Joe Six Pack

Seeing the Mass as sacrifice more than supper

02/06/2023

Mk 6:53-56 After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

In this week’s Arkansas Catholic newspaper you will find a fascinating article about the trends in Catholics attending Mass. We are not talking about the CEO Catholics, who come on “Christmas and Easter Only”. Rather, these statistics are about Joe Six Pack in the pews, who comes every Sunday (you and me). The statistics start in 2010 and conclude in 2022 (last year).

The bad news is that the trend was gradually decreasing from 2010 to 2019, when the pandemic hit. In 2010, 59,581 Catholics attended Mass on Sunday in Arkansas and by 2019 it was down to 51,433. The good news (and it’s not great news) is that from the low attendance during the pandemic of 30,427, we have only returned to Mass attendance of 45,855. In other words, from 2010 to 2022, a total of 13,726 fewer Catholics are going to Mass every Sunday. Joe Six Pack has not come back.

I was asked to answer a few questions and in that way I contributed to that article. But I would also like to share a few thoughts about Joe Six Pack in the pews and why he should go to Mass. Fr. Tribou, the no-nonsense principal at Catholic High during my years there, taught us boys why we should go to Mass. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. He said, “You go to Mass to give something, not to get something. You go to Mass to give some of your time, some of your love, some of your prayer and praise.”

In other words, Fr. Tribou was trying to teach us Joe Six Packs that Mass is essentially a sacrifice even more than it is a supper (which it certainly is). And we have lost the sense of sacrifice because since 1965 and Vatican II, we have emphasized the sense of supper, almost exclusively. What does the Mass feel more like to you: a sacrifice or a supper? Joe Six Pack would answer the Mass is obviously a supper. Sadly, we have all but lost the sense of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And this loss results in some radical implications.

For example, what would you say is the most important moment of the Mass? Well, Joe Six Pack would probably say it is when we receive Holy Communion; why else are we here? Now, that moment is extremely important, to be sure, but it is not the most important. Rather, the climax of the Mass is when the priest raises the Sacred Host and Chalice and intones the doxology, saying: “Through him, with him, and in him, o God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all praise and glory for ever and ever.” And the people respond, “Amen!”

That doxology is the apex of the Eucharistic liturgy, when all mankind offers to God the Father the one and only pleasing sacrifice, namely, Jesus himself. Offering that sacrifice is why Catholics must go to Mass every Sunday, and we fulfill that obligation whether or not we receive Holy Communion at Sunday Mass. In other words, we go to Mass to give something (a sacrifice) not to get something (a supper).

Here is another example of how the supper side eclipses the sacrifice side of the Mass. Did you know that we prepare for Spanish Masses very differently than we prepare for English Masses? This is a running joke among the sacristans. The main difference is how many hosts we consecrate at Mass. At English Masses we need almost as many hosts are there are people. But at Spanish Masses we need less than half of the number of people present. Why?

Well, there are lots of reasons, but here is the one I think is paramount. Many English-speaking Catholics come to Mass because we are here to receive Holy Communion (the supper). But many Spanish-speaking are here to offer something to God: their time, their love, their prayer and praise (a sacrifice), even if they don’t receive Holy Communion. Jose Six Pack is still in the pew! Now, most Spanish-speaking Catholics might not put it that way, but deep-down they sense the sacrifice of the Mass is still more essential than the supper of the Mass.

Here is a last example of trying to see the sacrifice as superior to the supper. When non-Catholics come to Mass, what are they most disappointed about? They are deeply disappointed they cannot receive Holy Communion. They feel like we Catholics judge their faith and are saying in effect that they are second-class Christians. We usually try to help Joe Six Pack Protestant by saying something like, “Gosh, we sure wish we could give you Communion, but darn it, we just can’t! Because we all know getting Communion is the most important part of the Mass.” Right? Wrong.

But there again we emphasize the supper which eclipses the sacrifice. In other words, in the most critical and fundamental sense, a Protestant can participate in the Mass almost as much as a Catholic when he or she realizes the Mass is a sacrifice even more than it is a supper. That is, even if he cannot get Communion, he can still give a sacrifice. After the priest intones the doxology, all Protestants at Mass can respond “Amen!” every bit as much as Catholics can. Why? Because Joe Six Pack Protestant has come to give something more than to get something.

My friends, I am not happy about the downward trend in Mass attendance in Arkansas, and I hope and pray more Catholics will start going to Mass. But maybe this hiatus will help us to see why we go to Mass in the first place, namely, to offer to the Father the eternal and perfect sacrifice of his Son, Jesus, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Praised be Jesus Christ!