The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 183: The Mass of All Ages (2024)

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

Celebrating the sacrament of the Eucharist has been part of the Tradition of the Catholic Church for 2,000 years. Fr. Mike unpacks the citation from St. Justin Martyr's First Apology, which beautifully describes the structure of the Mass in AD 155 and captures how the Early Church had the same understanding of the Eucharist as we do today. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 1341-1347. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together to our heavenly home. This is Day 183. We're reading paragraphs 1341 to 1347. I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism which includes the foundations

of faith approach but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY and you can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications because today is day 183. We are continuing to talk about the great gift, the great sacrament of the Eucharist and the fact that Jesus has given us this to do in memory of Him. That's what we're talking about.

That Jesus has commanded us to repeat His words and actions until He comes, which is not only ask us to remember what Jesus did, but to do it, to participate in it. And that is what we're talking about today. In fact, we're also gonna talk about the fact that, huh, this is so cool. There's this extended kind of, I wanna say quote, that quote is too kind of a small of a word. It's a citation.

It's a citation, that's what it is. It is a clip from a letter written by Saint Justin Martyr. And Saint Justin was writing to the pagan emperor Antoninus Pius around the year 155, explaining what Christians did, explaining how Christians worship. Again, this was 155, so pretty early on in the Christian life. And Saint Justin Martyr is describing,

okay, if you wanna know, you're an outsider, what do we believe? What are we doing when we come together and worship? This is what we're doing. And that's going to be clutch as they could said back in the day, maybe in the eighties, something like that. It's going to be pretty important for us to understand this in order to know what's happening at the mass. Now 2000 years later, the same thing, the same mystery,

the same participation in the most amazing gift that God's ever given us. So to prepare our hearts and minds for this, let's say a prayer. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thanks. We ask you in the name of your son Jesus Christ, receive our thanks, receive our praise. Help us to receive you. Help us to receive your son's gift, the gift of your son himself in the Eucharist, body, blood, soul and divinity at every Mass we ever attend. Help us to participate in the worship of you, Father, as we continue to offer up the great sacrifice, once for all sacrifice of your Son to you in the power of the Holy Spirit that's given to us to participate in an unbloody way at every single Mass.

Lord God, help us put our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength into worship of you so that we can love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength into worship of you so that we can love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. For you are love and you are God. It all comes from you. It all goes back to you. You are all in all. May you be praised forever, Father. We make this prayer in Jesus' name, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is Day 183. We are reading paragraphs 1341 to 1347.

Do this in memory of me. The command of Jesus to repeat His actions and words until He comes does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what He did. It is directed at the liturgical celebration by the apostles and their successors of the memorial of Christ, of His life, of His death, of His resurrection, and of His intercession in the presence of the Father. From the beginning, the Church has been faithful to the Lord's command. Of the Church of Jerusalem it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers of the Apostles, they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship,

to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts. It was, above all, on the first day of the week, Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, that the Christians met to break bread. From that time on down to our own day, the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere in the church with the same fundamental structure. It remains the center of the church's life. Thus, from celebration to celebration, as

they proclaim the paschal mystery of Jesus until he comes, the pilgrim people of God advances following the narrow way of the cross toward the heavenly banquet, when all the elect will be seated at the table of the kingdom. The Liturgical Celebration of the Eucharist. The Mass of All Ages. As early as the second century, we have the witness of St. Justin Martyr for the basic lines of the order of the Eucharistic celebration. They have stayed the same until our own day for all the great liturgical families. St. Justin wrote to the pagan emperor

Antoninus Pius, who reigned from 138 to 161 around the year 155, explaining what Christians did. He wrote, On the day we call the Day of the Sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read as much as time permits. When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things. Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves and for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation. When the prayers are concluded, we exchange the kiss.

Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren. He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and for a considerable time He gives thanks, in Greek, Eucharistain, that we have been judged worthy of these gifts. When He has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying Amen. When He who presides has given thanks, and the people have responded, those whom we call

deacons give to those present the Eucharisted bread, wine and water, and take them to those who are absent. The Liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a fundamental structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day. It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity, the gathering, the Liturgy of the Word with readings, homily, and general intercessions, the liturgy of the Eucharist with the presentation of the bread and wine, the consecratory, thanksgiving, and communion. The liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of

the Eucharist together form one single act of worship. The Eucharistic table set for us is the table both of the Word of God and of the body of the Lord. Is this not the same movement as the Paschal meal of the risen Jesus with his disciples? Walking with them, he explained the Scriptures to them. Sitting with them at table, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Alright, there we have it, paragraphs 1341 to 1347, as we have this recognition that Jesus had told us to do this in memory of Him. We're not just

repeating His actions and words, we're not just remembering what Jesus did, we are participating in His actions. And this is so incredibly critical and this started from the very, very beginning. Paragraph 1342 highlights Acts chapter 2, verse 42, is I would say mission, because what it highlights is the fact that this is the marker of those disciples of Jesus. From the very beginning, the disciples of Jesus devoted themselves, they devoted their lives to these four things.

It says here, to the teaching of the apostles, to the fellowship of the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Those four things, apostles teaching, the fellowship, breaking of the bread and prayers. Now, those four markers are markers of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus what it is to be a Christian from the very beginning So what the Apostles teaching that's what we've been doing right? We've been focusing on the Apostles teaching great job Secondly the fellowship or the communal life

They've been taking care of each other and also taking care of the people around them who are in need Widows orphans and that's our call to as Christians our call is to take care of those around them who are in need. Widows, orphans, and that's our call too as Christians. Our call is to take care of those around us who are in need. So our motto is see a need, fill a need. That's what it is to be a Christian. Third, the breaking of the bread. And that is code from the very beginning. To break bread is code for the Eucharist. This is so critical that we understand this. From the very beginning, breaking the bread is not just having a meal It is the Eucharist and lastly the prayer life So these are the markers of every person who is called to be a disciple of Jesus

We're called to devote ourselves the Apostles teaching right the Magisterium the teaching of the church the communal life taking care of those around Us taking of our own families and keep our parish taking care of those people around us Who are in need the breaking of the bread devoted to the Eucharist, to the Mass, and to the prayer life. These four things. I love the fact that it says here, they devoted their lives to these things. That being a Christian is not simply being part of a club, right? It's not this kind of the group I go to. This is my Tuesday group. This is my Sunday group. Being a Christian means I devote my life to these four things. The Apostles teaching, the communal life, taking care of those around me,

the breaking of the bread, the mass, and the prayers. It's so, so important. And we do this until the Lord comes. This is important because some of the times people will say, well, so the Sabbath is a Saturday, you guys meet on Sunday, how did that shift? Well, I think we talked about this before. The primary, maybe the only reason,

is because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday. And so this becomes the Lord's day. This is his day, the day he triumphed over the grave and appeared to his apostles. And this is so critical. So we celebrate down the first day of the week, Sunday, the day of the Lord's resurrection. That's when Christians would meet to participate in the Eucharist.

This extended quote, this clip, as we said, the citation of a Saint Martyr to the pagan emperor is not only valuable, I think it's invaluable as they would say because it shows from the very beginning in the second century, the year 155, that if you've ever been to mass, he just described the mass you've been to. But this is from 155.

So sometimes people will think that Catholics, you kind of, you know, what you guys do at Mass, this is kind of a medieval invention or this is kind of a, has been twisted over time. And the reality of course, is that in every one of the rites of the Catholic Church, they follow the same structure that St. Justin is describing, they were living from the very, very beginning.

Now, Justin goes on to describe what it is we believe that we're doing when it comes to the Eucharist. In fact, in his first apology, his first defense, he writes this. He writes, This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except the one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink.

But as Jesus Christ our Savior, being incarnate by God's Word, took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from Him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus." That's a long quote, but I just, it is worth noting a couple things here. Justin Martyrs giving us the structure, right, of the Mass. So we have, you know, kind of written down evidence that this is the tradition of the Church, given to the, from the very beginning.

But also, he states in this first apology, But also, he states in this first apology, the food he called the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except the one who believes the things we teach are true, has received the washing for forgiveness of sins from rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. We recognize that, you know, sometimes people think like, well, as an expression of solidarity,

as an expression of hospitality, you just offer the Eucharist to anyone who wants it. Now, obviously, God's gift of salvation, God's gift of himself is for anyone who asks, but from the very beginning there have always been some conditions. There's got to be initiation. There's got to be, you have to believe what we've been believing. We have to believe what we believe and have to be united. This is so, so critical for us to understand that yes, Jesus Christ died for all. He's given his Eucharist himself for all and yet, we don't believe that this is just ordinary food.

We believe that even as Justin said, he says, we believe that this truly is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. And so if someone doesn't believe that, or they're not united to the church, or that living as Christ taught us for them to receive the body and blood of Christ is To be in danger of receiving condemnation on themselves

This was st. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians And so it's not cruel for the church to say that no you have to be in union with the church to receive Holy Communion Again that goes all the way back to the year 155. It's not cruel. It's not excessive. It's actually, I believe, an act of love. Justin goes on to say, as I just said, that we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink, but as Jesus Christ, our Savior, being incarnate by God's Word, took flesh and blood for our salvation. So also we have been taught that the food

consecrated by the word of prayer, which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are being nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus, which is what a gift. That's all I can say. All I can say is what a gift. And so we have the two parts of the one liturgy, right? The liturgy of the Word, where we have the gathering,

the proclamation of God's word, explanation of that, intercessions, and then the liturgy of the Eucharist, where we bring the bread and wine, and we have the consecration and Holy Communion. Those two parts of the liturgy, the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the Eucharist, form one single liturgy, one single act of worship, and that's we get to participate all the time.

And I love this. At the end of Luke's gospel, they have the disciples on the road to Emmaus, right? They are downcast. This is the first day of the week. This is Easter Sunday. And Cleopas and his companion are walking seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

And Jesus appears to them, although they don't recognize him. So what are you talking about? And they say, don't you know the things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene? We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. And then Jesus points out, did you not know? Messiah had to suffer all these things

so enter into his glory. And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he revealed to them all that spoke of him in the scriptures. So that's the liturgy of the word, right? Proclamation of the Word, explanation. They get to where they were going, they invite him inside, and then he took bread, blessed and broke it, and their eyes are open,

and they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. So the Liturgy of the Eucharist. And so in the Road to Emmaus, that story, you have the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and that's, as we say in Minnesota, pretty neat. So here we are today, you guys, day 183. You know what this is?

You just made it past halfway. Because here we are at the end of day 183. You made it past halfway, unless I'm bad at math, which I am, but I think this is it. I think this is the day. So congratulations you guys. Well done. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.

My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.