After the homily at Mass, we recite the Creed together. Soon after, the offertory and preparation of the altar changes. This is an important shift in the focus of the Mass. In the most ancient days, the various inquirers, catechumens, and penitents would be dismissed from Mass at this point. At some point before the turn of the first millennium, this dismissal was dropped from the Mass. After the liturgical revisions that followed Vatican II, this dismissal returned to the Mass, even if it is only in Lent. But why does this happen in the first place? Why this dismissal of the various groups of people who are not a part of the Church, or whose communion with the Church has been compromised?

For many ages, the Church has maintained a separation between these two portions of the Mass. Before the offertory and preparation of the gifts, we celebrate what we now call the “Liturgy of the Word.” In past time, we’d call this the “Fore-Mass” or the “Mass of the Catechumens.” This portion of our Mass find its roots in Nehemiah 8, which we read on January 26 at Mass. The priest Ezra, desiring to increase the people’s Love of God and to encourage them to follow God’s law, read the Law of God to the people. Hearing the Word of God moved the people to weeping, for they heard of the great things God had done for them, of the promises God had made to them, and of their failure to heed God’s word. During the Liturgy of the Word, we allow the living and effective Word of God to fill us with grace and to instruct our hearts. The Church teaches us that hearing God’s Word at Mass should have two effect on us: our love for the Word of God should increase and it should prepare us to more fruitfully witness the miracle of the Eucharist that will soon follow.

If we continue reading Nehemiah 8, we see that the people, after hearing the Word of God, began to eat, drink and celebrate with great joy. We, similarly, move from hearing the Word to celebrating it in our hearts with a communal meal in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Liturgy of the Eucharist, also called the “Sacrifice-Mass”, the “Communion of the Faithful”, or the “Mass of the Faithful” begins at the offertory. Writing around the year 155AD, Justin Martyr describes reading from the “memoirs of the apostles” and then of bread and wine being brought forward, prayed over, and distributed to the people in chapter 67 of his First Apology. In chapters 65 and 66, he makes it quite clear that these prayers change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. The focus shifts from the proclamation and celebration of the Word of God to the sacrificial worship of God. We hear in chapter 2 of Acts of the Apostles that they would gather for the breaking of the bread, and in chapters 9 and 14 of the Didache, written around 100AD, we learn that these gatherings were gatherings to bring forward offerings and share in the Eucharist.

In the ancient practice of the Church, those not fully initiated into the Church or those who were in the Order of Penitents were dismissed from the celebration at this point, because in it we enter into the Holy of Holies and see God face-to-face as we bring the sacrifice of Christ into the here and now. The miracle of the Eucharist is so common to us Catholics that we do not recognize the incredible power of what is happening: God comes down from Heaven to visit his people. We then offer this gift back to God as a community. This is an inherently priestly activity, and so we must be baptized priests of the New Covenant in order to offer this worship to God. Furthermore, the Bible continually instructs us of the danger of being in God’s presence. In Leviticus 10, the priests Nadab and Abihu were consumed by God’s fire because they offered an incense sacrifice that was “unauthorized.” The priests had not prepared themselves to be in God’s presence by purifying themselves both ritually and morally, and they did not follow the dictates of the laws of sacrifice given by God. They learned, the hard way, that these laws were not mere ceremonial observances, but to prepare them to be in the presence of God. In 1 Corinthians 11:28-31, the Didache, and Justin Martyr’s Apology, we see this same sentiment echoed: do not approach the Eucharist without discerning your heart and purifying yourself, lest you suffer the fate of Nadab and Abihu.

Lent is about a month away, and now is a good time to start considering our Lenten observances. When considering our Lenten practices, a good place to begin is by asking: how can I prepare myself to more fully prepare to encounter God in his Word and in the Eucharist at Mass?

Fr. Matt

P.S.: You can read the Didache and Justin Martyr’s First Apology here: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/