The Christ and His Mass

by Thomas A. Droleskey

The commemoration of the Nativity of Our Lord as a helpless Babe in Bethlehem today, December 25, should fill each and every Catholic with inexpressible joy. Though he did not merit such a great gift, man was the recipient of the gift of the Word, Who was made Flesh in Our Lady’s virginal and immaculate womb at the moment of the Incarnation, to dwell amongst us as He was born in utter poverty and placed to rest in the cradle in the stable in the cave in the City of David. Angels announced the news to the shepherds that the Good Shepherd Himself had been born. They knelt down to adore Him as they found Him in the wood of the manger next to His Most Blessed Mother and His foster-father, Saint Joseph.

The events of Bethlehem, although they occurred once in time 2006 years ago, are in a real way renewed every time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered. Our Lord is born for us under the appearances of bread and wine. He is truly present in every particle of the Eucharistic species, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity just His Sacred Divinity was united hypostatically to the perfect human nature He assumed from Our Lady when she uttered her perfect fiat to the will of the Father at the Annunciation. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity showed forth the radiance and splendor of the glory He had with the Father from all eternity in His Holy Face, so full of earthly innocence and divine majesty. He is hidden entirely under the appearance of bread and wine in Holy Communion. His Sacred Divinity was hidden from the view of men as He was placed gently into the manger, a feeding trough for animals, on Christmas Day.

It is, therefore, fitting that the Mass of Tradition, the Mass that has been handed down to us in all of its essential elements from Saint Peter himself, specifies the Preface of the Nativity of Our Lord be used for the Feast of Corpus Christi and for Votive Masses in honor of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Truly it is the case that each and every offering of the unbloody re-presentation of the Son to the Father in Spirit and in Truth in Holy Mass is a birth in time of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man at the hands of a sacerdos, acting in persona Christi. A mere man, uttering mere words over the mere elements of this passing earth brings God down on an altar under the appearance of bread wine. What a remarkable way to meditate upon Our Lord’s First Coming in time in Bethlehem.

This is what it is important, you see, to stress the word Christmas and to wish all a “Blessed Christmas” from first vespers on Christmas Eve right through the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 2, which is the end of the Christmas season, although it overlaps in 2008 with a very early start to the Season of Seputagesima (January 20, 2008) in preparation for Lent.on Ash Wednesday (February 6, 2008.) Our Lord became Man in Our Lady’s Virginal and Immaculate womb and was born in the wood of the manger in Bethlehem so as to offer Himself up on the wood of the Holy Cross, which has become the feeding trough from which we are fed by His own Flesh and Blood in Holy communion. The Father’s gift to us of His only-begotten Son on Christmas Day was meant to lead to the Sacrifice of the Cross for our redemption. And that Sacrifice of the Cross was meant to be perpetuated until the end of time in the greatest gift that Our Lord gave to the Apostles before He ascended to the Father’s right hand in glory, the Mass of all ages.

Every offering of Holy Mass encapsulates the entirety of the history of salvation. The prayers offered at the foot of the altar are symbolic of many things, one of them being the period of preparation in salvation history for the First Coming of Our Lord in His Incarnation and Nativity. The Confiteor and Kyrie express mankind’s watchfulness for the Coming of the Messiah, the One who would make it possible to overcome our sinfulness. Both of these ancient prayer speak of our need to rely on the Mercy that comes from the Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, the One Who came into the world as a spotless lamb to be shed to His slaughter with the silence of a sheep. The Gloria uses the very greeting of the angels to the shepherds on the first Christmas Day. Every time it is prayed at Holy Mass we should be reminded that the angels were speaking to us in our own day as well as the shepherds, that our hearts are meant to give God honor and glory in all of our thoughts, words and actions. The Epistle and Gospel remind us that God has spoken to us directly, completing the work of His Revelation in His own Person. Every single bit of the first part of the Mass, the Mass of the Catechumens, speaks to us of the simple fact that the shadow of the Holy Cross is meant to hover over all human activities at all times, just as it hovered over the cave in Bethlehem with the Chief Priest and Victim of every Mass was laid in a bed of straw in the cold of the night in the early hours of Christmas morning.

The Mass of the Faithful takes us deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation and Nativity, bringing Our Lord’s salvific work to its climax at the moment He is brought down on an altar and offered in an unbloody manner at the hands of an alter Christus. Our Lord did not enter into human history with His Sacred Humanity united to His Divinity to provide us with a merely sentimental remembrance of His birth of Christmas Day. Oh, no. He entered into human history, true God and true Man, to make it possible for all men to have belief in and access to His life-giving Sacrifice of Himself on the Wood of the Holy Cross for all ages until His Second Coming in glory at the end of time. The Mass, which is the unbloody perpetuation of Calvary and a foretaste of eternal glories, is the supreme work for which Our Lord chose to dwell amongst us, to go about the humble work of the manual labor of a carpenter so that He could re-fashion us on the wood upon which He was nailed to pay back the blood debt of our own sins.

Each Christmas Day, therefore, should make us appreciate, if you will, the Christ and His Mass, yes, the Mass that He taught the Apostles to say and that has been handed down to us from Saint Peter. It is the Immemorial Mass of Tradition that communicates clearly and unequivocally the Christocentric nature of the entirety of human history, that all men and their nations must pay the public homage to Christ the King was given by only a handful of men on the first Christmas Day.

We must love the Mass and make whatever sacrifices we need to make to assist exclusively at the Mass He gave us for our sanctification and salvation. As my dear wife is wont to say to those who protest about how long it takes them to seek out a Traditional Latin Mass, “Our Lady rode on a donkey while she was nine months pregnant to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem. You can’t get into an air-conditioned or heated car to drive forty of fifty miles?”

Our Lord was born on the first Christmas Day at a time when the most of the Jewish people imagined that the Messiah would manifest Himself clearly, not as a humble babe born to a poor carpenter and his wife. Most of the Jewish people expected that the Messiah would save them from the horrors of the oppressive occupation of their land by the Romans, not that He would save them from their sins and make it possible for them to have eternal life. Most of the Jewish people thought that the Messiah wold vanquish all of His earthly enemies, not go to supper with them, not seek to convert them, not seek to feed them with His own Flesh and Blood, of all things.

Our Lord is born for us in His Real Presence in every Mass in pretty much the same circumstances today, if you think about. Even Catholics, who belong to the New Zion, to the true heavenly city set on a hill, that is, the Catholic Church, look for political messiahs. They look for instant solutions to domestic and world problems, not believing that Our Lord has given us Faith in Him as He has revealed Himself to us through His Mystical Bride to be the basis of ameliorating all problems, personal and social. They do not believe that He is meant to reign as the King of all men and nations, choosing to trust in the princes of this world, placing more faith in them and their sordid “words” than they do in the immutable doctrine of His Social Kingship. Oh, yes, Our Lord is born for us in each Mass in pretty much the same circumstances as He was born once in time on Christmas Day.

Our Lady gave birth to her Son painlessly, not having to undergo the pain of childbirth as a result of her Immaculate Conception. She gave birth to us in great pain as the adopted sons and daughters of the Living God as she stood by the foot of the Cross, wounded by the sword of sorrow that pierced her Immaculate Heart through and through as had been prophesied by the aged Simeon at the end of the Christmas season. Our Lady wrapped her infant Son in swaddling clothes on Christmas Day after He had passed through her miraculously at His Brith. She wrapped the dead Body of her thirty-three year-old Son in the burial shroud after we had been redeemed on Good Friday. Our Lady made possible Christmas Day. Our Lady shared completely in the work of our Redemption as the Co-Redemptrix and the Medriatix of all graces. She was present at every moment of her Divine Son’s life on earth. She is present at every offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Also present at each Mass is the silent and the just man of the House of David, Saint Joseph, who cared for his foster-Child with the self-sacrifice love that is the model of all earthly fathers, both those who are the heads-of-families but those who are addressed as Fathers, the men who offer themselves sacrificially in order to administer the sacraments to us for the salvation of our souls. Saint Joseph, who did only what God wanted when God wanted it to be done, teaches us that our love for His foster-Child must be complete and abiding. He provided for his foster-Son’s human needs, thus bringing Him to the day on which He could provided for our eternal needs. Saint Joseph was rewarded for his complete devotion to his foster-Son and his Most Chaste Spouse, Our Lady, by being placed over us as the Patron of the Universal Church. Saint Joseph watches over his foster-Son in every Mass just as diligently as he did before he was called from this life prior to the beginning of Our Lord’s Public Ministry.

Every day is thus Christmas Day if we understand the meaning of the Nativity and its linkage to every true offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Although the “day,” liturgically, is an octave of eight days followed by a “season” of another thirty-two days, we must remember that God lives outside of time and space. True, He entered time once in the Flesh. True, each Mass is offered once in time by a particular priest in a particular church. Nevertheless, it is also true that each Mass is timeless, which is why its offering must reflect the eternal glories of God and not the fads of any particular culture or temporal novelty. Each Mass must reflect the splendor of the Nativity and the solemnity of the Redemption. In this sense, you see, yes, every day is Christmas Day.

May this Christmas Day and the great octave of feasts which around enveloped around it be an occasion for each one of us to love the Mass, to live the Mass, to pray the Mass, to keep Our Lady and Saint Joseph and all of the angels and saints company with the Mass. If the Mass if a foretaste of eternal glories, isn’t it a splendid thing to give God the gift of our love of it as He gives Himself to us in the inestimable gift of Holy Communion?

A Blessed Christmas to you all.

Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.

Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

The Holy Innocents, pray for us.

Saint Thomas a Becket, pray for us.

Pope Saint Sylvester I, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Agnes, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gregory Lalamont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

 

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.  Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with  the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels.  Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.  Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory.  That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.  These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered.  Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory.  They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.  Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church.  Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.