OBLATION OF THE BREAD

PREPARATION OF THE CHALICE

The mixing of water with the wine originally referred to the ancient custom of not drinking wine unless mixed with water. A drunkard was therefore called akratopotes, an `unmixed drinker.' In modern Greek, wine is still called(mixture). From the custom of the Monophysite Armenians, who did not add any water to the Eucharistic wine (so as to preserve the exclusively divine nature of Christ), it may be inferred that water has a hylical, or physical, significance and represents man's material nature

At the time of St. Cyprian the communion was generally celebrated with water. And, still later, St. Ambrose (bishop of Milan, d. 397) says: “In the shadow there was water from the rock, as it were the blood of Christ.”In the Church Order of Hippolytus (d. c. 235) the water chalice is associated with the baptismal font, where the inner man is renewed as well as the body. This interpretation comes very close to the baptismal krater of Poimandres and to the Hermetic basin filled with nousHere the water signifies the pneuma, i.e., the spirit of prophecy, and also the doctrine which a man receives and passes on to others

Another, very graphic, interpretation of the wine and water is the reference to John 19 : 34 : “And forthwith came there out blood and water.” Deserving of special emphasis is the remark of St. John Chrysostom (patriarch of Constantinople, d. 407), that in drinking the wine Christ drank his own blood

O God, who in creating human nature, didst wonderfully dignify it, and hast still more wonderfully renewed it; grant that, by the mystery of this water and wine, we may be made partakers of his divinity who vouchsafed to become partaker of our humanity, Jesus Christ ( The Small Missal, London, 1924 )

The lifting up of the chalice in the air prepares the spiritualization (i.e., volatilization) of the wine. This is confirmed by the invocation to the Holy Ghost which immediately follows (Veni sanctificator), and it is even more evident in the Mozarabic liturgy, which has “Veni spiritus sanctificator.” The invocation serves to infuse the wine with holy spirit, for it is the Holy Ghost who begets, fulfils, and transformsAfter the elevation, the chalice was, in former times, set down to the right of the Host, to correspond with the blood that flowed from the right side of Christ

AND THE ALTAR

The censing has the significance of an incense offering and is therefore a relic of the original thysia. At the same time it signifies a transformation of the sacrificial gifts and of the altar, a spiritualization of all the physical substances subserving the rite. Finally, it is an apotropaic ceremony to drive away any demonic forces that may be present, for it fills the air with the fragrance of the pneuma, and renders it uninhabitable by evil spirits. The vapour also suggests the sublimated body, the corpus volatile sive spirituale, or wraithlike “subtle body.” Rising up as a “spiritual” substance, the incense implements and represents the ascent of prayerhence the Dirigatur, Domine, oratio mea, sicut incensum, in conspectu tuo [“Let my prayer, O Lord, ascend like incense in thy sight”]

The Suscipe, sancta Trinitas, like the Orate, fratres, the Sanctus, and the Te igitur, is a propitiatory prayer which seeks to insure the acceptance of the sacrifice. Hence the Preface that comes after the Secret is called Illatio in the Mozarabic riteand in the old Gallican liturgy is known as Immolatio (in the sense of oblatio) with reference to the presentation of the gifts. The words of the Sanctus, “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini” [“Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”], point to the expected appearance of the Lord which has already been prepared, on the ancient principle that a “naming” has the force of a “summons”

After the Canon there follows the “Commemoration of the Living,” together with the prayers Hanc igitur and Quam oblationem. In the Mozarabic Mass these are followed by the Epiclesis (invocation): “Adesto, adesto Jesu, bone Pontifex, in medio nostri: sicut fuisti in medio discipulorum tuorum” [“Be present, be present in our midst, O Jesus, great High Priest: as thou wert in the midst of thy disciples”]. This naming likewise has the original force of a summons. It is an intensification of the Benedictus qui venit, and it may be, and sometimes was, regarded as the actual manifestation of the Lord, and hence as the culminating point of the Mass

THE CONSECRATION

Duns Scotus (d. 1308) remarks that, in the sacrament of the Last Supper, Christ, by an act of will, offers himself as a sacrifice in every Mass, through the agency of the priest. This tells us plainly enough that the sacrificial act is not performed by the priest, but by Christ himself. The agent of transformation is nothing less than the divine will working through Christ. The Council of Trent declared that in the sacrifice of the Mass “the selfsame Christ is contained and bloodlessly sacrificed,” although this is not a repetition of the historical sacrifice but a bloodless renewal of it. As the sacramental words have the power to accomplish the sacrifice, being an expression of God's will, they can be described metaphorically as the sacrificial knife or sword which, guided by his will, consummates the thysia

The consecrated substances are lifted up and shown to the congregation. The Host in particular represents a beatific vision of heaven, in fulfilment of Psalm 27 : 8 : “Thy face, Lord, will I seek,” for in it the Divine Man is present

There now follows the significant prayer Unde et memores

Taking up the Host, the priest makes the sign of the cross three times over the chalice, and says: “Through Him, and with Him, and in Him.” Then he makes the sign of the cross twice between himself and the chalice. This establishes the identity of Host, chalice, and priest, thus affirming once more the unity of all parts of the sacrifice. The union of Host and chalice signifies the union of the body and blood, i.e., the quickening of the body with a soul, for blood is equivalent to soul. Then follows the Pater noster

The prayer “Deliver us, O Lord, we beseech thee, from all evils, past, present, and to come” lays renewed emphasis on the petition made in the preceding Pater noster: “but deliver us from evil.” The connection between this and the sacrificial death of Christ lies in the descent into hell and the breaking of the infernal power. The breaking of the bread that now follows is symbolic of Christ's death. The Host is broken in two over the chalice. A small piece, the particula, is broken off from the left half and used for the rite of consignatio and commixtio. In the Byzantine rite the bread is divided into four, the four pieces being marked with letters.The peculiar arrangement of the letters obviously represents a quaternity, which as we know always has the character of wholeness. This quaternity, as the letters show, refers to Christ glorified, king of glory and Pantokrator

The sign of the cross is made over the chalice with the particula, and then the priest drops it into the wine

This is the mingling of bread and wine, as explained by Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428?): “he combines them into one, whereby it is made manifest to everybody that although they are two they are virtually one.” The text at this point says: “May this mixture and consecration [commixtio et consecratio] of the body and blood of our Lord help us,” etc. The word `consecration' may be an allusion to an original consecration by contact, though that would not clear up the contradiction since a consecration of both substances has already taken place. Attention has therefore been drawn to the old custom of holding over the sacrament from one Mass to another, the Host being dipped in wine and then preserved in softened, or mixed, form. There are numerous rites that end with minglings of this kind. Here I would only mention the consecration by water, or the mixed drink of honey and milk which the neophytes were given after communion in the Church Order of Hippolytus

The Leonine Sacramentary (seventh century) interprets the commixtio as a mingling of the heavenly and earthly nature of Christ. The later view was that it symbolizes the resurrection, since in it the blood (or soul) of our Lord is reunited with the body lying in the sepulchre. There is a significant reversal here of the original rite of baptism. In baptism, the body is immersed in water for the purpose of transformation; in the commixtio, on the other hand, the body, or particula, is steeped in wine, symbolizing spirit, and this amounts to a glorification of the body. Hence the justification for regarding the commixtio as a symbol of the resurrection

On careful examination we find that the sequence of ritual actions in the Mass contains, sometimes clearly and sometimes by subtle allusions, a representation in condensed form of the life and sufferings of Christ. Certain phases overlap or are so close together that there can be no question of conscious and deliberate condensation. It is more likely that the historical evolution of the Mass gradually led to its becoming a concrete picture of the most important aspects of Christ's life. First of all (in the Benedictus qui venit and Supra quae) we have an anticipation and prefiguration of his coming. The uttering of the words of consecration corresponds to the incarnation of the Logos, and also to Christ's passion and sacrificial death, which appears again in the fractio. In the Libera nos there is an allusion to the descent into hell, while the consignatio and commixtio hint at resurrection