The last time we left off, we were reflecting upon our participation in the "Communion of Saints" at mass. All who believe in Christ as Savior and Lord are united to Him and to each other. We pray that our unity may be complete. Christ holds His faithful to Himself in this world (The Church Militant). He holds to Himself the souls in purgatory (The Church Suffering) and He holds most closely and intimately those already in Heaven (The Church Triumphant). As we approach the moment when bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ (which is called the Consecration) the Communion of Saints is realized. Where Christ is present, there are His saints in glory, the holy souls in purgatory and all of us struggling in this world. As I have said before the mass transcends space and time. Peri Lamy, a French priest and visionary who lived up until the 1930's, would have conversations not only with our Lord and Lady, but also with saints and angels during mass. What was open to His eyes visibly is open to our eyes in faith.

It is the consecration that actualizes Christ's presence. The consecration refers to the words of our Lord when He instituted the Blessed Sacrament the night before He died. Those words are found in 1 Corinthians and in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In a real sense the mass only really starts at this point since only with His words spoken by the priest is Christ made present. A big word that needs to be reinstated in our Catechetical instructions is "Transubstantiation". It is a big word but it simply means that after the priest speaks the words: "This is My Body" and "This is My Blood" that the appearances of bread and wine remains but in reality Christ is present in His Body, Blood and Soul and Divinity. Since our Lord and God is present, it is appropriate, for a moment, adore Him as the priest elevates the Host and the Chalice. The traditional act of adoration is to look upon the Body and Blood of Christ and confess: "My Lord and My God, Thee I adore, Help me to love Thee more and more."

The priest speaks the words of our Savior and suits the words to actions. As Monsignor Knox writes in Mass in Slow Motion: "The priest has become a kind of dummy through which, here and now, Jesus Christ is consecrating the Sacrament, just as He did, but in His own person, nineteen hundred years ago." So important are the words of consecration that if a priest deliberately alters them, the mass is invalid. Not only is the priest Christ's dummy in speaking His words but also in the actions suitable to the words. The rubrics (which are the ceremonial rules in the sacramentary) the priest is suppose to follow are quite clear and explicit. The priest represents Christ both with our Lord's words and with the accompanying actions. He is to take the bread and chalice into his hands as he reads that our Lord took the bread and chalice. In the 1st Eucharistic prayer, the priest is to look up as the text indicate that our Lord looked up to Heaven. The priest is to bow over the gifts when he speaks the words that change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This gesture is very important since it indicates the moment of Transubstantiation. I regret to say that I rarely see a priest perform this gesture. It is also troubling that some priests do not elevate the Host and Chalice after the Consecration. The rubric in the Sacramentary directs the priest to do so in order that the faithful may adore their Eucharistic Lord. Even when the Host and Chalice are raised, it is often done so quickly that there is hardly time to adore Christ. I fear this is consciously done by some in order to de-emphasize the words of Consecration. Priests need to imitate our Holy Father, John Paul II, who elevates the Blessed Sacrament with such deliberation that everyone has an opportunity to look upon and adore our Lord. I have also noticed that some priests are not genuflecting after they speak the words of consecration over the bread and, then, over the wine. The rubric directs them to adore our Lord after the words of consecration.

The general disregard for these ceremonial rubrics should concern, if not alarm, us. The priest at the altar represents Christ in His words and gestures. He also witnesses to the faith of the church. The words and actions taken together express the meaning of the consecration. What we are faced with today is a misleading or false perception of the mass. When priests choose to alter the words and actions of the mass, particularly at the consecration, they distort the meaning of the mass in the eyes of the faithful.