Pagan Temples Tremble

Discovering what is the principal purpose of Mass

03/12/2024

Jn 5:1-16 There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk." Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

It’s funny how some conversations we have, although they might be brief, are not only memorable but leave a lasting impression on us. I had one such conversation many years ago with my friend, Fr. Erik Pohlmeier, who is now the bishop of St. Augustine in Florida. We were talking about the Mass, and Bishop Pohlmeier asked me: “What do you think is the most important point of the Mass?”

And I answered, “I think it would be the consecration, when the matter of the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ.” But he disagreed, and said instead: “I think the central moment of the Mass is when the priest elevates the consecrated Bread and Wine at the Doxology and the people all respond, ‘Amen’.” Now which one of us do you think was right? All you have to remember is he is a bishop and I am not.

Over the years I have thought about that brief conversation and have become increasingly convinced that Bishop Pohlmeier was right. Why? Well, let me ask you that question. What do you think is the central, most important part of the Mass? Maybe you might reply: “Clearly, the most important moment is receiving Holy Communion!” And Communion is certainly crucial, but is that the main point and purpose of the Mass? Or, put it this way: is there any reason to come to Mass even if you cannot receive Holy Communion? Some Catholics might immediately reply: “Heck no! If I cannot receive Holy Communion why bother going to Mass?”

Well, if Communion is the point and purpose of the Mass, why do we make small children who haven’t made their first Holy Communion go to Mass? Why do so many non-Catholic spouses come to Mass even they cannot partake of Communion? Why do nearly half the Hispanic congregation go to Mass and yet decline to receive Holy Communion because they feel the need to go to confession first? In other words, some people come to Mass not primarily to receive Holy Communion, but for some other purpose. What is that particular purpose that pushes people to come sit in the pews?

I would suggest to you the answer is what Bishop Pohlmeier said: “The central moment of the Mass is the elevation of the Sacred Species and the response of the people “Amen!” That is, priest and people attend Mass in order to offer the heavenly Father perfect praise and worship. And there is nothing more perfect that we can offer God the Father than the sacrifice of God the Son at Mass. I will never forget how our high school principal, Fr. George Tribou, taught us: “You come to Mass to give something, not to get something.” The fundamental reason we are all attending Mass is to give God the only Thing he ultimately desires, namely, the unbloody sacrifice of his Son re-presented on every altar at Mass.

Jesus was referring to this moment of the Mass when he told the Samaritan woman in Jn 4:23, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.” In other words, the moment when people worship the Father as he desires, in Spirit and truth, happens at the elevation of the Mass. I remember Scott Hahn once saying that in the early Church the priest would sing the doxology and the people would literally shout “Amen!” so loudly that it would make the pagan temples tremble. That is, the early Christians understood what was the central most important part of the Mass far better than I do.

That brief conversation with Bishop Pohlmeier came to mind when I read the gospel today from John 5 and the story about the crippled man lying in the temple for thirty-eight years. What struck me about this man was his perseverance in going to the temple even though he did not immediately receive a healing. He explains: “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.”

He makes me think of all those small children who have not made their first Communion but still come to this temple, all those non-Catholic spouses who cannot receive Communion but still come to this temple, all those devout Hispanics who want to go to confession first but still come to this temple, and all those early Christians who came to the temple, not because they could receive something but because they believed their presence and praise could render to God the only Thing God desires, namely, worshipping God in Spirit and in truth.

That man finally received the healing he longed for, but that does not mean that his coming to the temple for those previous thirty-eight years was in vain. We come to Mass primarily to give something, not to get something. When we come to Mass with the attitude of “When do I get Holy Communion?” then we come as a consumer and not as a Christian. And we do not make any pagan temples tremble.

Praised be Jesus Christ!