Week 3: The Kyrie, the Gloria, and the Liturgy of the Word

On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Even though I am spending this month covering the Mass, I must say a word about today’s feast day. To exalt the Cross of Christ is a very strange thing, if you look at it from an outsider’s perspective. From the eyes of a non-Christian, the Crucifix depicts a barbaric moment of torture. But those who know Christ know that it depicts something entirely different: love. Out of love, our Lord and King entered into this world. He took the burden and the curse of sin and death entirely upon himself. Death tried to take Him who is the author of life itself. And humanity did its best to assist death.

If we stop there, the crucifix is a reminder to the darkness and the savagery to which the human heart can fall. But we know that it does not stop there. Because the Crucifix is not the end of the story. When death tried to take Jesus, death itself was conquered. The force of sin was crushed. Human nature, which God had taken on, was freed from its shackles. And it all happened through the love of our God.

And so today, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we must fittingly say: “We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”

We relive this moment of redemption at every Mass, and so now let us turn our attention to the Mass itself.

On the Mass

Last week, I spoke about Sacred Music and how it both gives praise to God and lifts our hearts by speaking in a way beyond the capability of words. This, however, is just the beginning.

In John’s Gospel, we are reminded that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (3:17) At the beginning of the Mass, we are reminded of this reality as we prepare ourselves for the sacred mysteries. We start by acknowledging our sins. In the Confiteor, “I confess…”, we admit to God that we recognize our sin and ask for pardon of that sin.

We continue to ask God for pardon of our sin as we move into the “Kyrie, eleison” and ask our Lord to have mercy on us. The Kyrie, like many things in Mass, finds its origin before the terrible schism between the eastern and western churches. It is, likely, a shortened form of a litany that was sung by the people as they begin the Mass. In the early centuries of the Church, when the liturgy was translated into the language of the people–Latin–, the Kyrie remained in Greek.

On most Sundays and on Feast days, we then sing the Gloria. The Gloria is sometimes called “The Hymn of the Angels”, because it begins with the words that the angels sung when they learned of Christ’s birth. The Gloria was translated into Latin in the mid 300s, and we have records of its use in the early 100s. This is truly an ancient and wondrous hymn of praise to God. It is no mistake it follows immediately after we ask God to have mercy on us for our sins. God sent his Son to save us from sin and death, and this hymn expresses the joy of our hearts at the salvation God has won to us.

After the Gloria, we pray the “Collect” prayer. This prayer gathers up the prayers of all gathered in worship and asks for God to hear us and bless us as we continue to worship him in the Mass. During this prayer, the priest holds his hands in what is called the “orans” position. This posture of prayer, where the priests extends his hands, is proper only to the priest at Mass. Many of us have heard that the priest acts “in persona Christi” at Mass, the the priest acts in the person of Christ as he offers the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Son to the Father with the Holy Spirit on the altar. Some of have heard that the priest acts “alter Christus”, where by virtue of his ordination the priest acts as another face of Christ to bring mercy, blessing, and judgment to God’s people. Many people do not know that the priest also is called to intercede for God’s people constantly at the altar. This is what the priest expresses when he holds his hands in the “orans” position: that he is interceding on behalf of the people as another Christ, in the person of Christ, before God the Father with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Next we encounter the readings from Sacred Scripture. The various lessons and epistles remind us of God’s activity in history. God has not left us to our own devices, he constantly calls us back to himself. If we accept his offer of salvation, he never fails to assist us in returning to him. The Gospel, most of all, reminds us of this victory Christ has won and teaches us how to follow him.

Traditionally, the Gospel is intentionally proclaimed facing north. If you go north from Jerusalem, where the first Christian liturgies were celebrated, you run into the mountains and high places. These are where the pagan gods–who are actually demons–were considered to live. By proclaiming the Gospel to the North we proclaimed victory over the false idols of the pagans. The word “Gospel” is a translation of the Greek “evangelion” which, prior to its use by the gospel writers, was only used during the triumphal march of Roman emperors when they returned to Rome after defeating their enemies. The gospel writers, in using this term, were equating Christ with the emperor. They were saying that these are proclamations of victory over the forces of sin and death.

This practice continued as the Church found its way Rome, not only because the pagan gods were also thought to live in the high places north of Rome, but because the pagan barbarians lived north of Rome too. The Church recognized that the Good News of Salvation must be preached to these pagans so that they might receive God’s offer of salvation as well. By seeking to proclaim the Gospel to the north, the Church teaches us that the Gospel is both a proclamation of victory over sin and death and a message of salvation from these evils to all who hear the Good News. Church architecture often prevents this from happening now, but up until the liturgical changes in the 1970s, there was always some sense that we should at least attempt to follow this tradition.

After the Gospel, the priest will preach his homily or sermon. The Church teaches that this preaching should sanctify the people, glorify God, and assist the people to participate more deeply in the Mass.

The culmination of the first part of Mass is the Creed, proclaimed on Sundays and major feasts. This Creed expresses and summarizes our Catholic faith. In ancient times, those not fully initiated into the Church would be escorted out of the Church at this time. There were many reasons for this. In ancient days, it helped to protect those at Mass from persecution. Later, it was because those not in full communion with the Church cannot participate in the sacrifice of the Mass that was to follow. These days, we allow non-Catholics to witness the Eucharistic sacrifice of our Lord, hoping that they will see in this sacrifice the glory and power of God, and that their hearts will be filled with the grace of God and one day join us fully as Catholics.

← Week 2: Sacred Music and Processions · All weeks · Week 4: The Eucharistic Prayer →