Mass Minions

Understanding why Catholics attend Mass  

Revelation 5:1-10  

           Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the seven spirits of God sent out into the whole world. He came and received the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.   

          I am almost afraid to admit this but I really love funeral Masses. I know that may sound macabre and morbid to many of you, but I really believe funeral liturgies not only comfort the family and loved ones of the deceased, but they also help us experience something heavenly. One priest said, “In the Catholic Church, we do funerals right!” What is so “right” about Catholic funerals? Well, at a funeral Mass, it’s not just the words of the homily that speak powerfully, but so do the symbols of holy water, the pall, the Easter candle, and especially the incense. Let me say a word about incense. 

  

          Some people hate the use of incense at Mass, and complain every time we use it. At a former parish, I’ll never forget one man who would very overtly cover his nose with handkerchief so everyone would see his dislike of incense. I love to explain, however, that incense brings out the biblical roots of the liturgy. Psalm 140 in the Old Testament mentions how incense rises like prayers to God, and Revelation 5 (today’s first reading) describes how 24 elders carry “gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.” In other words, using incense at Mass isn’t something that popes invented in the middle ages; it’s something that the angels invented in the eternity of heaven. When we attend a funeral Mass, we should feel that not only does the incense rise to heaven, but that we are lifted up to heaven, too. The Mass is where heaven and earth meet.   

          Listen to how Bishop Robert Barron, the popular preacher and writer, describes the special connection between the Bible and the Mass in the book of Revelation. He explains: “John the visionary gives us a glimpse into the heavenly court, and he sees priests, candles, incense, the reading of a sacred text, the gathering of thousands in prayer, and other gestures of praise and the appearance of the Lamb of God. He sees, in short, the liturgy of heaven, the play that preoccupies the angels and saints for all eternity” (Catholicism, 173-74). That is, when we go to Mass, we really go to heaven, and all the signs and symbols, the smells and bells, are divinely designed to transport us there.  

 

          May I just pause a moment and brag on our parishioners? I am so edified when I see so many people attending daily Mass, and at 7:00 a.m. You could have slept in an extra hour; you could have enjoyed another cup of coffee and read the sports section and the comics; you could have gone for a long walk, or caught up on the last episode of Game of Thrones or Walking Dead. But instead of any of that, you crawl out of bed and come to Mass. Why? Because for a few moments you get to go to heaven, and sit next to the angels. And I’m very proud of you.   

          Let me conclude with another excerpt from Barron’s book. He writes: “At the very beginning of her career, Flannery O’Connor, who would develop into one of the greatest Catholic writers of fiction in the twentieth century, sat down to dinner with Mary McCarthy and a group of other New York intellectuals. The young Flannery, clearly the junior member of this sophisticated circle, was overwhelmed and barely said a word all evening. McCarthy, a former Catholic, trying to draw O’Connor out, made a few nice remarks about the Eucharist, commenting that it was a powerful symbol. Flannery looked up and said in a shaky voice, ‘Well, if it’s only a symbol, I say to hell with it’” (Catholicism, 192). And that’s why Catholics crawl out of bed and go to morning Mass: either the Eucharist is everything or to hell with it.   

          Praised be Jesus Christ!