "mysterium fidei." Don't forget: we have here a mystery of the faith!

This cry, this call reminds us of the speech at Carpharnaum, where the same possibility of rejecting salvation had been displayed:

Many of his disciples therefore, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were murmuring at this, said to them, "Does this scandalize you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some among you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was who should betray him. And he said, "This is why I have said to you, 'No one can come to me unless he is enabled to do so by my Father.' " From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. Jesus therefore said to the Twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter therefore answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of everlasting life, and we have come to believe and to know that thou art the Christ, the Son of God" (John 6:60-69).